Windows 7 Endless install loop of windows 7 on a brand new HDD

[Failman]

Ok, so long story short my hard drive died. I had to get a brand new one, but I don't have any OS disc since they never included the disc with my PC.

I 'got' windows 7 home premium 64 bit edition, went through the install, got to completing installation, then just as it finished it told me some error involving it being unable to do something with a certain piece of system hardware. I don't remember the exact message.

Now it's just restarting and telling me that windows failed to install, and that I should press ok to restart.

This is my first time installing an OS on a new hard drive. There's NOTHING on it at all. Any idea's what I could be doing wrong? Does it matter if you format the HD?

 

[Saltgrass]

It sounds like some hardware component or its driver is not cooperating.

What type of video connection do you have to your monitor? In some cases, the HDMI connections were causing problems.

If you have external devices, unplug them. If you can disable any devices in the bios, like network adapter or sound, you might try that.

During boot, can you hit F8 and get to the repair options where you can choose to use basic video or disable driver enforcement?

If none of that works, you might try booting to the Install DVD and do a repair install, which is an option you can get to by selecting "Repair My Compter" on the second page of the install process windows.

 

[Failman]

Actually right now I have the new hard drive in this PC. I'm formatting it right now, since I think that's what it needed in the first place to install right, plus the small "system reserve" partition was marked as the active partition.

I'm Kind of confused about how to best go about preparing the hard drive for the W7 install, though. Should it just be one huge partition taking up all the space, marked as active? Should I leave some unallocated or something?

And btw, would it have gotten though the W7 setup all the way to the end the way it did for me (I got to 99% complete installation, basically) if the hard drive partitions were the problem? It installed it all on the inactive partition. Yeah, I'm new to this.

 

[Saltgrass]

The 100mb partition is what Win 7 puts on the drive if it is not pre-partitioned. It installs the boot files there so it has to be active.

If you do not want the System Reserved Partition, and I don't have it, you need to partition the drive ahead. I use about 150 G for Win 7 then whatever else for Data. What you do is up to you, of course, and people have different ideas about how to go about it. But the partition with the boot files has to be active.

As far as preparing the drive ahead of time, you can put a brand new drive in there and Win 7 will see it (assuming no problems arise) and load without even a bump.

I suppose there may be a problem with your drive, but what you are seeing is not normally caused by a bad hard drive.

Let us know how the new drive works.

 

[Failman]

Well it didn't work, still got the same error. I'm worried it's a problem with another piece of hardware, as in hardware failure...could it be even though I got as far as I did?

I'm gonna eventually format it again since it's in the loop, then try to install ubuntu for the first time instead of windows...just to see if it's working.

Any other suggestions are nice.

 

[Failman]

Ok, ubuntu installed. Just wanted to make sure the system's working and all.

Now I need to format it again, but I don't want to have to unhook the hdd and hook it up to this computer to do it. Can I just run "try ubuntu" from the cd, and use gparted to format it/edit the partitions even though I have ubuntu actually installed on that same HDD?

Since it's running from the CD, it seems like it wouldn't affect it, but I've been through enough hell in the past few days trying to fix this that I'm scared to do anything that might mess anything up.

 

[Saltgrass]

When you refer to different computers, I cannot keep track of your exact situation.

You can format the drive during the Win 7 install. If you hit Shift + F10 at the partitions page, it will open a command prompt window. You can then use Diskpart to partition the drive. Win 7 will format it.

If you need instructions on diskpart, let us know.

You could also use something like gparted, or Partition Wizard to boot to and partition the drive.

 

[Failman]

Hm, I'll try formatting during the install if I can. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[Failman]

All right, I've got my dvd of windows 7 (4x write speed ok?) and I'm about to try booting it on the problem computer. Pretty sure I'm gonna need help with diskpart.

I don't really know for sure how to partition it. Could you tell me exactly how to get it ready for windows 7 with diskpart? Which partition to mark as active, which order they go in, etc...

EDIT: Ok, so I just took the drive out and formatted it by hooking it up to this pc. It's completely unallocated. I stick it in, try to start up windows 7 and...."missing cd/dvd drive device drivers"

My god this is so frustrating.

 

[Saltgrass]

I am starting to wonder if your hard drive really died.....

So, you put the DVD in the drive and turn on the computer. After the bios screen you see a "Do you want to boot to the DVD? Or does it give you the error prior to that option?

Before you could boot to the DVD... Did you disconnect any cables while you were changing the hard drive?

Maybe now would be a good time to describe your system. Do you operate it in any form of overclocking mode? You burned the DVD yourself? Will it boot in the other computer? Why do you think the hard drive died, what were the symptoms?

 

[Failman]

Well for one, the dead hard drive won't work even when I hook it up to this computer. I think it may have had something to do with a storm that happened a few days ago. It started storming in the middle of the night and woke me up, but I turned the power off and unplugged the pc ASAP. No nearby strikes or anything. Maybe it got damaged, but everything else is working fine...

I'm gonna wait until tomorrow, then try using the tutorial on this forum that shows how to install W& via USB drive. I assume I can use my external usb HDD, and don't NEED a flash drive.

So, you put the DVD in the drive and turn on the computer. After the bios screen you see a "Do you want to boot to the DVD? Or does it give you the error prior to that option?

I get past that. I get to the windows 7 screen where you can press "Install now", but then I get the error about needing cd/dvd drive drivers. It might be another bad download/burn?

Before you could boot to the DVD... Did you disconnect any cables while you were changing the hard drive?

Uh...I don't think so.

Maybe now would be a good time to describe your system. Do you operate it in any form of overclocking mode? You burned the DVD yourself? Will it boot in the other computer? Why do you think the hard drive died, what were the symptoms?

Prebuilt gateway fx bought at best buy. Came with windows vista 64 bit. I don't really know what you'd need to know.

I burned the dvd using ubuntu, which I assume wrote it at 4x speed (could that be a problem and cause the error I got?) on a brand new memorex dvd+rw.

I haven't tried booting it on this computer, but that's because it's the 64 bit version of windows and this is an older computer.

 

[Saltgrass]

Hard to say about the drivers, normally RAID or perhaps AHCI drivers are required to be loaded with the F6 type option. But some older DVD drives cannot read the Windows DVD and some errors pop up or perhaps a flat out refusal to work.

I suppose Ubuntu can burn the DVD, but you might try Windows if you have one available.

The speed of the burn and the media quality can be a factor. Check your media type at this site to see if it is OK.

 

[pcs3657]

Startup Repair

I suggest that you perform a Startup Repair.

Startup Repair
1. Please insert the Windows Vista DVD and reboot the computer.
2. When we are prompted to press a key to boot from the DVD, please press Enter or the space bar.
3. Choose your language settings, and then click Next.
4. Click Repair your computer.
5. Select the operating system you want to repair, and then click Next.
6. On the System Recovery Options menu, click Startup Repair. Startup Repair might prompt you to make choices as it tries to fix the problem, and if necessary, it might restart your computer as it makes repairs.

Access the link below for more information about startup repair:
Startup Repair: frequently asked questions