Hi John. AFAIK, there are no special device drivers to select for the SATA interface during Win7 install. The problem might be a bad hard drive. Could you: a) Move the new Seagate 500 gig drive to another SATA capable computer, to verify it is functionally is OK? OR b)...
In case this helps others: I did a clean install (not upgrade) of Windows 7 Ultimate RTM (32 bit) on a D810 laptop about a month ago. This laptop has been put through the paces by a mobile professional. It is the user's only computer. No problems have surfaced yet. Basic Win7...