Hard drive recognized in bios, no drive detected in windows 7 setup

[ShotgunDiplom4t]

Let me start with a preemptive thank you to anyone who has time to offer assistance, I've been wracking my brain for a solution and it's getting silly.

Long story short, I replaced a failing hard drive (wouldn't even load windows up anymore, made a strange chirping noise during load times or really whenever something strange was about to happen) with an identical SATA drive (Seagate 500gb) and heres my problem.
The drive is recognized in the BIOS, but when I try to install windows using the recovery CD provided with my computer, Im slammed with a 0xc00000e9 error, and using another copy of Windows, it gets to the install screen and asks me to chose a drive, yet recognizes none. It occurs to me that I no longer have any idea what I'm doing and would be incredibly grateful for help, I desperately need to get my computer running again. Does anyone have any wisdom to shine on my conundrum?

 

[hillmanant]

The Windows Recovery CD simply repairs a corrupted Windows Installation, with a new HDD you have to install Windows fresh with a Windows Install disk, Not recovery.

If you need the info off the old HDD you could try to clone the old one using Clonezilla, if the old drive works at all, then using the windows recovery disk on the newly cloned drive if necessary.

 

[ShotgunDiplom4t]

Thank you for getting back to me. The CD itself is not the issue, though thanks for the heads up, I didn't realize that about the recovery CD.
Aside from using the recovery CD, I have a copy of windows 7 that will go through the setup process all the way until it gets to the screen that prompts me to select a hard drive. It looks like this;

In my BIOS however, it appears that I have a hard drive:

I'm sure this can't be too terribly hard to fix but it's well beyond my understanding at this point. Thank you again, trying to orchestrate my computers repair by seeking help on forums with only my phone has been irritatingly limiting.

 

[hillmanant]

Do you see the drive in boot device priority in the Bios screen? What order is the Bios set to boot in?

 

[ShotgunDiplom4t]

I believe that this is what you're speaking of, and yes it shows up regularly. Here's what the screens look like;

&

 

[hillmanant]

Ok I've had something like this before, I formatted the hdd with another computer first and it was recognized after that. other than that the HDD DELAY option could be suspect if the hdd isn't accessed for 5 seconds it shuts down? Did you try putting the rom to first place in the boot order,assuming your installing windows with a disk and not a usb, hdd second.

 

[hillmanant]

Try this if my last don't work
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/2675-63-windows-install-issue-hard-drive-detected

 

[Paperdoc]

How many IDE ports does your mobo have, and how many SATA ports?

The reason for my odd question is the second screen that you posted. It shows all ports labelled as IDE, and I know some BIOS's mis-label them this way. But what I note is that it shows IDE Channels 0 and 1 BOTH have both Master and Slave possible devices - and that is true of actual IDE ports - and then it shows IDE Channels 2 and 3 as having only Master devices possible. In my system, such labels indicate that the Channel 2 and 3 ports are really SATA ports, which can only have ONE device per port (hence only Masters).

Now, you say you have a SATA HDD, and yet the screen shot indicates it is really the Master device on a true IDE Channel 0, if your BIOS uses labels the way I'm accustomed to. I wonder if the ports are malfunctioning. MAYBE try this:

1. Go into BIOS Setup and remove the HDD from the Boot Priority Sequence so that only the optical unit is there. In other words, set it so the optical unit is the first boot device, and there is no second or third. SAVE and EXIT, and it won't boot with no bootable disk in the optical unit. Shut down the machine.
2. Open the case and connect the new HDD to the SATA port right next to the one that has the optical drive already. I don't know what label it will have - maybe SATA0 if the optical is on SATA1, or something like that. Close case.
3. Place your Win 7 Install disk in the optical drive. Boot directly into BIOS Setup. Check that the new HDD is showing on the correct port in BIOS. Go to where the SATA ports are configured and make sure they are Enabled. Now look for a line about SATA Port Mode, with choices like "IDE Emulation", "AHCI", or "RAID". This should be set to AHCI if possible, because that is the correct device type for a SATA drive and Win 7 can use it properly.
4. Go to the Boot Priority Sequence screen. You should set it to have the optical drive as the FIRST device in the sequence, and the HDD as the SECOND choice. That way you can boot from a valid bootable optical disk if you choose to, but if you don't put one it, it will automatically skip on the using the HDD. If you have any third bootable device to set up (the screen shot shows an external USB floppy drive), set it up now; if not, set NO third device. Now SAVE and EXIT, and the machine should boot from the Win 7 Install disk, and it should be able to find the new HDD.
5. IF somehow some work was done on that new HDD that makes it appear to be "full" already, the Windows Install routines may say there is no HDD to use. If you suspect that, watch the Install messages and look for a menu choice to go to that HDD and Delete any and all existing Partitions so that it is empty. THEN start into the actual Install process.

 

[ShotgunDiplom4t]

Hey Doc,
Thanks for getting back to me, I suppose I should have 6 SATA ports, they're labeled as SATA on the motherboard. I did what you instructed and unless I did something wrong it hasn't fixed my problem. Whats interesting is that the port it was connected to was the same one my old hard drive was connected to so I'd have figured it would be fine there. I plugged it into the port next to the optical drive and set it to AHCI. When I attempted to install windows later I got the same problems where the windows install doesn't recognized the drive. Whats weirder is that when I went back into the standard CMOS settings screen, no drives of any kind are present. This new development stonewalled me. Ill post some more screen shots when I get home from work. Thanks again for your assistance, I'd have no morale left without it.

 

[Paperdoc]

That really is puzzling. Here's another puzzle: you say you should have 6 SATA ports because they (I presume you mean a group of identical connectors) are labelled SATA on the mobo. BUT the first screen shot in your last post shows "SATA Port 0-3 Native Mode" setting. This suggests that FOUR of the SATA ports are in a group, probably run by one controller chip. I'm reminded that some mobos have a main group of 4 which are Enabled by default, and 2 or more additional ones run by a SEPARATE chip on the mobo. For this latter group sometimes you need to have a driver installed to use them. Without that, you cannot use them to boot from. AND you can't easily install a driver for that chip when you don't have Windows installed first! Maybe that's why you cannot get this going - you now have both your optical unit and your new HDD connected to the LAST two SATA ports, labelled 4 and 5. Right?

So, let's try this:
1. Connect the optical drive and your new HDD to the first two SATA ports, numbers 0 and 1. Do not connect any other drive to your mobo.
2. Boot into BIOS Setup and see if the two units are detected properly on those SATA ports. They MAY show up as IDE Channel0 Master and Slave, oddly enough! If they are there, go to the Boot Priority setting spot and set up optical as first device, HDD as second.
3. Make sure the Win 7 Install disk is in the optical drive, and use Save and Exit to finish in BIOS setup. If things go well, it should boot from the optical drive and find the HDD.

If this all works, after you are set up, look through the mobo manual for notes on the SATA ports 4 and 5. There may be a driver on a disk that came with your mobo for the chip that runs those ports, and it can be installed in Windows AFTER it is running. This will allow you to use those ports, but not to boot from them.