Hello Uk420ers. My niece asked me to have a look at her laptop as it wouldn't load windows properly, just stuck in a loop of the Windows loading screen, so after I got her files off it, I wiped it to reinstall windows. Unfortunately it keeps coming up with an error saying something like "hard drive not installed" but it is. I've tried unplugging it and plugging it back in, but to no avail. I tried installing Linux on it, which partitioned the drive ok, but wouldn't install. Killdisk can find the drive ok and wipe it, but other than that it seems pretty much defunct. Strangely enough, the same or similar error happened to a mate's laptop a couple of weeks ago. Any ideas as to the cause, or the solution? Should I just tell them to buy new hard drives or is there something I can do to fix it without going to that expense? Many thanks for any/all replies.

i have had this prob b4

i usually remove drive from lappy and format the drive thru windows

then reattach to lappy and install windows

Thanks for the reply Water, but I don't have the necessary cables to connect a 2.5" drive to my pc. I did manage to get Linux Mint 7 installed there now and it seems to be working ok, except I have no idea how to get the wireless drivers working for it. Also thought, if it's installed Linux ok that means it's working, so tried Windows again, but still getting the same error. Downloaded the diagnostics tool from Fujitsu as well, but it's in German. If I could get the wireless drivers working, she might be able to use it, but I haven't a clue how to set them up in Linux tbh.

most of the partition managers have an option to burn a boot disk, that allows you to run their GUI from the disk without using the hard drive

boot 'partition boot disk'

then completely destroy all partitions, create a new one taking up the entire hardrive drive ..then deep format to be sure

then create whatever additional partitions you need

install windows as normal

Cheers Weed_G - you reckon if I wipe it again and partition it as NTFS it should work then? Will give it a go and see what happens - thanks!

i've just had a similar problem with mine (see previous posts)
i used gparted, its bootable and you can check errors and re-partition - format etc.

what version of windows is it (oem / genuine / pirate?)
you said you backed up her files . how did you access the drive?

boot gparted and reformat to NTFS

there's a good chance its just data corruption on the hd....if you try what i suggest and your still getting the same problem it might be hardware related

Thanks for the replies folks. I did load up G-Parted, formatted it to NTFS, tried to reinstall Windows again, but no go - it's XP Pro btw, legit copy. Actually tried two copies of it, but nah, wasn't having any of it. Have Linux Mint 7 reinstalled on it now but still no joy getting the wireless network working, although I did manage to download the Windows drivers for it and installed them, but sweet fa comes up. I should have a copy of Hiren's boot cd somewhere, will hoke it out and see if it comes up with anything. Cheers!

yeah try running various diagnostics from Hiren . if its clean try using DBAN then repartitioning

you have any joy?

did u destroy the partitions first ..or did you just reformat

I wiped the drive first with killdisk - Fujitsu don't seem to provide any tools for it other than that diagnostics one in German. I ran one diagnostics off the Hiren boot cd yesterday, which took about 12 hours, with no bad sectors found, but haven't looked at it today tbh. Not sure if it has anything to do with it, but when I loaded up killdisk it listed a virtual disk A of about 1gb after all the Linux partitions, think that might have something to do with it? I never noticed an option for it in the bios, but will have another look as well as rtfm on the thing hehe, see if it's supposed to have one - it's only got 512mb of ram in it, so made me wonder about the virtual drive part. Thanks again for the help - much appreciated.

assuming that small unknown partition has nothing to do with linux...most laptop makers insert a small hidden partition to tie your hardware into their spy and bloatware ...ideally you need to completely destroy all partitions on the hd ..sounds like killdisk didnt do that ...its a bit like a house with foundation problems ..there no point just replacing the walls etc.. you need to demolish and start again ....before you do this you may want to dl the drivers for your laptop ..so you dont need to rely on the oem partition ...in my experience these partitions cause no end of trouble and generally slow down the hardware ..if you can save your linux install onto another drive or disks or happy to reinstall then that would allow you to completley remove all partitions...all you need is a partition manager on a boot disk that can delete and create partitions

boot partition disk
delete all partitions
reboot, boot part. disk
create partitions for linux and windows etc...
reboot with windows install disk
install windows

then install the missing drivers with the ones you downloaded...as the oem partition has been deleted
and after run something like driver magician that will scan your system and auto install any missing or old drivers

Hi, just to let you know I finally got Windows installed - had to use the recovery cd that came with it, which means it's xp home edition, but hey it's not my pc so wtf do I care hehe. Anyway, just to say thanks for all the help and advice. Cheers!

I tried updating from home (legit) to pro (ilegit) and it broke so had to switch back... whatever works i guess .

Wouldn't that also be the Hibernation partion that is used for hibernation and also it may contain diagnostics so its a fuji laptop on when you turn it on press f12 a few times this should bring up the boot manager from there you can access the diag partion or the bios. make sure that if it uses sata drive that it is in compatible mode and that legacy devices are enabled. hope this helps

no m8 ..it doesn't work like that ...if it doesn't belong to his linux install its superfluous and can be removed once you back up your win drivers...oem bloatware taking up unnecessary hd space and slowing the hardware ..if you enjoy being tagged by big business leave it where it is

I had similar problems attempting to install windows xp on my laptop - same error too, it couldn't detect the hard drive.

turns out it was because the laptop had a sata hard drive and the windows xp install disk didn't include the sata controller drivers (you can load them from floppy during the install process)