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Seagate HDD found in BIOS but not in Windows 7 installation

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2K views 7 replies 3 participants last post by  ashwin.terminat 
#1 ·
Hi,

I am trying to get my colleague's laptop up and running again.

To start with, I tried to install Windows 7 onto it.

In the BIOS, I could see the Hard Drive ST9500325AS in the boot menu.

However, on trying to install Windows 7, I would not be shown any hard drives at all. I tried Partition Wizard, it found the hard drive but said it was a bad disk and would not let me perform any operations on it. I then tried EaseUS Partition Magic and again, no drives were found. Finally, I tried SeaTools for DOS and again, no drives were found,

This is a Dell N4110.

To add to the misery, some keys don't work. So I cannot execute commands like diskpart in the Win 7 command prompt. I tried using an external keyboard. It works in the BIOS, but doesn't work in the Win 7 installer process.

Any ideas?
 
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#4 ·
Yes, I did just this yesterday. But once SeaTools boots up, it says that no hard drives were found and no controllers were found.

With the USB keyboard attached, boot into Setup (Bios) go to Integrated Peripherals, if that is available, and look for Legacy USB, or USB keyboard, it is disabled, using your Enter and arrow keys, Enable it. Save and Exit.
Run the Clean Command in Diskpart.
No Drive to install Windows 7:
1– Boot from the Windows Disc/USB
2- Go to Repair Your Computer, Or Press Shift + F10 to go directlyto the Command Prompt
3- In the RE (recovery environment) choose command prompt and type following commands pressing Enter after each bold command:
i) diskpart
ii) list disk
it will show the list of your drives, with the information:
- status
- total space
- free space
status would probably be "invalid" and free space would be "0 bytes"
you have to select the drive next with

iii) select disk <disk number>
disk number = as listed in previous command, normally disk 0
iv) clean (this erases all data on the Disk, so be sure you choose the correct one)
now for verification of disk status and free space type
v) list disk
the status should be "online" and free space should be "disk size"
vi)exit
But then, shouldn't the USB Keyboard also not work in the BIOS if Legacy USB is disabled? It works just fine in the BIOS.

But once the Windows Installer starts up, it stops working and I am not able to type diskpart from the laptop keyboard as a few keys aren't working anymore.
 
#3 ·
I tried SeaTools for DOS and again, no drives were found,
With the USB keyboard attached, boot into Setup (Bios) go to Integrated Peripherals, if that is available, and look for Legacy USB, or USB keyboard, it is disabled, using your Enter and arrow keys, Enable it. Save and Exit.
Run the Clean Command in Diskpart.
No Drive to install Windows 7:
1– Boot from the Windows Disc/USB
2- Go to Repair Your Computer, Or Press Shift + F10 to go directlyto the Command Prompt
3- In the RE (recovery environment) choose command prompt and type following commands pressing Enter after each bold command:
i) diskpart
ii) list disk
it will show the list of your drives, with the information:
- status
- total space
- free space
status would probably be "invalid" and free space would be "0 bytes"
you have to select the drive next with

iii) select disk <disk number>
disk number = as listed in previous command, normally disk 0
iv) clean (this erases all data on the Disk, so be sure you choose the correct one)
now for verification of disk status and free space type
v) list disk
the status should be "online" and free space should be "disk size"
vi)exit

 
#5 ·
No, if Legacy USB is not Enabled, then it will work in the Bios but the keyboard will not work in Windows.
You can also take the HDD out of the laptop attach it internally to a Desktop computer, or via a USB Adapter or put it into a USB Enclosure or Dock.
Then you can go to Disk Management and delete the partitions on the drive, right click the Unallocated Space and create a new Simple Volume, Format it NTFS. Then you can run Seatools For Windows short and Long tests. If that passes then I would go back to Disk Management and Delete the partition and leave it as Unallocated Space and put ti back into the laptop. Boot off the Windows Install disc and Choose Install and Windows will automatically create partitions and format them during the install.
 
#6 ·
I remember looking for this option in the BIOS settings even earlier, but to no avail.

So eventually, I removed the hard disk and installed it on the desktop I have at home by disconnecting the already connected HDD and connecting this one.

At the BIOS, I got an error saying the Hard Drive has failed.

I continued and booted with the Win 7 32-bit installation disk. Shift+F10 and into command prompt.

diskpart> list disk

Returns "No disk drives were found."

Also, a Pre-boot assessment on the Dell Laptop showed that the hard drive had some error. I punched in the details of the error on the Dell website and the system asked me to change the HDD due to a critical error.

Can I deem this hard drive to have failed?
 
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