Windows 7 problem

[MobileTechie]

Customer uninstalled some apps and their PC will no longer boot. I get a 7B stop error.

Windows Recovery be it from the recovery partition, a Windows 7 disk or a DART/ERD disk all find no installation and so cannot work. Windows recovery console can see no HDD either. However Linux, UBCD and UBCD4Win all see the HDD and its partitions fine and they all look good. I cannot use fixmbr etc obviously because they cannot see the drive to operate on. Paragon's adaptive restore disk cannot see a drive either.

On trying to reinstall Windows 7 I get a "a required cd/dvd drive device driver is missing" error. I've tried several proper Windows 7 install disks all with the same result. The machine refuses to boot from my Zalman virtual CD. I've tried putting in a different DVD drive and using my external drive. Same result.

The HDD tests as working find and passes all Seatools tests.

No HDD drivers for the WD drive are available.

Any ideas?

 

[FoolishTech]

Don't usually see that on Win7........

You probably need a controller driver to get MS DART to see the hard drive...

Alternately you could see if the BIOS allows you to change IDE mode from AHCI back to standard IDE then boot to recovery console / MS DART and do a system restore. Then put it back to AHCI mode.

If Windows still doesn't boot, you might try leaving AHCI off and use my FixIDE app on it as some people have reported success with Vista so it may work with 7 as well...

 

[Cambridge PC Support]

Have you tested the memory Neil?

 

[datagnostic]

Have they changed something in the BIOS, relating to SATA operation mode?

 

[MobileTechie]

There's no AHCI/SATA switch in bios. You can turn the sata controller off but that just results in it seeing no SATA drives at all including the DVD. Turn it back on and back to square one.

I already tried FixIDE and other SATA one you get on UBCD4Win.

I've tested the memory for a few hours and it passes. I've swapped in another stick and no change.

I guess it must be the mobo SATA controller driver.

 

[732914TECH]

it sounds like they uninstalled the SATA drivers, what you need to do is get the F6 sata drivers for the machine then boot the windows setup using the drivers. Once in there do the system restore and it might replace the drivers/registry for it as Foolish suggested

 

[BDNTech]

Definitely sounds like an ahci/legacy issue. What mobo is it?

 

[PBComputer]

Interestingly I'm currently having the same problem, still looking for a fix - not trying to hijack the thread.

 

[OzzyGeek]

You could try this.

I assume you is using USB drive to reinstall.

When Windows is asking for driver, just click Cancel. You will be brought back to the welcome screen. At the welcome screen, remove your USB drive, insert it back to DIFFERENT USB PORT. Click Install Now again. The installation process will be like usual.

This problem happened to all new version of updated Windows 7 installer. I think, it is due to failure of Windows installer to remain its detection to the USB drive. It lost the connection, and became confused, don't know where to find the USB drive it used to read before.

When we re-insert the USB drive, Windows installer will detect the USB drive back, and continue like usual.

If it doesn't work you could try running Spinrite level 2 and then run the Active Boot Disks version of Chkdsk.

 

[Boston Pro Comp Serv LLC]

You could try doing the system restore manually. http://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/show/214

 

[mkeathley]

Is this a gateway? I've had more than one lately with the same issue. You have to find the right drivers on the manufacturer website. The RAID drivers, or maybe SATA drivers.
And load them via a flash drive during Win7 setup.

 

[MobileTechie]

The machine is an HP 500B MT. The motherboard is H-IG41-uATX

I thought I'd found the drivers but on trying them it work. I can't find them on HPs own site so I might have the wrong ones.

 

[MobileTechie]

You could try doing the system restore manually. http://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/show/214

I think they've moved the location of the files in Win 7 haven't they? I can't see any in system information.

 

[FoolishTech]

I think they've moved the location of the files in Win 7 haven't they? I can't see any in system information.

Yes, system restore files are now in volume shadow copy. You need an app like Shadow Explorer to get at them. If you're trying to go this route you'll need to know the name/location of the appropriate files as well and that can be a pain without knowing what the right driver is in the first place. You'll also need to pull at least the system registry hive from shadow copy and replace that as well.

 

[MobileTechie]

Since WinRE doesn't work because of the driver issue (assuming that is the problem) then I can't see me getting Shadow Explorer working.

So I'm stuck here right now. I just cannot find the right drivers.