Installation problems

[trulad]

My daughter dumped an Acer Veritron M261 desktop in my lap for me to wipe her stuff off to let her daughter use it. I wiped the hard drive using Killdisc and tried to install Win 7. It says "no drivers installed for the hard drive. It is seen in BIOS. Win.Vista will install with no problem. What do I need to install Win.7..(oem) ???

[glc]

What mode is the controller in - IDE, AHCI, or RAID?

[trulad]

Where do I find that? In BIOS I'm thinking?

[glc]

Yep.

[trulad]

just changed it in BIOS and Win.7 is loading
Thanks

[trulad]

Win.7 loaded OK but one out of three times it won't start up. Windows statr up repair comes up but runs for an hour doing nothing. I wiped the hard drive and re-installed but same thing.. What should I look for. Western Digital diagnostics tools gives the hard drive a clean bill of health. What next?

[jdeb]

Sounds to me like it is not compatible with Windows 7. Looked on their website and no Windows 7 drivers

[trulad]

It had Vista when new. Maybe I have to install that dog.??

[jdeb]

Originally Posted by trulad It had Vista when new. Maybe I have to install that dog.??

Nothing wrong with Vista in my opinion. I actually prefer it over Windows 7. You could always put XP on it if your not a fan of Vista.

[trulad]

I loaded Vista and have the same start up problems. I think when I used Killdisc to wipe the drive it may have wiped the boot secter. How can I repair it? I put the Windows disc in and select repair but it doesn't find the hard drive. I am at a loss as how I can fix the boot sector.????

[glc]

I think you may need the Acer recovery DVD to get it reloaded. Hopefully your daughter made one at one time?

[trulad]

At startup I get BOOTMGR is missing. I tried the "fixmbr" from the prompt but it still does it. If I Re-format the hard drive will Vista install a new master boot record?

[jdeb]

Originally Posted by trulad At startup I get BOOTMGR is missing. I tried the "fixmbr" from the prompt but it still does it. If I Re-format the hard drive will Vista install a new master boot record?

Yes.... but... Set the BIOS back to defaults and try the repair install again, if no go wipe and start over.

[trulad]

From the prompt I ran "bootrec.exe/fixmbr" and also "bootrec.exe/fix boot". both said completed sucessfuly,but when I restart I still get "BOOTMGR" is missing.
What next? I wiped everything & re-installed this morning. No change.Should I do it again???

[rjfvillarosa]

What boot sequence did you have set in the BIOS, before the reinstall? and after the reinstall?

[trulad]

Boot from CD for the repair then boot from hard drive.

[rjfvillarosa]

Did you leave it as "boot from CD" until after Windows had fully installed?

[trulad]

yes,but it says to remove the cd after the repair. When I restart,it defaults to boot from hard drive. I am now so frustrated that I am running Killdisc to wipe it again(third time) and re-install. It's a fairly new Western Digital hard drive (about 1 year) but the grand kids had so much virus that I just wiped it to re-install. I thought that would be the easy way.Ha Ha.

[rjfvillarosa]

I have never used Killdisk, I always zero fill the drive.
What action does Killdisk take?

[trulad]

Killdisc will zero fill or it can recover drives. I like it.

[glc]

It's a single pass zero utility.

[trulad]

As GLC suggested I have to set the hard drive in BIOS to IDE or Windows won't see it to install. Should I leave it that way after installation or go back to the default settings? It is a W.D. SATA drive.

[jdeb]

Originally Posted by trulad As GLC suggested I have to set the hard drive in BIOS to IDE or Windows won't see it to install. Should I leave it that way after installation or go back to the default settings? It is a W.D. SATA drive.

Set it back to defaults and re-install Vista

[trulad]

No Can Do. It's a SATA drive by default and Windows can't see it. As GLC suggested,it needs to be set at IDE to be seen. (see his comment.

[rjfvillarosa]

When you have the BIOS set to default settings, do you get the prompt to install third party drivers for the harddrive when you attempt to install Windows?

[trulad]

Yes,but I don't have third party drivers. Right now Windows 7 64 bit OEM is installed and it's starting up OK so far. Next I will set up my wireless modem and install MS Security Essentials and upgrades. Hopefully all will be well.

[trulad]

Now it gets even stranger. I just set up my wireless cable router, downloaded MS Security Essentials and it updated IE, when it rebooted I got a black screen with a blinking curser. I shut down,re-started,checked BIOS and it had re-set to SATA. I re-set to IDE and it restarted OK. How did the BIOS change? I clicked on SAVE & EXIT SETUP. If I can find SATA drivers will this cure the problem? This thing is driving me nuts but I refuse to let it beat me.

[rjfvillarosa]

I think it's time to start some hardware tests.
Check the time and date in the BIOS to make sure the CMOS battery isn't dead.
How many sticks of ram are fitted? if more than one try removing one.

[trulad]

I did Western Digital's hard drive test (the long one) and Mem Test. Everything checks out OK. Time & date have maintained accuracy.

[trulad]

Where can I find SATA drivers? Western Digital's site doesn't show them and evrything else I found is Paid programs. If I can get them I should be able to use the default BIOS settings. Isn't BIOS controlled by the chip and not the battery?