Installing a bare hard drive in a laptop

[aea553]

I have an HP pavillion with a "problem" hard drive. I bought a replacement (bare) drive and, while I was at it, an OEM version of W7. I installed the drive and the W7 CD and turned it on. It loaded windows files up to a point and then said to find the driver for the hard drive. I copied the drivers and SW Setup folder onto a CD and replaced the W7 CD with it to load the drivers, but it didn't see them (No driver found). I feel like I'm in an old bootstrap dilemma. What am I missing? Do I have to format the new drive first, and if so, how? Is there a utility in the boot ROM on my PC? Any help is appreciated.

 

[Jonmor68]

Start again and choose custom install, using W7 tools create a new partition and quick format the drive then continue. Watch for instructions on screen.

 

[aea553]

Start again and choose custom install, using W7 tools create a new partition and quick format the drive then continue. Watch for instructions on screen.

Thanks for the input. There was no custom install option. Everything proceeded automatically from loading the CD to "find the driver." As it turned out, just clicking "NEXT" at that point proceeded to finish the installation.

 

[Jonmor68]

It does help when you follow onscreen instructions.
With a new drive and a full version of windows it would have started by itself.
Glad you got it sorted.

 

[aea553]

I appreciate all of the input. When it got to the "find the driver" message, I eventually hit "Next" even though it was dim. To my surprise it completed the installation. I installed W7 Professional and have been very pleased with it. To my dismay, I found that HP does not support W7 on this model, so I haven't been able to download driver updates.

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

Tip for you. If it supports Windows Vista, the Vista drivers should work. Vista and 7 are essentially the same code, so Vista drivers may work for you.

 

[Saga Lout]

I appreciate all of the input. When it got to the "find the driver" message, I eventually hit "Next" even though it was dim. To my surprise it completed the installation. I installed W7 Professional and have been very pleased with it. To my dismay, I found that HP does not support W7 on this model, so I haven't been able to download driver updates.

Lucky old you - you won't have to spend hours deleting all the rubbish that comes with being "supported" by HP. [/#000ff]

 

[aea553]

Best answer selected by aea553.