Windows 7 & recognizing disks.
 

Well, after a year of refusing to touch Windows I have succumbed and tried to install W7 for my neighbour and for my son.

I bought a new hard disc and loaded W7 without a snag. This in itself was a surprise but when connecting the old data-only hard disk to the IDE nothing shows up. I can see it in the discs section of the system but in the computer, nothing.

I have also connected another disc to a SATA port but get the same result.

So why are things not showing up? I've been through all the updates procedures.

My neighbour's computer had Vista but lacking the BOOTMGR. A rescue disc failed to help and I was unable to format the entire disc from another hard disc with Linux Mint(excellent OS!).
Of course, W7 wouldn't load on her disc.

Any help welcomed.

has it been recognised and set in the BIOS?

I don't get the option to enter BIOS now.
It boots straight into W7.

I started it a couple of times, making sure I didn't blink, but never get any of those 'enter setup' options.

You will be able to get access to the BIOS. Depending on the machine you will need to press the DEL, F1, F2, F10 or maybe some other key combination. Just start tapping the correct key comb as soon as you power up.

What is the IDE drive set as. Master, Slave or Cable Select? Have you connected it to the same IDE port as the DC/DVD drive (assuming this is also and IDE device).

Troubleshooting Disk Management

Sounds like you may need to import / initialize the disk.

SD

Thanks for tips and link.

One computer up and running now, my son's. Got into the BIOS and checked all enabled or auto. Disk Management was the place though. Recognizing 'foreign' disk from the former XP machine. Great tip.
All looking very nice now, water-cooled and a UV light to make the fluid glow!

Now to attack the neighbour's Vista again.
Not a bootable disk or bootmgr missing.

Still a few ideas needed.

Sounds as though the option to boot from CD/DVD is not enabled, check the BIOS settings

Well, I had checked that but the Vista disk wouldn't let the W7 upgrade or clean install.
So I used my LinuxMint to format the Vista disk. Then it went without a hitch.

I must admit W7 is quite a nice OS. But it has still been a pain!

I will stick to my iMac and LinuxMint on my laptop.

Miserlou I must admit I agree.

It is by far the most stable windows OS I have used since NT. It just seems they have done things to it the hinder the idiots from breaking it.

Generally I find that if you just use it as a "home" user would normally do and not get smart doing techie stuff its fine for day to day usage.

I have concluded though that the win7 ultimate is the actual proper OS the others are all the sick siblings of it.

Win 7 ultimate isn't actually so far beyond Win 7 Professional to justify the cost really. Also, note that Ultimate won't be supported beyond 2015 compared to 2020 for Professional (no idea why that is!)

Windows 7 editions - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fair enough Mike.

It is good to know as well as I was considering upgrading my retarded home edition