Need help to reinstall windows

[GouroB]

Hi, I have a few small problems and I wud really appreciate any help. 

Machine details:

OS: Windows 7 Home premx64, factory loaded.

Model: HP Envy 6 1010sa

Error 1: HDD not found in windows setup mode

Error 2: portable cd/dvd drive not found in windows setup mode

problems explained:

When I got this machine, it came formatted as one drive only, As i prefer diving windows drive (100GB) and rest of space (400GB) for my other files so i decided to create my own partition and reinstall windows. BUT when i got to dos to reinstall .. it cudnt find my HDD, then i updated my bios to F.16, and made the cd/dvd drive first boot disk and restarted, now it cant even find my cd/dvd drive ... please help. 

 

[Bookworm]

If you into "f10" BIOS you can look at your Boot order, does it show the hard drive or optical drive there?

If you tap "f9" while booting it lets you choose to boot one time from any device it sees, does it see your hardware there?

Are you using HP factory Recovery media or ones you made your self?

Thanks

[GouroB]

If you into "f10" BIOS you can look at your Boot order, does it show the hard drive or optical drive there?

If you tap "f9" while booting it lets you choose to boot one time from any device it sees, does it see your hardware there?

Are you using HP factory Recovery media or ones you made your self?

Thanks


in f10, it shows boot order but only portable dvd drive,  and if i press f9 .. it does boot from dvd drive but then it shows it has no dvd drive 😕 . it doesnt see the dvd drive even tho its booting from there. 

And no im not using HP factory recovery media, im using a windows 7 dvd i got from microsoft. its bootable

[GouroB]

so any idea anyone ? Can  i install it from a usb stiick ?

[GouroB]

this is utter disappointing, I created an USB bootdisk with windows 7 x64, booted with it alright .. but then again " no signed device driver were found " ... i mean there are no RAID driver provided for my laptop in HP's website and its looking for it, how and where do i get it ?

[Bookworm]

I understand your frustration, I looked up the  SW for your unit, it's not in the region I'm in, would you please let me know where you live (Country)?

That can also help us identify the people/resources we have for the forums who may be in your region.

[GouroB]

ah thanks a lot mate, im from UK. I really appreciate this.

[Bookworm · Accepted solution]

Aha GouroB, so you're from the UK, I should be able to handled that as I hail from there myself, but I've lived in the US for the last 25 years.  Still if we get stuck we know what region to turn to for additional support.

(I might have to start putting the letter "u" back in some words, just for colour )

Okay I have a unit like yours, same family, but I have the i5 processor and not the i7, makes no difference to what your trying to do.

If my research is right you did not buy a unit with 1 hard drive but instead 2, however the 2nd is a small Msata SSD solid state drive which is used as a Cache drive to speed up performance, it does this using the Intel Rapid storage, and it shows on mine, which still has the original HP configuration, that I have cache drive & it has RAID 0 on it, all controlled by the Intel rapid storage app, which you can download form where your drivers are.

BTW it looks like you have the latest BIOS F.16 on already.

Here is a link to a doc explaining about the hard drive setup http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03192147

Here is one just on SSD drives http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c02435719

and if you go to your notebooks HP Softpaq download page you can find downloads for the Intel Rapid storage and the F2 UEFI diagnostics, including how to set it up if you lost it.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareCategory?os=4063&lc=en&cc=uk&dlc=en&sw_lang=&product=5281...

In my BIOS setting under BOOT the first 3 I have listed are :

Notebook Hard drive

USB Diskette on key/USB hard drive

USB CD/DVD ROM drive

Sounds like you may have deleted some of the features your unit shipped with, but you should be able to get them back, even if it means getting the HP Factory Recovery media available on the same site.

Your Notebook has a more complex and delicate setup than a normal single spindle HDD notebook without an mSATA cache drive, I think you may be better served by going back to the HP setup and adding an external drive for extra storage.

It really does perform faster with the cache drive working.

Now here is a picture I took of the Intel Rapid storage Technology app in my control panel

I hope this is helpful, I know you want to get there using your Microsoft image & if you want to continue trying to do that I understand, but I think you will need someone else to get you there.

Good luck.

[GouroB]

That was by far the most helping, informative and detailed response i ever got, I cannot express how much it helped me 😄 ... I really am glad that i switched to HP .... and thanks a lot Bookworm 😄 I really really appreciate this big time ... 

Just one last question, is there anyway i can add an additional SSD 256GB on top of the existing HDD & Cache 32GB SSD ? coz 500GB is actually being a little small for carry on space im used to... and it only has space for a 1.8" HD/SSD so i cudnt fit my existing 2.5" HD's  & its hard to find 1.8" 1TB HD in here 😕  ... see this is why I envy U.S 😞 .. im sure u moved there for good for this too ... once again thanks for all the help 🙂 

 

[Bookworm]

Glad you found it useful GouruB, I think for your situation ( given the price and availability of 1TB 1.8 HDD's) I would recommend an external drive (SSD or regular spindle SATA), that way if you already own a drive you can just invest in an external case, I have bought a few from On-line over the years, both Notebook and Desktop size, I always managed to find cheap options.

I know it's not as handy in one sense as it neing internal, but on the other hand you can take it and plug it in to other PC's.

So as usual there are pros and Cons, price is a big pro as you don't have to invest in a specific slimline size, I do like the speed solid state drives offer, but again if you have an existing drive lying around, free is my favorite price

Good luck.