HP Pavilion dm4-3050us

[rockhoptec]

I am looking for some help with this one. I am doing a standard Hard drive replacement without any success. The background is this - hard drive failure, replacing with WD Black HDD. Insert Windows 7 disk, boot from disk and get the error that cannot find any drives. - No new devices could be found, make sure the driver files are correct and located on the driver installation media.
OK - have seen this before, download the drivers to flash drive, choose browse and move forward. This is the spot where no driver I have downloaded and tried to install works.
The computer is a HP pavilion DM4-3050us, tried the drivers from HP and from intel, tried different versions without any success. Every driver I have tried, it will list the driver - Intel mobile Express Chipset Sata Raid Controller, click next, thinks for a moment and then comes back with the famous No new devices could be found box.
I pulled the new drive out of this machine and put it in a HP Probook 6555b, boot from the windows 7 disk and went off without any problems.
Information to help any one offer ideas
1. New HDD is good
2. Disks are fine
3. Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
4. I have downloaded every driver version I could find, recognizes that the driver should be Intel mobile Express but never continues with the installation.
5. The connection for the HDD to motherboard is the small cable version that plugs into the motherboard - if this even matters.

I am at a loss, never had re-installation beat me before, my only other option would be is to order the recovery media from HP and hope this has the correct driver. I just can't believe the driver is this hard to find for this machine.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thank you,
Todd

 

[mr m]

Does the BIOS see the drive?

 

[rockhoptec]

Should have mentioned that yes it does

 

[gadgetfixup]

Use a Win 7 HE with SP1 is easiest solution or use this work around

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2466753

 

[mr m]

Does this system use UEFI? I've seen Win 7, 32 bit not recognize a HDD unless I've turned on legacy support but not with Win 7, 64 bit as you have. Still, if it is UEFI I'd try turning off safe boot and enabling legacy mode. Every PC seems to handle UEFI differently.

Can you run a HDD diag via the BIOS/UEFI?

 

[sapphirescales]

This is what I would try:

1. Reset all settings in the BIOS to default.
2. Change HDD controller from RAID or AHCI to ATA/IDE or Compatibility
3. Flash the BIOS to the most recent version

If you're using a flash drive, this is a weird fix that usually works:

When you've gotten to the screen that says that no hard drives could be detected, X out of the window. It will tell you that this will restart the installation. Hit OK. Then unplug the flash drive and plug it into another port on the other side of the computer. Proceed normally. It should now detect the drive.

If all else fails, you can find the driver on HP's website. Extract the EXE with 7zip to find the SATA driver. It won't be in a raw driver format and will need to be extracted.

It's possible it could be the small adapter that plugs into the motherboard, but since it detects it in the BIOS I don't think so.