Hp z820 troubleshooting installing windows 7

[mabbas2]

Dear HP experts,

Thank you for your time

I need an advice to istall windows 7 Professional on HP z820 workstation product number is WM441EA#ABU. I have tried alot but an error of ((No device driver were found)) is always shown.

Just like the attached picture.

Things i have do

- changing sata mode from RAID+AHCI to IDE ......which is my only options

-changing IDE sata mode from compatable to enhance

- disabling EFI boot Sources

-disabling legacy boot sources.

all these steps lead me to one way, which is no device driver were found. in my best move the installing continue but without a hard drive shown to format or delete.

Any Advice

Thanks

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

With the BIOS set to RAID+AHCI, see if this works...

I have zipped up and attached the Intel storage controller drivers for your model below.

Download and unzip the files to their folder.

Get a USB flash drive and copy the files inside the folder to the flash drive without the folder.

With the flash drive plugged into a USB 2 port, and W7 installation media in the PC, 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 will install.

[mabbas2]

Thank you so much

Paul_Tikkanen

 your advice was so close to be the solution.

I tried your suggestion but no hard drive was on screen, then I try to download LSI 2308 SAS Driver  and extract it using your method and it's worked perfectly along with your suggestion. this mean you should install both of Intel storage controller drivers and LSI 2308 SAS Driver.

Thank you again

you show me the road

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Glad you got it to work by adding the additional storage driver.

[Why-Vee]

I'm having similar issues!

Tried the above with no success.

I have downloaded the drivers and put them onto a USB drive, but its not detected on boot form the WIN 7 DVD. I've tried USB 2.0 ports front & back. Also tried USB 3.0 ports.

Any ideas.. ??

Thanks.

[SDH]

I have come up against this several times when using HP optical drives such as DVD-ROM and DVD-ReadWrite devices.  In relatively rare cases the official W7Pro64 installer DVD did not have a driver that would allow the installed optical drive to work.

The solution for me in those cases was to swap in a nother known-good HP optical drive and load from that.  I also have posted here about a certain HP DVD-ROM that HP did not have a firmware updater for, but Dell did, and the description from Dell included info that the update made the drive W7 compatible.  I "cross-flashed" that firmware onto the HP drive, and it now shows up as a Dell OD.  And, now it can load W7Pro-64 just fine.

I have seen this issue in several xw era workstations, and on one Z620.  I'd try that first, and you can buy near new HP SATA optical drives off eBay inexpensively.  A random buy of one will likely fix your issue, given how rarely I have seen this.  Ideally get a higher HP part number one.  IDE optical drives seem to never or almost never have this issue.  Another option is to load from an external USB-connected optical drive, and you'll need to set BIOS so it can boot from USB in that case.

A bit off topic..... always load the OS with SATA emulation  in BIOS set to "RAID + AHCI" (and a few HP workstations don't give that option but if you set it to "RAID" you get the drivers for both RAID and AHCI anyway, which is the intent).  You really want the drivers for both to be loaded automatically through this setting, and that BIOS setting is what Intel and HP recommend, and what comes as the default from the HP factory.

[Why-Vee]

Thank you for that!

I used an exteranl DVD drive and it let me go further as I was able to install the drivers  and see the HDD's, but wasn't able to install Windows 7 (See screenshot). I've tried deleting the the partitions, recreating them,formatting them etc... with no success.

One thing I did notice was that when I created a RAID array volume , Windoes setup was unable to see the volume. I dont't need a RAID volume for this particular machine and can get by with a single disk and a copy of WIN 7.

[SDH]

Here is how I prep for an install on HDD or SSD..... I do a long type NTFS format creating a single partiton (for your pic I'd delete both partitions using Disk Management on a functioning workstation, and then create a single partition on which I'd do a long (uncheck "Quick" if the box is checked) NTFS format, basic type).  Do MBR type... just the basics here.

Then, I'd put the single-partition freshly formatted HDD (or SSD)in your Z820, boot from the installer DVD, get to the page you show, select that single partition that was created previously, and select Delete.  Then select New..... the installer then will ask if you want to allow it to create more than one partition if it needs and this is where you say yes.... it will then create the small important "system reserved" partition, and the big OS partition automatically, and will start the install on to that larger partition.

I've noted these days that the Microsoft update process after the install is done takes multiple hours, and you'll think it is broken.  Make sure to let that process run over night, and make sure things are not set to have the workstation go to sleep during that process.  Then, the actual download and install needs to go forward, taking more time (but faster).

I don't do RAID, and I only do OS installs now on SSDs.

[DocBurt]

I have a similar problem.  I have a Z820 I got second hand. It had no HDD or OS in it which was fine for me.  My plan was to install a SATA HDD and Win7 32 bit OS (I have an application that requires 32 bit).  I got a fresh license and created a boot/install USB drive.  I've put in a SATA HDD that was previously used and I am not sure its exact content.  BIOS sees the drive. I booted from the thumb drive.  It gets to the point of wanting to do the install but does not find a drive to put it on.  I get the same screen as above where it is looking for drivers.  I downloaded the zip file mentioned above and did the unzipping and it does not recognize anything as useful on that thumb drive (a separate one from my boot stick).  I downloaded a couple of LSI SAS drivers as well and it does not see those as useful either.  I'd be happy to wipe this drive and format it fresh but don't see a path to do that either.  Help?

[SDH]

The Z820 has LSI SAS chipset on its motherboard, unlike the Z620.  Here is what I would do:

1.  Make sure you have the latest BIOS installed... it is safest to update BIOS from within BIOS, and that has been posted about here multiple times.

2.  I'm going to assume that you'll not ever be using SAS drives, and with the advent of better faster SSDs I bet that is correct.  Therefore you can turn off that device via BIOS (in the security section).  That way it becomes invisible to the OS both during OS use and during install of the OS from the installer DVD.  That single act can save you significant issues.... it makes the machine look like it literally does not have that chipset on the motherboard.  This is a very clean solution.

3.  Some hard drives come from odd origins.  Maybe Mac OS; maybe Linux; maybe a server OS and as such in deep areas of their boot sectors strange things may remain rendering Window OS install haunted by the leftovers.  Unless I get a new from factory HDD or SSD I always do a very low level reformat, then a long-type NTFS format, and during the OS install I actually delete that single large partition and let the OS create its small "system reserved" partition, plus the normal large OS/programs/data partition.  The tool to do the low level reformat I always use, and have used for years, is the free downloadable DBAN iso, from which you burn a bootable CD.  For large drives it usually needs to run over night.  For huge drives it can take a couple of days.  This has saved many a used drive for me, and the net result is the used drive becomes "raw" again.

4.  When you load W7 make sure you have set your SATA emulation in BIOS to RAID + AHCI (and in some HP workstations that is not a listed option.... you get the same end results by setting the option to RAID, which are the load of SATA/RAID and AHCI drivers.  This is strongly recommended by Intel and HP, but if you set SATA emulation to IDE then you'll have some added mess to clean up before your modern drives will work properly.  This is an interesting situation.... your BIOS setting can critically cripple your OS install if you don't know this fact.  You keep all you options open by doing this correctly. 

5.  Too bad on the 32-bit issue......   And, what about getting a SSD instead of that pokey HDD?  At least consider that, and one of my favorite workhorses is Intel 320 series 300GB used off eBay.  Take a look..... the Intel "Toolbox" software works great, and lets you update its firmware easily if needed.  The Z820 can run newer faster ones, of course.