Let me apologize in advance for this lengthy post, but I want to provide as much info as I can:
It seems I’ve made a mess of things. Without getting into why, I used WipeDrive6 and cleaned my hard drive (Western Digital Wd1001FALS-00J Sata 3.0).
I then installed a newly purchased full version (not upgrade) of 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium. At first I had difficulty when it got to the part about creating a partition, but I somehow worked through it after a few tries. I’m not sure if it was selecting New or Format that did the trick. Anyway, it installed on what appeared to be the X drive (or partition?) which was odd, but it worked. I then added the other users and restored all my backed up files (backed up from 32-bit Vista). Things seemed to work fine. I put the computer in Hibernate and went to bed.
Upon waking the computer up from Hibernate this morning, it rebooted and I was greeted with:
Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key.
The only way I could get anywhere was to insert the installation disk, which then started up the installation process again. First I selected repair, but it said that it couldn't find an OS. I then tried a Custom installation.
I eventually got to the same point I had reached last night (which I somehow worked through) where I was greeted with: Disk 0 Unallocated space 931.5GB, 931.5 Free.
From there, the options are Refresh, Delete, Format, New, Load Driver, Extend[/i]. Nothing seems to work. When I select New, I get this error message: Windows cannot be installed to this disk. This computer’s hardware may not support booting to this disk. Ensure the disk’s controller is enabled in the computer’s BIOS menu.
When I select Load Driver, it can’t find the driver it’s looking for. This is a 4-year old home build. I don’t have the original driver disk for the hard drive or motherboard.
Using my laptop I tried to find the drivers I need on Western Digital’s website, but surprisingly am having a difficult time finding them.
I downloaded a bunch of drivers for the motherboard (Asus P5Q Deluxe), including BIOS, chipset, audio, SATA and burned them onto a CD. When I put the CD into my desktop and select Load Driver and Browse to try to install them, it doesn’t recognize anything or do anything. I should add, that the files most of the downloads are applications, not just driver files. I don't see an option to just download a file.
My guess is that I need to reformat the hard drive before reinstalling the OS, but again, it seems impossible to find the drivers for this model of hard drive.
Should I purchase some connectors and somehow connect the internal hard drive to my laptop? Should I just buy a new hard drive, install the OS, then try to format and use the old hard drive as a backup?
I should add that prior to reformatting the hard drive, I had both 32-bit Vista and then 64-bit Windows 8 Pro working on this same desktop (same hard drive). I’m at wits end, and though I built this PC four years ago, I’ve forgotten a lot and am really just an intermediate user. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. -Rich
It seems I’ve made a mess of things. Without getting into why, I used WipeDrive6 and cleaned my hard drive (Western Digital Wd1001FALS-00J Sata 3.0).
I then installed a newly purchased full version (not upgrade) of 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium. At first I had difficulty when it got to the part about creating a partition, but I somehow worked through it after a few tries. I’m not sure if it was selecting New or Format that did the trick. Anyway, it installed on what appeared to be the X drive (or partition?) which was odd, but it worked. I then added the other users and restored all my backed up files (backed up from 32-bit Vista). Things seemed to work fine. I put the computer in Hibernate and went to bed.
Upon waking the computer up from Hibernate this morning, it rebooted and I was greeted with:
Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key.
The only way I could get anywhere was to insert the installation disk, which then started up the installation process again. First I selected repair, but it said that it couldn't find an OS. I then tried a Custom installation.
I eventually got to the same point I had reached last night (which I somehow worked through) where I was greeted with: Disk 0 Unallocated space 931.5GB, 931.5 Free.
From there, the options are Refresh, Delete, Format, New, Load Driver, Extend[/i]. Nothing seems to work. When I select New, I get this error message: Windows cannot be installed to this disk. This computer’s hardware may not support booting to this disk. Ensure the disk’s controller is enabled in the computer’s BIOS menu.
When I select Load Driver, it can’t find the driver it’s looking for. This is a 4-year old home build. I don’t have the original driver disk for the hard drive or motherboard.
Using my laptop I tried to find the drivers I need on Western Digital’s website, but surprisingly am having a difficult time finding them.
I downloaded a bunch of drivers for the motherboard (Asus P5Q Deluxe), including BIOS, chipset, audio, SATA and burned them onto a CD. When I put the CD into my desktop and select Load Driver and Browse to try to install them, it doesn’t recognize anything or do anything. I should add, that the files most of the downloads are applications, not just driver files. I don't see an option to just download a file.
My guess is that I need to reformat the hard drive before reinstalling the OS, but again, it seems impossible to find the drivers for this model of hard drive.
Should I purchase some connectors and somehow connect the internal hard drive to my laptop? Should I just buy a new hard drive, install the OS, then try to format and use the old hard drive as a backup?
I should add that prior to reformatting the hard drive, I had both 32-bit Vista and then 64-bit Windows 8 Pro working on this same desktop (same hard drive). I’m at wits end, and though I built this PC four years ago, I’ve forgotten a lot and am really just an intermediate user. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. -Rich