Windows 7 Can't find drives during installation-- bootmgr is missing

[pickboy360]

Hi!


I purchased a vizio all in one desktop model CA24-A2 , with windows 7 installed. I upgraded it to windows 8, but decided to return back to windows 7 because the Metro UI always crashes on me. I purchased a windows 7 disc and booted the computer off the disc. When the installation asks which drive to install it to, nothing appears. For some reason, the installation disc is not reading the drives. I've checked vizio's page, but didn't find any drivers for the hard drive that would work. I check the Bios menu and both drives appear. I've read on other forum about changing the bios mode (AHCI,IDE), but my bios menu is very restricted, and i dont have that option available. I used MiniTool Partition wizard on a bootable cd, and it was able to see my hard drives as well. I added some pictures below, hopefully it helps.

When i try to boot windows with windows 8, "bootmgr is missing" error appears. After restarting my computer several times it seems i only have access to the bios menu f2, and not f8 for recovery. I would appreciate any help, I've been stuck on this for the last few days. Thanks in advance.


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[alebcay]

Hello there,

From what I see, I can only suggest you going into the Advanced tab of your BIOS and looking for something along the lines of "SATA Native Mode", and make sure that it is set to DISABLED. I know that at least for XP's Windows Setup, SATA threw off the installer on finding drives. If the SATA Native Mode switch is DISABLED but you still see the issue, you may have to load SATA drivers, since Microsoft may not offer support for all SATA drives. This is more likely the case, if you are not using hard drives that didn't originally ship with the computer. If so, when you bought the hard drives, they may have been bundled with a CD or other media containing drivers for the SATA drives. If your drives didn't come with that, or you are still out of luck, you can always try a Google search for the drivers corresponding to your drives, or look on the manufacturer's website.

Best of luck!

 

[TanyaC]

Perhps this will work..

It might be that you need to "clean" the drive using Diskpart.
If you boot from the windows 7 DVD and go to repair your computer, then select recovery tools, and command prompt

You then enter Diskpart

Once disk part starts, type LIST DISK. If you do not see any disks then this method will not work.

If you do, type..

SELECT DISK 0
clean
exit
exit

then restart your computer and start the installation again.

If you need more help with this process google diskpart and/or post back with a specific question and I'll do my best to guide you through it.

Tanya

 

[Pauli]

I agree with TanyaC, but with a slightly different approach: use an external partition program, like the MiniTool you mention, to first delete all partitions, then create new partition(s) in NTFS. Doing so you get a clean disk, where you can install Windows. A tendency I have noted is, that the boot / root part seems to be very persistent = some 80Mb in the beginning of the disk. Try to get rid of that too, it may require some acrobatics in partitioning, but if you manage it, you'll have a "brand new and clean disk".

"When i try to boot windows with windows 8, "bootmgr is missing" error appears." That's hardly a problem, since you've messed around? And, it's precisely a part of those ca. 80Mb you need to get rid of. Windows carefully examines your disks in order to find previous installations, and if it finds some, everything may halt.

 

[TanyaC]

I agree with TanyaC, but with a slightly different approach: use an external partition program, like the MiniTool you mention, to first delete all partitions, then create new partition(s) in NTFS. Doing so you get a clean disk, where you can install Windows.

There are lots of tools around to achive the same thing. I guess the one you feel most comfortable with is the best one.

You can actually achieve the same results without third party tools. If the 100mb recovery paartition is something you dont want, then this would be the sequence of commands in diskpart.

select disk 0
clean
create partition primary size=80000
select partition 1
format fs=ntfs quick
exit
exit

This will ceate an 80gb partition as your first drive. The rest can be formatted later.
If you leave off the size parameter the entire drive will be created with one partition.
If your drive is an SSD it is worthwhile adding the align=1024 to the create partition command.

hth
Tanya

 

[dojjroses]

Re: Can't find drives during installation

Hello there,

From what I see, I can only suggest you going into the Advanced tab of your BIOS and looking for something along the lines of "SATA Native Mode", and make sure that it is set to DISABLED. I know that at least for XP's Windows Setup, SATA threw off the installer on finding drives. If the SATA Native Mode switch is DISABLED but you still see the issue, you may have to load SATA drivers, since Microsoft may not offer support for all SATA drives. This is more likely the case, if you are not using hard drives that didn't originally ship with the computer. If so, when you bought the hard drives, they may have been bundled with a CD or other media containing drivers for the SATA drives. If your drives didn't come with that, or you are still out of luck, you can always try a Google search for the drivers corresponding to your drives, or look on the manufacturer's website.

