Reinstalling Win 7 after hard drive replacement

[Joyce62274]

I replaced a WD5000AAKS hard drive with WD5000AAKX and then tried to install Win 7. I get all the way thru the disks and it says installation is complete and the system needs to reboot. It reboots on its own but then I get a black screen with a cursor. No error messages nothing but a black screen with a cursor. And it will sit there forever. Could this be the hard drive is no good or the recovery disks are not working? Or is there a software that I need to install on the hard drive before I install the os?

 

[clarkjd]

Are you doing a "clean" install or are you just trying to do a restore from a previous backup?

 

[Joyce62274]

Are you doing a "clean" install or are you just trying to do a restore from a previous backup?

I am using recovery disks I bought from Acer idk if that is clean or not.

 

[clarkjd]

Are you doing a "clean" install or are you just trying to do a restore from a previous backup?

I am using recovery disks I bought from Acer idk if that is clean or not.

Alot of times the recovery disks are expecting to find a hidden partition on the HDD that has all the Windows code, and uses that to re-create the data on the HDD that was there originally. If you have replaced the original HDD with a new one, it doesn't have that recovery partition to draw on. Can you give us the complete make and model of PC you are trying to install the HDD on?

Can you boot up in "SAFE" mode?

 

[Joyce62274]

Are you doing a "clean" install or are you just trying to do a restore from a previous backup?

I am using recovery disks I bought from Acer idk if that is clean or not.

Alot of times the recovery disks are expecting to find a hidden partition on the HDD that has all the Windows code, and uses that to re-create the data on the HDD that was there originally. If you have replaced the original HDD with a new one, it doesn't have that recovery partition to draw on. Can you give us the complete make and model of PC you are trying to install the HDD on?

Can you boot up in "SAFE" mode?

It's an Acer Aspire Z3100 All-in-one. When I bought the disks on Acer's website it gave me the impression that they would work on a new hard drive. There are faq's that say that. I have a cousin that knows quite a bit about computers and he ran some other disks on the hard drive and at least was able to see what was on the disk and it showed all the files for win 7 on the disk it just would not boot. The old drive would not boot either and that is why I replaced it.

We tried the hdd in another computer and it would not boot the other computer either but we didn't try reinstalling the software on another computer tho. The hdd didn't come with cables, jumpers, or software. Should there be software with it?

It shows up in BIos and everything in there is correct.

I have not tried Safe mode and Im not sure how to get it in Safe mode.

 

[himnextdoor]

Go through the installation process again and when you get to the screen where you choose the target partition for the Windows installation, select 'Advanced' and delete all the partitions on the drive.

The create a 'New' single partition and allocate the entire space to it.

Windows will automatically create an extra system partition and will also format the partitions in the way that it wants them

Let the installation continue and see if you have more luck.

 

[Joyce62274]

Go through the installation process again and when you get to the screen where you choose the target partition for the Windows installation, select 'Advanced' and delete all the partitions on the drive.

The create a 'New' single partition and allocate the entire space to it.

Windows will automatically create an extra system partition and will also format the partitions in the way that it wants them

Let the installation continue and see if you have more luck.

The thing with that is the disks I have do not allow me to choose the target partition. The only thing I select is the language.

 

[himnextdoor]

Okay, well here's an option.

Can you attach the drive to your brother's machine so that he can delete all the partitions on the drive?

Then create a new on that has all the available space allocated to it.

Re-attach to your machine and try the install again.

 

[Joyce62274]

Okay, well here's an option.

Can you attach the drive to your brother's machine so that he can delete all the partitions on the drive?

Then create a new on that has all the available space allocated to it.

Re-attach to your machine and try the install again.

Well I ended up downloading a copy of windows 7 from the internet, which allowed me to reformat the drive and set it up for windows. I completely installed that copy of windows then ran the recovery disks that came from Acer and it worked. I have my computer back to factory condition with a new hdd! Thanks to everyone who tried to help.

 

[himnextdoor]

Cool, I'm glad you got it sorted.

 

[tannion]

My problem is similar for not being able to reinstall Win 7 pro onto a ssd. Mainly, as I understand is because my original disk does not have at least SP1 update. Noted that Windows went to two partitions with Windows 7 to help prevent copy. Microsoft says absolutely no possibility of loading to a ssd without this update. Changing to single partition seems to be a good response.