Win7 install, Drive not found

[abowlofrice]

Hi all,

I know you may have heard of this question many times, but please read, I googled and read all the posts others have made, still need help.


I desperately need help. I recently bought a new Sony VAIO T series ultrabook. The windows 7 that came with it had lots of bloatware on it so I am trying to install a clean version of win7. The problem is, when it gets to the "Where do you want to install Windows" dialog box, nothing shows up.

Things I've tried:

1. tried to change sata controller from IDE to AHCI, but BIOS does not have such setting.

2. diskpart, drive does not even show up in diskpart. **I would like to add that if I run diskpart while in windows, the disk shows up, but when I run the command in the windows set up, it does not show up, the command line begins with X:/ and not the usual C:/. Also, diskpart while in windows set up does not recognize my computer name, which is set as Larry. It shows it as MINIMUT...

3. cannot check connections because it is an ultrabook and the inside is not accessible.

I have tried google and read almost all the threads on this topic, but still cant find a solution.

all help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[dudeknows]

Go to your BIOS and set your drive to master. then install W7.

 

[abowlofrice]

Go to your BIOS and set your drive to master. then install W7.

there is no option for that in this BIOS. the bios does not have very many options, it only has password set up and boot priority settings. the BIOS is InsydeH20.

 

[dudeknows]

It's under your boot priority.

 

[abowlofrice]

It's under your boot priority.

there is no option to set anything to master. it doesnt even list the bootable drives. it just says boot priority: internal disk, external disk, network

 

[dudeknows]

choose internal disk. Updating your BIOS might help as well!

 

[4745454b]

Dude's off track.

Did you click on the advanced options? I'm wondering if its not giving you the disk because it sees win7 on that partition. If nothing else advanced should give you the option to format the harddrive.

 

[abowlofrice]

Dude's off track.

Did you click on the advanced options? I'm wondering if its not giving you the disk because it sees win7 on that partition. If nothing else advanced should give you the option to format the harddrive.

the bios that came with this laptop is very simple. it does not allow advanced settings or show it for that matter. i looked through the bios and saw nothing that i can change besides boot priority.

 

[4745454b]

You don't want to change boot priority. The last thing you want is the hdd to be the first choice because then it will boot the hdd and not the removable media that holds the windows install files. Put hdd last actually when upgrading windows.

I meant to click on advanced when looking at where to install windows. Make sure you are booting from the USB stick. Then if you don't see your 500GB drive there should be an advanced button, try that.

 

[abowlofrice]

You don't want to change boot priority. The last thing you want is the hdd to be the first choice because then it will boot the hdd and not the removable media that holds the windows install files. Put hdd last actually when upgrading windows.

I meant to click on advanced when looking at where to install windows. Make sure you are booting from the USB stick. Then if you don't see your 500GB drive there should be an advanced button, try that.

It is booting up from USB stick just fine. Like i said, windows 7 set up actually initates. I am somewhat tech savvy so I know the basics. Clicking on advanced shows you all the things you can do to the drives listed, such as reformat.....etc. For me, there are no drives to pick from, so those options are grayed out.

 

[4745454b]

Very odd there. I was hoping you didn't click advanced. If you see the format options then you are in the right place. But you should see more then just your USB drive. Perhaps someone else will come along with a better idea.

 

[dudeknows]

OP did you try my suggestion?

 

[4745454b]

You don't want to change boot priority. The last thing you want is the hdd to be the first choice because then it will boot the hdd and not the removable media that holds the windows install files. Put hdd last actually when upgrading windows.

 

[abowlofrice]

Just want to provide an update. I think the issue is that, when I boot up from the USB drive, the internal HDD plus the 32gb SSD does not even boot up. Thats why running diskpart while inside windows installation does not show any of those drives.

Are those drives not booting up because I am booted in USB drive? How do people usually reformat on ultrabooks without CD/DVD drives?

 

[dudeknows]

I thought you are installing windows using CD drive.

If you used USB instead of CD/DVD then set your USB device as first boot. I assume you know it already.

Then install w7 don't bother if you can't see any drive. just install and after that partition your drive manually..there are tons of tutorials on how to partition drive after w7 installation.

 

[4745454b]

Just want to provide an update. I think the issue is that, when I boot up from the USB drive, the internal HDD plus the 32gb SSD does not even boot up

That's very odd. Can't even think of why that would be the case. Crazy driver issue? I think there are issues with the iso file on the USB stick, any of those ideas help?

Edit: I meant to say I've heard of issues with the iso file, not that I think there are issues with yours. Maybe some of the iso issues on USB will be of some help.

 

[abowlofrice]

The windows installation files is fine. I read elsewhere that other people with ultrabooks similar to mine have the same problem. some of them suggested to reformat the drive when in ubuntu. But I dont see how that would help. If i wipe everything in ubuntu, then when i boot up from usb again, the drive might still not be found. then i am totally screwed.

 

[4745454b]

This shouldn't be the case, but perhaps barrow a USB optical drive? Burn it to CD and try it that way?