installing a new HDD to a laptop.

Hi,
I am trying to put a new HDD into a laptop after the original one is defective.
I have a Seagate momentus 5400 500GB ,and the laptop is a acer 5315 .However when I try to use the original windows disk i get so far but the acer cannot find the new drive,as it cannot find the driver.
Ive seen this before and I had to buy a smaller HDD the last time.
However was wondering if theres anyway I can still use this 500HDD.??
Ive been on the Seagate site but theres little help unfortunately.

Help appreciated thanks.

NeilC

 

Yes it comes up in the bios with the SN and product number of the HDD.Its also checked in SATA AHTS mode or something like that.Thanks.

 

Its Vista home premium .This was loaded from new.

 

I would just use it as an external USB drive with a cheap drive enclosure shell.

 

Hi,
The number on the back is Aspire 5532-203G25Mn(we will try and get mine working)
I have tried a friends of mine with a 5315 in above post ,but I have similar problem with my old 5532-203G25Mn,
Its strange they can pick up the smaller HDDs but not the larger ones.is this a driver problem thanks???
IF I can change the HDD on mine the 5532 one I ll do same with my friends.
I have to admit both laptops are over 5 years however still in good working order apart from the HDDs.
Help appreciated thanks.
NeilC

 

Once you choose that you want to load a new copy of windows and not an upgrade,you then get a Box which should show your HDDs in.From here you can choose which drive/partition you want windows loaded on.
At present I get nothing in the box.Ive treid 3 different HDDs 250g and 320G but the laptop wont recognise them.Both Laptops do this.You don't get an error,just a message saying"no drive present"to load windows onto.As its not recognised.
Neil

 

What I cant understand both laptops are Acers and soons as we use a HDD ( i treid a 500G and 320G and a 250G ) both laptops with disks wouldnt recognise the HDDs.This is why I presumed it was a driver problem.The trouble is Seagate etc dont have drivers on their sites.

 

Change bios setting from sata ahci or whatever to another one,if you have IDE option try that first

 

Ok I would assume that you are installing Windows XP using a SATA hard drive and XP does not usually see it. You will have to look for SATA drivers to install at installation or find a slipstreamed version of XP with SATA drivers built in.

 

Good evening ,
It's vista home premium came from new when I bought the laptop !!!thanks

 

make sure you have vista service pak2 installed also make sure the SATA setting is set to "enhanced" in bios
intergrated peripherals

 

Hi,
This is the problem I am loading the new platform on a new HDD so cannot install service pak2 as it cannot see the HDD before the install.thanks.

 

if the new hdd is blank no partition on it then may be windows can't see it

get a (Free) copy of mini disk wizard excellent utility to partition the drive and set the partition "active" where you wish to copy windows..then may be windows installer will see it..
go to the bottom of the page and download MiniTool Partition Wizard Bootable CD

hope this is a more positive action..

 

Another invaluable tool is Acronis. You may be able to download Acronis for Seagste for free. You can make a bootable CD. It will work as long as it can detect a Seagate disk connected to the computer. Not only can you do all the partitioning stuff you can image your computer. I use that to make an image of the working bare bones system. That way you will always have a copy of all the drivers. I make a second image after I install Office and register them.

Vista really ought to detect an empty disk, MS OSs used to do that but I don't use Vista much. It would list all disks connected to the computer and you would pick your C drive. MS seems to be getting worse. Do you know they will force 10 on any computer, possibly this month, that has the default value in the computer properties inder the control panel. You need to specify that the OS version can't be automatically updated.

Eventually, they probably want a monthly fee to use their products.

 

Thanks all I ll have a go today!!!much appreciated.

NeilC