Windows 7 boot install freezes on background...help?

[ruisleipa]

Hi, I'm a noob to these forums so many apologies if this has been answered before, but I have a problem. Currently I have XP and want to do clean install of 7. I have two HDDs, one 500gb and one 200gb. The 500 is divided into C:, E: and F: drives, but C only has 25 gb so I want to completely remove everything from there and install 7. But, I also want to re-partition the HDD (I've already back-up my data on an external drive).

So, if I boot from the 7 disc then I get a black screen saying 'windows is installing files' and a thick line at the bottom, followed by the snazzy windows logo, followed by a blue background which I guess is the 7 desktop and my mouse cursor on screen. And...that's it. I wait and wait and no boxes come up, instructions or anything. Just the cursor and the background. Any idea what this could be? I believe that if I install from the disc (i.e. not boot but through XP)

Thanks for any help

 

[ruisleipa]

Yeah, I tried it a few times, same thing each time. I mean, I couldn't do anything, not re-partition the HDD, install 7, anything at all. Just the cursor (I could move that using the mouse) and the pretty blue background. No error messages, it just didn't respond. I reset my comp after waiting 15 minutes and am still using xp!

Is it maybe possible to completely wipe everything from my computer, create a clean slate as it were, and then just install 7 as if nothing had ever been on my comp before?

 

[Saltgrass]

Are these SATA drives? Have you gone into the bios and set the Win 7 drive as the first priority?

 

[ruisleipa]

Yes, they're SATA. It must have the Win 7 drive as first priority since that's the same drive it boots XP from (right?). I'll try and check it.

 

[Saltgrass]

Check to see if you have a setupact.log in a Windows\Panther folder. It may be a different folder, but check. If you can find it, maybe the last 10-15 lines will lead to the problem. Possibly a setuperr.log also.

Until then, if you are running 2 monitors, disconnect 1, anything you can take out or disable in Device Manager, do that before you do another install. Unplug any unncecssary USB devices. If you don't need both hard drives, unplug one. Basically get your system as clean as possible.

I have seem many video driver problems, a network adapter problem, and who knows what else.

 

[ruisleipa]

well here's the setupact.log

2009-11-19 21:22:06, Info UI Determining if we are in WDS/Unattend mode
2009-11-19 21:22:11, Info UI No need to hide autorun
2009-11-19 21:22:11, Info [0x0a000a] UI Autorun:Autorun core successfully initialized!!!
2009-11-19 21:22:11, Info [0x0a000b] UI Autorun:Autorun UI successfully initialized!!!
2009-11-19 21:22:13, Info UI AppWindow has layout style 0
2009-11-19 21:22:13, Info UI NavWindow has layout style 0
2009-11-19 21:22:14, Info [0x0a011c] UI WizardDialogPost::SetActive
2009-11-19 21:22:16, Info [0x0a018e] UI Passing command line parameter ("G:\Sources\setup.exe /HideWelcome /uilanguage:en-US /targetlanguage:en-US") to IBS.
Input Install: Quiet install requested.
Input Install: Not a PS2 device.


Not a PS2 device?? I don't understand what that means...

 

[Saltgrass]

Might just mean you are using a USB device and not PS2. I really do not see anything here that would indicate a problem. The log only shows about 10 seconds of the last 10 minutes you said you waited before you shut it down. Do you see where the time started to slow down and were there any long gaps prior in the log?

What I was thinking, maybe it was still working but got hung up somewhere. The log was on the 19th, is that the last time you tried to install?

 

[ruisleipa]

Yeah, 19th was the last time. I'll try it again and see if it was just a glitch. I tried it like 3 times in a row all the same day. Had to move in the meantime. What I posted was all that there was all that was in the log. the setuperr.log is empty. Thanks!

 

[Saltgrass]

I copied this from the Microsoft site at the url below. I was thinking if you check the file during the delay you might be able to find something.

How to open the seupact.log file

To open the setupact.log file during the upgrade process, press SHIFT+F10 to open a command prompt, type C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources\Panther\setupact.log, and then press ENTER.

To open the setupact.log file after the computer rolls back to Windows Vista, click Start, type C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources\Panther\setupact.log in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.

The seupact.log file will be opened in notepad. To view the latest log entries, scroll to the bottom of the file.

Upgrade stops responding (hangs) at 62% when you upgrade to Windows 7

 

[ruisleipa]

Thanks for your help. Unfortunately I haven't had time to check that file yet, but if I have any problems still I'll post again. Thanks once more!

 

[Norse]

I have the same problem. I'm trying to install on a brand new, empty HD, and after the first black "windows loading files" screen, and the logo, I get the blue wallpaper-looking screen. The mouse pointer has the spinning circle next to it for a few seconds, and then.. nothing. No message, and no indication that the computer is working, cd-rom being read etc.. But I can still move the pointer, so it's not completely frozen.

I'm no computer wiz, but I've tried a few things, updating the bios, partioning and formatting the HD etc, but this keeps happening. One detail that might be interesting is that a couple of times, instead of the situation mentioned above, I have gotten an i/o error on the first black screen.. Something about removable storage not being connected? I thought maybe it was the new HD, but bios detects is fine, and it seems to work fine in XP. Anyway, I guess (hope) these two types of behaviors have the same cause.

I'll try the method with unplugging as much as possible tomorrow, and report back.

 

[Norse]

Ok, I've tried:
*Unplugging uneeded stuff. Same result.
*Switching monitor from dvi to vga, since I read dvi might give the 0xc00000e9 i/o error I'm getting once in a while. Same result.
*Playing around with HD settings in bios. Same result.
-After being more or less convinced that there's some issues between my MB (P5B) and the new HD (I read somewhere that this is common with P5B), I decided to try and install win7 on my old and smaller XP hd, that I was planning to keep as a "backup OS" anyway.
*Tried this with the new HD as a slave. Same result.
*Tried it with the new HD not connected at all. Same result.

Any tips would be appreciated.

 

[Norse]

I've actually gotten to install it now. How? Well, I read somewhere on microsoft's site that if the installation process seems to just halt at a "blue or black screen", one thing to try was to just leave it for 10 or 15 minutes. So I started the process and went and did the dishes. When I came back, the process had moved along, and I could choose language etc. It was still very slow, the "setup is starting" or something similar was on the screen for like 10 minutes.. Still have no idea what that i/o error that came up once in while was, but if it doesn't bother me again, I'm not sure i care..

 

[tblount]

AND your dishes are clean! Wow.... I need a fix like that.