BIOS detect HDD, but windows installer won't??

Well I had an OS not found. So I was going to re install it, but the installer won't recognize the HDD? What should I do? The HDD is a 7500RPM 250GB. I connect it on my brother M14x and it recognize it, also mine recognize it if I connect it via USB.

BTW: I installed Ubuntu 12.04 without any issue, it looks like Windows is the only one with issues.

 

You probably just need drivers bud. The windows dvd has some chipset/sata drivers but not all, if it doesn't have one to support your sata/raid controller then no drives will show. During the windows setup there is a place where you can install a driver. Just put the correct sata/raid drivers on a usb drive, load them in, and you should be good to go.

If you have already tried the above then my next question would be, did the Ubuntu partition use the entire drive?

 

Tried that with no luck, yes I formated the druve and installed Ubuntu as a whole.

 

The only reason it wouldn't show is if you are missing drivers. Are you 100% sure you installed the correct ones? I've been down this road when fixing pc's many times where I have to try several different sata drivers and eventually I find the right one. Also you could try wiping the drive so it is clean w/ no Ubuntu installs and see if windows will see it then.

 

Will try it again. But why this happenwd? I have been using that HDD for years.

 

Do you have another drive? Even one from another pc can be used for this test (just backup ur data to be safe) If so pop it in and load the windows installer. If it sees the drive then you know it's not driver related, but if it doesn't (my prediction) you need drivers.

As far as why you haven't experienced this before, did you use an alienware windows disc the first time you installed and now are using a regular one? If so the alienware one may have had the correct windows drivers already slip-streamed in.

Another thought, have you changed the IDE/AHCI/RAID settings in the BIOS (usually under the SATA option? If so that will change the way your sata controller operates and may need a different driver for each mode.

 

Yes I have other drive, I installed the windows in that one and so far is working fine. I'm going to do some tests to see if it will fail in this one.

I used the Alienrespawn disc on both situations.

No I haven't changed nothing, except when booting into Ubuntu since I disable the RAID, but I have to enable it back for windows because if I don't it will not boot.

 

As a tip, any time you change that option AFTER you install a Windows OS you usually have to do a repair install or re-install.

 

Even that I'm booting Ubuntu from other HDD?

 

Ubuntu may be able to handle the IDE/AHCI/RAID mode changes but windows will usually give you problems if you change this after you install the OS. If you change it and then install windows any mode should work fine but you may need a different driver for each mode. It's kinds of confusing but my prior job while in college was pc repair and I saw enough of these odd scenarios on a daily basis that I got good at handling them.

 

The most effective method to this problem is to delete this disk partition where you are loading windows.Download Gparted live cd here:
GParted -- Live CD/USB/PXE/HD

In Bios set boot settings to boot from CD/DVD as first option(if already not done), boot from Gparted live cd ( burnt to a cd), and delete the windows partition from the HDD. DO not format or allocate space using Gparted live cd. Just delete the partition and now insert your windows installation disk and restart.

Now during installation win will detect the HDD and you can choose to allocate and format the earlier deleted partition using windows during installation (Go to HDD advanced options during installation of win).

(If you format using Gparted live cd(linux program) , windows installer sometimes creates problems during /after windows installation.)

So just delete the partition and do nothing else in Gparted live cd.

Start installing win 7/8 now.
No need to load SATA drivers or change drivers setting sin BIOS.
All the best.

 

I hope since last year he was able to resolve this already