Can't Find Drivers on New Hard Drive Installation

jhundley16

Estimable
Apr 10, 2015
5
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4,510
I have installed a new hard drive in my Dell Inspiron 1545 and want to put Windows 7 on it. I have a factory Windows 7 disc but I have lost my Dell factory disc. When I go to reload Windows 7 I get to the point where it asks, "Select the driver to be installed." There is nothing in the box to choose from. I his Rescan and I get the error, "No signed device drivers were found." I made sure to update all of the drivers on the computer, including the BIOS, before I took the old hard drive out.

What am I missing to make Windows continue the installation?
 

RealBeast

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Please clarify what disk you are using for the install, is it a retail Windows 7 installation disk or a Dell restore disk?

A full installer disk needs no drivers on your new HDD -- all Dell device drivers need to be installed after the Windows install is done.

You can get all the drivers for Windows 7 x64 from Dell support online HERE.
 

Im Spartacus

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Mar 25, 2015
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5,210
Sounds like it can't see the Hard-drive as it's not partitioned or formatted yet for Windows 7.
I have an external hard drive USB reader. Whenever I buy a New drive I have to then partition it and format it in (Control panel, administrative tools, computer management and then disk management), There is other software for this like partition magic,
If you have a Desktop you can buy a hard drive case place it inside connect it via USB. Be careful in disk management you don't start formatting the desktop drive or already working drive i.e....normally labeled C;\ drive. I would goggle and watch youtube videos on doing this (Partition, formatting and assigning a drive letter to a new drive), It's not hard once you've done it or ask someone to partition and format the hard drive for you.
 

Im Spartacus

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Mar 25, 2015
339
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5,210
That's strange as I just installed a drive into a Sony Vaio and Win 7 couldn't see it until I partitioned it and formatted the drive I'm saying it's a problem I had not saying it's the issue being experienced above. It's looking for a device to install it to if it can't see the device it then looking for a driver to see the device? Some others have had the same issue maybe your Win7 works different to others I'm only saying how I've got round my problem with 4 laptops recently not all mine now working?
For some reason the Win7 install disc would not allow me to do a custom install? So to Partition / Format the drive to NTFS?
 

jhundley16

Estimable
Apr 10, 2015
5
0
4,510
Hi,
I'm using a retail Windows 7 install disc. I have lost my Dell restore disc. Yeah, I thought the drivers were supposed to be added after Windows was installed. Thank you for confirming that for me, Real Beast. Let me go to the link you gave and get the drivers. I'll try again and report back with my progress.

Im Spartacus,
I can try partitioning the drive and see if that helps.

Thanks for your replies!
 

jhundley16

Estimable
Apr 10, 2015
5
0
4,510
I'm trying again after having downloaded the drivers from Dell Support. When I try to install Windows I get to the point where it says, "Select the driver to be installed." There is a window that says, "Load Driver," and a message that says, "To install the device driver needed to access your hard drive insert the installation media containing the driver files and click OK. Note: The installation media can be a floppy disk, CD, DVD or USB drive."

I loaded all of the drivers I downloaded from Dell Support onto a flash drive and chose it as the "installation media" but it got an error saying, "No signed device drivers were found. Make sure the installation media contains the correct drivers and click OK."

So I don't know what's going on. I ordered a hard drive case and will attempt to partition the new drive and see if that helps.
 

Im Spartacus

Estimable
Mar 25, 2015
339
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5,210


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OK you can try the hard way to do it but you might just find what I've been trying to put across is a solve in most cases? I too have had the same screens on installation I have a couple of versions of Win 7 installation the only one I could lay my hands on recently did not allow me to partition and format hard drive to install as it could not see the hard drive? It never had an option to go to custom install where you can do this, Sorry it did but wouldn't let me in? The other a shop bought does and I found that one only last week.
I just found this link on this very site tomsguide.com. Which if you read the solution will explain what I have mentioned as a solve? However you do it good luck I guarantee if I had your drive and it was not broken it would install Window 7 Unless it was an SSD drive as they have other issues I've not yet played with them. see link below.
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/64941-63-build-windows-install-signed-device-drivers-found
PS this solve is a few years old funny that,
 

Im Spartacus

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Mar 25, 2015
339
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5,210
Out of interest as ffg7 has asked does your bios see the drive? and is it a solid state drive SSD please mention the drive details of your purchased hard drive? Even make modal SATA 2? SATA 3 etc. My way may work in my cases but remember you may just have a different issue to solve.
 

jhundley16

Estimable
Apr 10, 2015
5
0
4,510
When I turn the computer on I get a message saying it doesn't recognize the hard drive but then the Windows install disc kicks in and it says it's loading Windows files, which I assumed mean it was loading onto the hard drive.

Here is all of the info on the drive I bought:

Crucial BX100 2.5 inch Solid State Drive. I bought from Crucial.com because they scan the computer and choose products that are guaranteed to fit it.
Part #CT120BX100SSD1

You can read about it here: http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/storage-ssd-bx100

 

Im Spartacus

Estimable
Mar 25, 2015
339
0
5,210
I did say in my earlier post that I've never used or installed an SSD but I do know like mechanical drives they don't to my knowledge need drivers to install to a laptop but they do need to be set up to be seen by Windows 7 unless your using it in a desktop should be straight forward to set up.
Windows 7 installation disk will start to load screens regardless if it can see the hard drive or not but will only get as far as you have. It has stopped at this stage because it can't see a hard drive/SSD you wish to install it to so it is assuming it may be an alternative device that requires a driver hence the message your displayed? But we do know it's an SSD so I would ignore that message and try and get it to see your SSD.
Like I said I think it is still a case of setting it so it can be seen if your like me and most others you'll have shopped around for the best buy? Thus ended up with a clean drive ready for Windows,Linux etc.. these drives can be used in various devices as well so will come fresh un-formatted/clean. No information on the drive to identify it to your operating system. I found a link that you could try to see if you could use your Windows 7 disk to make it be seen just in case Windows management does not see it.
http://superuser.com/questions/325400/cant-install-windows-7-on-ssd-drive
Good luck it might work for you.
Windows installation should then see it too


 

RealBeast

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I've installed Windows 7 on dozens of older Dell laptops with new SSD drives and the only thing that you should have to do is select the drive in the bios as the boot device and then do the install from a disk or USB stick with installer made with THIS TOOL and instructions.

I usually do take the opportunity to update to the latest available bios before the install though, as most of the users haven't done so.