Best of luck!

Hello,
Could you please help me with this?
When installing windows ask ' where do you want to install windows' option below is 'drive 0 unallocated space 'total size is 0.0 mb and free size is 0.0 Mb: as shown in picture

When i check BIOS Hard disk volume is showing 0 gb as shown in picture...


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Does this mean hard disk is unusable? Please clarify..
I thank you very much for your input in this matter....

 

[Saltgrass]

Since the way info is given in such conditions as your bios attachment, do you have a Disk Management picture you could attach?

When you do a normal install, the partitions on the drive as well as any unallocated space is shown. Perhaps the drive is set up in some way to keep that from being displayed during the install.

Could you describe exactly what you are doing? Is this a new install on a clean system, or exactly what type of procedure are you following?

This is an OEM system, so that may also be involved.

 

[dojjroses]

Since the way info is given in such conditions as your bios attachment, do you have a Disk Management picture you could attach?

When you do a normal install, the partitions on the drive as well as any unallocated space is shown. Perhaps the drive is set up in some way to keep that from being displayed during the install.

Could you describe exactly what you are doing? Is this a new install on a clean system, or exactly what type of procedure are you following?

This is an OEM system, so that may also be involved.

Hello,
Thanks for getting back to me.
I have my friend laptop Dell. I was trying to format windows 7. Moment i select, custom installation, there is no drive to select from. There is not hard drive where i can install window 7.
This is an old laptop. I used Gparted software to see if there is any hard drive but in that software i have not seen presence of hard drive in the laptop coz one of video in youtube i need to delete all the drive before installation. This doesnot work coz there is not hard drive.
The pictures have attached is infact pictures of BIOS and the problem it acquired when installing windows 7. I dont know if hard disk is corrupt or not.
If you have any infos please share

Thanks

 

[Saltgrass]

First I might suggest you shut the system down, remove the power cord and battery. Then pull the hard drive out enough to break the connection and then reseat it. Then put everything back together and boot into the Install Media. You might want to drop in the bios to see if the drive shows up with its normal size indicated.

When you get to the first screen during the install, or even on the partition screen in your attachment, hit Shift+F10 to bring up a command prompt. In the command prompt, type the following with an enter after each command.

Diskpart
lis dis
If no drives are listed, no reason to go any further. If you happened to be using a flash drive, make sure and not mistake it for another drive. If the install drive is listed, then make sure which one it is and use that number. In the commands, I will assume the drive is listed as disk 0. The clean command will wipe the drive.

sel dis 0
clean
exit
exit

Now reboot, or hit the refresh option on the Partition page. If the drive is working and seen by the system, it should now show up as all unallocated space. Continue the install.

If none of this helps, it might be time to get a new drive.

 

[dojjroses]

First I might suggest you shut the system down, remove the power cord and battery. Then pull the hard drive out enough to break the connection and then reseat it. Then put everything back together and boot into the Install Media. You might want to drop in the bios to see if the drive shows up with its normal size indicated.

When you get to the first screen during the install, or even on the partition screen in your attachment, hit Shift+F10 to bring up a command prompt. In the command prompt, type the following with an enter after each command.

Diskpart
lis dis
If no drives are listed, no reason to go any further. If you happened to be using a flash drive, make sure and not mistake it for another drive. If the install drive is listed, then make sure which one it is and use that number. In the commands, I will assume the drive is listed as disk 0. The clean command will wipe the drive.

sel dis 0
clean
exit
exit

Now reboot, or hit the refresh option on the Partition page. If the drive is working and seen by the system, it should now show up as all unallocated space. Continue the install.

If none of this helps, it might be time to get a new drive.

Thanks for getting back to me..

i have all it as you said and i still dont found my hard drive... i guess it need to be replaced with new one.....

Thanks for your time....