Windows 7 install not worked for no reason i can figure out

nickunlimited

New Member
i have a laptop that had windows 7 and worked (an HP Pavilion dv6).
for various reasons i decided to reinstall windows 7 and bought a copy from PC World.
i reinstalled it and it loaded and worked briefly (a few hours) but then wouldn't boot, going to "install repair" and saying it couldn't be fixed (it was trying to fix harddisk).
i thought this was strange as it was a new install but tried again.
and this time the same thing happened but straight away.

what the heck is going on? i feel like slapping bill gates right now! but maybe i should be slapping HP or myself!!!??!

ta

nick
 
Hi nickunlimited and Welcome to The Forum.

Did you get a disc when bought from HP (highly doubt it!). Do you still have the Recovery Partition that HP most likely loaded? What I'm trying to say is that you are most likely missing some HP drivers. These would be on the repair disc partition. You may have to go back to the HP version so you can start up. Once there go to the HP support page for your machine and download all available drivers and stick them on a disc. You can then run that to install necessary drivers.

Apart from that, a good move on getting a "vanilla" install. You definitely don't want all the unnecessary gumph OEM's throw in to enhance your experience while slowing your machine down to a crawl.

There's also a handy and free (we like free!) utility called Double Driver. This will copy and save all, or a selected list, of the drivers loaded into your machine so you can re-install them later.
 
it goes into the repair program and then says its not possible. if u mean specific error the first time i cannot remember and the second time it said registry corrupt in the error info in the repair program.
 
put the origonal disc back in , boot from disc
when it comes up with INSTALL in the middle of the screen like a firsst time setup,. look at the bottom left corner , it will say repair, clikc this and click next, find the installation (if it finds one ). when u get to the screen where it says things like, system restore , command promt, etc

click command promt
type
bootrec.exe /rebuildbcd
bootrec.exe /fixmbr
bootrec.exe /fixboot
sfc /scannow
reboot pc
 
Also, on top of Kaos's advice, you're obviously using another machine to be on here. If you are struggling to find drivers for the laptop, post the full model number and we'll see what we can find out for you.

HTH.
 
elmer: will i need to find the drivers too? also cannot find out model number past dv6. think i removed the sticker years ago(again...IDIOT). is there another way to find it?
 
I'd say there will be a label on the bottom. More than likely a black n silvery thing (technical description!! :D). It should be on that.
 
put the origonal disc back in , boot from disc
when it comes up with INSTALL in the middle of the screen like a firsst time setup,. look at the bottom left corner , it will say repair, clikc this and click next, find the installation (if it finds one ). when u get to the screen where it says things like, system restore , command promt, etc

click command promt
type
bootrec.exe /rebuildbcd
bootrec.exe /fixmbr
bootrec.exe /fixboot
sfc /scannow
reboot pc

will i still need hp drivers?
 
Do you have another PC you could use for a while? You could always try the Win 7 iso file with SP1 included. Perhaps the DVD you acquired is defective. Download the file from Digital River, right click the file and choose Burn Image to disk, then use this disk with your original key to re-install Win 7 again.
 
I suppose I am a little confused about your exact current situation.

As I understand it, you have an HP computer on which you formatted the hard drive and tried to install a retail version of Windows 7 using that key.

It installed and ran originally, but now will not boot but goes into a repair scenario.
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I had a situation similar when I installed a Bluetooth driver that messed up the system. I was lucky and knew the exact driver so I removed it from the command window, but if you do not know, I would reinstall. This time do not let Windows install any new drivers from Windows update.

There have been several instances of your situation. Some seemed to be caused by a virus and others by drivers or hardware problems. But the bottom line seems to be, once it gets into your situation, it is hard to recover. If it were to be fixable, a Startup Repair may take 3 or 4 times before it can complete.

And I will assume you cannot get into Safe Mode or break the repair loop another way.
 
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[I would have seconds thoughts if you were using an upgrade version of Windows 7 since it might not be able to activate because it wipes out the first version of windows, but not sure.]

Prior to doing the following, you could continue to the partitions page, where you can select the option to set up your own partitions and format the partitions there. This is part of a normal custom install and should allow for re-activation using an upgrade version.

But, if you decide to completely clean the drive, if you have removed all information from the drive and are sure it is unusable otherwise, I would suggest when you reinstall, on the second screen, after you pick a language, hit Shift + F10 which will open a command window.

In that window, type the following commands followed by enter after each. This is for only one hard drive installed on the system. If you have more than one, make sure you are selecting the correct drive. Also, remember there is a refresh option on the partitions page which may need to be used.

Diskpart
list disk
select disk 0 <-- if only one drive
clean
exit
exit

Then complete the install normally.
 
Link Removed due to 404 Error. This method should work on a re-formatted HD as well. During the installation there is an option to format the HD. The method that saltgrass mentions should work to format the HD as well. Some are a little unsettled using cmd prompt commands to do this.
 
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