1 Topic by Janeriuz

  • Janeriuz
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Topic: After use of Gparted, windows 7 installation CD cant find my harddrive

Hello everyone,

I have a great problem after using Gparted. I used the program to rearrange my harddrive. Therefore I also erased my Windows 7 version. Later on I wanted to install it again, but windows doesnt show me any partition where I can install it. I dont know what the problem is, perhaps my harddrive isnt mounted? And if its not how can I do so? I didnt find anything in the FAQ. It would be very nice if somebody can release me out of my misery! Sorry for my bad English but it is not my first language.

Sincerley yours

Janeriuz

2 Reply by class413

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Re: After use of Gparted, windows 7 installation CD cant find my harddrive

Be sure that you select the right hard drive.
Furthermore, be sure that you have free unallocated space in this hard drive. Windows 7 needs a primary partition (with the "boot" attribute set) to install. If the free space is part of some extended partition, you have to rearrange logical partitions and extended partition limits to leave the free space outside.
Creating a ntfs partition with GParted, you can do it easily, in such a free disk space. You need to select the ntfs format, and it is better to select "Align to MiB". In a second step, you can set "boot" for the new partition.

I wouldn't think that you need to have already a partition to install the o.s., the installer usually is able to create the partition. Just, be careful on the following point: automatic installation (in various operating systems) often takes the whole hard drive, deleting existing content. So, you need perhaps to select custom installation.

And finally, it is safer to take a backup of the disk content before installation, because an error on this automatic or custom partitioning could erase the existing partition table.

*** It is highly recommended to backup any important files before doing resize/move operations. ***

3 Reply by dawun

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Re: After use of Gparted, windows 7 installation CD cant find my harddrive

I struggled with this one for a bit, but since I've found a solution for my issue, I thought i would share.

Depending on the system you have, Windows does not recognize the SATA drives so you have two options:

1. Change the BIOS so the hard drive is detected as IDE vs. SATA

Steps:  Go into the Setup (Bios) and change the mode of the HDD from AHCI to IDE or Compatibility mode. 


2. Find the Sata Drivers for your system

Steps: If you are not able to change the hard drive mode through your BIOS settings then you will need to get the SATA drivers from your system manufacturers' site and install them during the setup as Window 7 allows you to install the drivers if they are missing. 

A per my information Windows 7 is suppose to have the drivers, but that wasn't the case for me, so I had to go get them from the providers site.

Hope this helps you as it took me a few hours to figure this out.

4 Reply by class413

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Re: After use of Gparted, windows 7 installation CD cant find my harddrive

Thank you very much for your report.

I forgot in my previous reply to ask you to start your "investigation" from the BIOS.
IDE compatibility setting for SATA controllers is the default factory setting for many motherboards. It seems that there is no (or almost no) real performance improvement for a home personal computer user with the AHCI mode (the main advantage of hot swapping is mostly important for a server).
I remember since long that drivers in "special" modes like AHCI and RAID needed to provide the drivers on floppy disk during windows installation.

Furthermore, there are many "custom" OEM hard drive models that aren't always automatically supported by the installer.
Another factor is new generation of hard drives (with 4096 bytes/sector, but shown by the firmware to the computer like 512 byte/sector). We often encounter problems since 2010 with these drives.

So, if the problem is fixed, you could add [SOLVED] to the topic title, by editing your initial post.

*** It is highly recommended to backup any important files before doing resize/move operations. ***

5 Reply by 3Down7Up

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Re: After use of Gparted, windows 7 installation CD cant find my harddrive

Thank you for your tips DAWUN!!

I was struggling with the same problem until i read yours; sure enough after i've changed the SATA HD to "compatible" mode in the BIOS, the OS recognized a whole HD and started the installation just fine! You're absolutely right!! both thumbs-up to you dawun !! smile

6 Reply by devplayer

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Re: After use of Gparted, windows 7 installation CD cant find my harddrive

WOW,
Me 2 Thanks to DAWUN!

I tried to install Windows on a hard drive that previously ran Linux on it. I had used GParted and DBAN to clear and format the disk and actually the solution was to change in BIOS the HDD mode from AHCI to Compatible.

It lasted a couple of hours until i found your solution and a few of the blue screens with 'windows tries to prevent damage to your hdd' which drove me nuts.

So, yes again, whoever tries to install Windows and receives the 'chkdsk /f' error , going into BIOS and changing the HDD mode may be your solution