Make a bootable Seagate SeaTools CD and boot it - then run a complete drive test. If the drive passes, do a clean drive wipe and then retry the installation.
I formatted the partitions that came with the laptop and then installed Win7 x86 Ultimate, and after the first steps of the installation completed, the comp. rebooted to continue the installation process but it only boots and gets about 4 seconds into the process while saying "Starting Windows" and then restarts (in safe mode, it hangs on disk.sys and then restarts). I've already tried start-up repair 3 consecutive times with the Win7 install disk with no luck. And trying to custom install Win7 again does not detect the HD. I've also used the Dell drivers CD that came with it that contains a bootable GUI for testing the computer but that CD doesn't detect problems with the laptop loading the OS or problems with the HD.
Many thanks. I used SeaTools in the Ultimate Boot CD and just wiped the drive and am re-installing Windows 7 now. Thank you so much for your quick and intelligent responses.
ejn63
9 Legend
•
87.5K Posts
1
July 17th, 2011 15:00
Make a bootable Seagate SeaTools CD and boot it - then run a complete drive test. If the drive passes, do a clean drive wipe and then retry the installation.
ejn63
9 Legend
•
87.5K Posts
0
July 17th, 2011 14:00
Windows 7 shouldn't need an added driver. Does the BIOS (F2 at powerup) see the drive?
sccortinez
5 Posts
0
July 17th, 2011 14:00
Tried Win7 x86 ultimate and Win7 x64 home, neither detect it
ejn63
9 Legend
•
87.5K Posts
0
July 17th, 2011 14:00
What version of Windows are you installing?
sccortinez
5 Posts
0
July 17th, 2011 15:00
Yes. Specifically- Fixed HDD: ST9320325AS- (S1) HDD Size: 320GB
I formatted the partitions that came with the laptop and then installed Win7 x86 Ultimate, and after the first steps of the installation completed, the comp. rebooted to continue the installation process but it only boots and gets about 4 seconds into the process while saying "Starting Windows" and then restarts (in safe mode, it hangs on disk.sys and then restarts). I've already tried start-up repair 3 consecutive times with the Win7 install disk with no luck. And trying to custom install Win7 again does not detect the HD. I've also used the Dell drivers CD that came with it that contains a bootable GUI for testing the computer but that CD doesn't detect problems with the laptop loading the OS or problems with the HD.
sccortinez
5 Posts
0
July 18th, 2011 00:00
Many thanks. I used SeaTools in the Ultimate Boot CD and just wiped the drive and am re-installing Windows 7 now. Thank you so much for your quick and intelligent responses.