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General discussion

Windows 7 installation error on WD 750GB hard drive

Jul 12, 2014 2:41AM PDT

Hello!

This one should twist your head a bit if you're anything like me!

I have a Pavilion M6 1045DX laptop and the HD crashed. It was 750GB so off to eBay I went to buy another one. I decided to buy a NEW SEALED HD so I bought a blue label WD brand new. (March 2014) Just for grins I wiped and verified the drive and it passed. I temporarily installed a 40GB hard drive to build the machine while I was waiting for the new drive figuring I would just clone it when it arrived. When I went to clone the test drive to the new drive I received an error about block sizes. I use the Apricorn DriveWire and have seen this on a rare occasion. I thought maybe a different cloning software would help but to no avail. Same error. Rather than fight with it I decide to put the new 750 drive in the laptop and build it all over again. This is when I received this error.

"Windows setup could not configure Windows to run on this computer's hardware"

So, I grabbed another blue label 160GB WD drive and it installed Win 7 fine on the laptop. I then took the 750GB drive and installed in on an old IBM T61 and it too installed fine. I also installed the new 750GB drive on a Dell inspirion N5040 laptop with complete success. Things that make you say...hmmmmmm?

Anyone have any ideas why the new 750GB WD drive gives me this error on "only" the HPPavilion M6?

Thank you in advance for any suggestions!!

BTW...this laptop doesn't have RAID and was NOT Built for windows 8. It came with Windows 7. And yes I've reset the bios back to factor standards!
Ps, I've been at this for days!!! ):

Discussion is locked

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Yes. But all bad news.
Jul 12, 2014 2:56AM PDT

There are a few drives that cough and won't work with a few machines. You've tripped over this on your own and well, let me share that my last HP was my last HP.

It all begin well enough but something odd was going on that the laptop would not boot when certain USB things were plugged in. And then the boot would continue if you unplugged the USB thing. AHA I thought, it's that old BIOS bug we saw years ago. HP should be able to get that fixed.

But it was not to be. HP destroyed that laptop in their repair and at 3 months I began the calls, filling out web surveys all negative and well, at 9 months the message was clear HP was not going to correct the error or the laptop they destroyed in their service.

OK, here we are with another HP story with what could be another angle of the issue that had me sending this unit back to HP.

Don't fix it. Don't let HP near it. Use a drive that works and move along.
Bob

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HP?
Jul 12, 2014 6:15AM PDT

Bob..

R U saying HP = Horrible Products?!

Thanks for the advice. Maybe I'll call WD and see what they say. Or drop down a notch and buy a Seagate

Thanks for the advice!

Steven

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Prior to this I bought their products without any issues.
Jul 12, 2014 6:24AM PDT

In fact, many years ago we took classes and got support in Fullerton, CA, USA. This is not the same company. They have no way to correct a product bug today as, and this is according to those that were on the support lines "we buy the BIOS."

So when a flaw is found they don't have a way to get it fixed. I've known a lot of HP employees over the years so it appears they have successfully out sourced the entire company.
Bob

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BIOS
Jul 12, 2014 11:13AM PDT

your BIOS may not support that size drive, see if there's an update for it.

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information on how to make it work
Jul 12, 2014 11:26AM PDT
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Drive size
Jul 12, 2014 2:48PM PDT

if you read my post you would see it came with a 750

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stating the obvious?
Jul 12, 2014 5:38PM PDT
"When I went to clone the test drive to the new drive I received an error about block sizes. I use the Apricorn DriveWire and have seen this on a rare occasion. I thought maybe a different cloning software would help but to no avail. Same error. Rather than fight with it I decide to put the new 750 drive in the laptop and build it all over again. This is when I received this error. "

Yes, that's expected. The older interim 40 GB drive probably had block sizes of 512 and the newer uses 1024 or 4096 hybrid settings. Seems newer clone software like Easus would adjust the data for that though. The new hybrid drives report 512 but actually have block sizes of 4096, but others are able to load these hybrid drives. Maybe something in the OEM restore software is interfering with acceptance of this drive. Since you have these other computers available, why don't you add it into one of them and have windows setup the drive with formatted partitions and then try again in the one you want the drive in.
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SOLUTION
Jul 13, 2014 7:53AM PDT

Please see if this works for you...



Download the drivers from this link below (first or second file listed -- 32 or 64 bit as applicable).



https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&ProdId=2101&DwnldID=23060&keyword=Intel+Rapi...



Extract the files onto a usb flash drive without any folders.



With the flash drive and W7 installation media plugged into the machine, boot from the W7 installation media.



After you select the install now option, select the Drive Options - Advanced menu, then select the Load Driver option.



You should now see the storage driver files listed.



If you check the box, it will only include the compatible driver.



Follow the prompts and hopefully, W7 should install.

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If that's the solution
Jul 13, 2014 8:37AM PDT
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RAID
Jul 13, 2014 10:19AM PDT

Nothing in the bios about raid or anything related. Several other posters said the same thing when discussing their problem. HP strikes again!

And, even if it had RAID, it shouldn't act differently between hard drives. It should be consistent with all drives. HP = HORRIBLE PRODUCTS

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I won't argue
Jul 13, 2014 11:19AM PDT

I won't argue with your assessment of HP. Ever since Carly Fiorina took the reigns it's been picking up steam on its downward slide. They had Mark Hurd in there for a time, who was at least a competent executive when he wasn't hitting on the women employees to the point where the board decided it was enough to oust him from the job. Then there was Leo Apotheker or something like that... His tenure got off to an auspicious part when he couldn't even show up for work for fear of being served with a subpoena from his former employer who was suing him. Then if it came out that he was high as a kite the entire time he was the CEO, it would at least explain a lot. Like how he killed off HP's first tablet practically before it even went on sale, so no wonder no one wanted to buy it. Or his very public musings about selling off one of the only profitable divisions of HP (their computer division). Then there is his buying the company Autonomy which is currently being investigated by both US and EU agencies for potential accounting fraud. Now they have Meg Whitman whose only claim to fame is running eBay during the dot com boom years when you didn't even need to have a business plan, just a website and you could get millions of dollars in venture capital, unless you want to count her rather disastrous bid for CA Governor. So it isn't really saying much that eBay did quite well while she was there... You'd practically have to be trying to have a business tank in those days.

At any rate, hopefully a lesson learned. Next go around, I'd personally recommend sticking to Dell or Toshiba. Acer makes HP look like well oiled machine, ASUS is not only founded by former Acer execs, it's incredibly racist to boot (you can either find some of my earlier posts or ask for explanation of that comment) from where I stand. I have concerns about Lenovo honoring warranties long-term because of their using the same pump and dump style of production as almost everyone else... Then there's Apple, which is not bad, if you don't mind the headaches that come with trying to use Windows on them or that they are engaged in numerous monopolistic and anti-competitive practices such as illegally colluding with Flextronics to carve up the market for repairing Apple systems. The eBook price-fixing thing they were busted on recently is just the tip of the iceberg if anyone ever started digging. Apple has been drinking its own kool-aid for quite some time now and the signs are all there that it's starting to take its toll... This time there's no Steve Jobs to ride to the rescue a second time, but then again, he's probably the single most responsible person for the problems in the first place.

The sad fact is, building your own computer is becoming less and less tenable and the number of companies you can generally rely on to get you a decent product have been dropping like flies as everyone moves to take advantage of the slave labor offered by Chinese factories.

But I digress. Good that you got it solved, though having some kind of indication that there was a SSD cache drive installed would have likely sped up the resolution process considerably.