# Can't reinstall windows 7 after a hard drive dban wipe



## musik8101 (Oct 3, 2011)

Hey everyone. I'm new to the forums. I am trying to help a friend out with his Sony Vaio E Series Laptop. The computer had crashed and he tried to do a clean install of windows but it failed and nothing would respond. Even when you tired to do a clean install of windows again it just went to the light blue windows screen with the bird and nothing happened. So I used Dban to Wipe the hard drive clean and start over from scratch. After I wiped it I tried to reinstall windows and it says there are no signed device drivers found. So I checked the bios and it's not even registering the hard drive. I have been searching the boards everywhere to find a solution to this. The Bios does not allow for much change so I can not make sure it is set to a SATA connection and I have tried turning off the signed device option when starting up. Nothing is working. If someone could help me out I would greatly appreciate it.

Sony Vaio E Series
Model# VPCEB23FM
Intel Core I3


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## huggie54 (Feb 17, 2008)

hiya,try this.
Boot from the installation DVD. 
When you're asked which type of installation you want, choose Custom (advanced). 
When it asks you where you want to install it, click Drive options (advanced). Don't click anything else here. 
Select the hard drive you wish to install it to. 
Click Delete and then confirm the choice. 
Now click New and confirm the choice. This creates a new partition (leave the partition size at the default size). 
Now click Format. It is supposed to be fast, so expect it to only take a few seconds or a minute. 
Click Next. 
When it says Expanding Windows files (0%), please wait a few minutes for it to begin expanding. The first percent will take up to 5 minutes or so. After that, it will continue steadily. 
When you're asked to enter the Product Key, do not enter it. For good measure, deselect "Automatically activate Windows when I'm online". 
Click Next. 
When you finally get to the Desktop, re-insert the installation DVD. 
Choose Upgrade. 
Install normally (enter the Product Key when it asks you for it and then activate Windows online once you get back to the desktop). 
hope this helps


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## flavallee (May 12, 2002)

I hope you have Windows 7 DVD. I don't see one mentioned anywhere in your comments.

If it came with a built-in system recovery partition to revert it back to its original factory condition, you probably wiped it out with DBAN.

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## musik8101 (Oct 3, 2011)

Thanks for the quick responses. Well the problem is that when I go to install and I click advanced, the hdd isn't even showing up. So I can't delete or format anything. When I click the option to "Load Driver" it says "To install the device driver needed to access your hard drive, insert the installation media containing the driver files, and then click ok" I think it's a problem with the computer being able to recognize the hard drive because It doesn't sow up in the bios either. I was reading in some places that I might need the drivers for the vaio to find the hard drive. I went to sony's site put in the model number and found all of the drivers, the only thing is I can't use them because they are EXE files and I have no operating system. The owner didn't have any original disks that was the problem. I do have a windows cd so no worries there. I tried repairing and reverting but nothing happened. It was fried, thats the only reason I thought it would be a good Idea to just wipe the hard drive and do a clean install. I was thinking another option might be to format the hdd on another system. The only thing is I don't have another system to plug the hdd in to. I think the install would work if the computer would recognize the hdd.
The Hard Drive is a Toshiba mk3265gs.


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## musik8101 (Oct 3, 2011)

So I thought I had found the solution by using GParted. You can boot up with it and reformat hard drives but it did not find the hard drive. So I have the Bios Not finding it, windows not finding it and GParted all not seeing a hard drive. I don't know how to get it to find it the HDD. I think I may need the sata controller drivers from sony but I don't know how to install them without an operating system.


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## musik8101 (Oct 3, 2011)

Ok so here is the updated situation. I ordered an external HD case and plugged it in to my mac. I figured I would format the HD in FAT since that was my only option on my mac. I thought if I could just format to get it to show up then I could just reformat it to NTFS when I was installing windows. So I formatted it to FAT on my mac and the HD works perfectly. So I put it back in the Sony Vaio laptop to install windows. I checked the Bios and it's still not showing a hard drive. So I tried to install windows anyways and it's still not working. I've got the same problem. So I know the hard drive is fine. I just can't get the vaio to recognize it. Any ideas?


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## semajjames (Nov 27, 2009)

when doing a fresh install on a desktop 

one is advised to 

remove the bios battery and also change the position of the motherboard jumper that resets the board 

this i have just found can make a difference 

but not sure if it the case with a laptop[


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## musik8101 (Oct 3, 2011)

Yea, I think I need to remove the BIOS battery. That's really the only thing I can think of. I took it apart and I can't figure out how to remove the clip from the battery to the board. It's a small white clip and i've pulled pretty hard but can't get it to separate. I'm thinking maybe it's soldered in somewhere. Anyone have any info on how to remove this models cmos battery? I found it I just can't get it to come apart.


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## SUEOHIO (Jan 30, 2007)

If its soldered in it might be soldered to the motherboard. I think you might want to take it somewhere and have it looked at to see what damage if any has been done to it by pulling on the battery.


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## musik8101 (Oct 3, 2011)

no damage has been done. Nothing has changed since I opened it up.


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