Windows 8 Installation not completing need help?

[MikeMoss]

Hi Guys

It's really Mike Hawthorne.

I've been trying to post this all day.
I couldn't get it to send my confirmation message so I could post, even though it lets me log in to the forum, so I had to re-register with my business e-mail.

What's with the having to log in twice anyway?

I'm having problems with the Windows 8 installation.

I created a separate partition on my second hard drive, drive L, in this case, that's where I'm installing it.

I have gone through the installation process 3 times.

After the second time I formatted the partition started from scratch again.

I'm booting to the disk and then following the normal procedure.

The process proceeds with out a hitch up to a point.

It goes through the checking, copying, and setting up stages with no problems.

When I get to the screen "Getting the Devices Ready" it gets to 13% to 15% mark, and the screen goes black with an active cursor and disk activity.

After a while the computer reboots goes through what looks like a normal boot up and then I get a black screen with an active cursor and no disk activity.

I've let is sit like this for about a half hour but nothing else happens.

I found a site with images of what it's supposed to look like and I'm not getting all the setup screens where is asks you things like Personalize Wireless Setting and the screens after that.

I have to hit F12 when I reboot and it then gives me a screen that says "There was an unexpected error" and I will have to repair my computer using the installation media.

It also gives me the option to boot to another operating system which gets my into Windows 7.

I used EasyBCD to set up the boot menu so Windows 8 doesn't come first, and I get both options at boot now but when it boots to Windows 8 I'm not seeing anything but a blank screen with a working cursor.

I noticed that during set up I had an option to insert Link Removed.

Anyone think this has anything to do with video Link Removed not loading?

If that's the issue, I'm not sure what files to point it to, there are a lot of files in the drivers folder, and pointing it at the folder doesn't seem to work, it just keeps saying that if can't find anything.

I have an ATI 5870 video card and the latest drivers installed in Windows 7.

I don't know where to go from here, anyone have any ideas?

I wanted to get this posted today so that I can get back to work on this tomorrow.

Thanks for the help.

Mike

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[MikeMoss]

PS.

I'm going to bed, I started it re-downloading the .iso so I'll make a new disk in the morning just to be sure that's not the problem.

Also another question, how did you guys install it, by booting from the DVD or starting the installation in Windows 7?
When I tried starting it in Windows it look like it wasn't going to give me the option to chose where I wanted to install it and was going to replace Windows 7!

So I rebooted my computer and did the installation from the disk, the same as I did when I installed Windows 7 along with XP.

Mike

 

[Medico]

My first download was the 64 Bit version without app tools. Took over 3 hours and was corrupted. Re-downloaded the 64 Bit version with app tools, took about 35 minutes. The second download did install properly. I installed in Virtual Box on my Win 7 Ultimate laptop. Been running for several days. Read about my install at Windows Secrets Lounge. I also used the method outlined Here during the installation.

To summarize, I believe many of the original downloads of Win 8 Dev Preview were corrupted by the download servers being overloaded. This seems to have caused many of the installation problems, both with VM and on separate partitions.

 

[Saltgrass]

Hi Guys

It's really Mike Hawthorne.

When I get to the screen "Getting the Devices Ready" it gets to 13% to 15% mark, and the screen goes black with an active cursor and disk activity.

After a while the computer reboots goes through what looks like a normal boot up and then I get a black screen with an active cursor and no disk activity.

I used EasyBCD to set up the boot menu so Windows 8 doesn't come first, and I get both options at boot now but when it boots to Windows 8 I'm not seeing anything but a blank screen with a working cursor.

I have an ATI 5870 video card and the latest drivers installed in Windows 7..

Hey Mike, these types of problems sound a lot like some of the ones when Windows 7 first came out. The fact you have a black screen with an active cursor would seem to me that you are looking at a non-active screen. Possibly when it switched resolutions, the output is not visible. What type of video connections do you have. Have you tried the Basic video option, if you can get to it.

The other thing is when I installed mine, originally the Windows 8 Dev initial boot came up followed by the blue icon boot menu. If I used that, the system seemed to reboot, but I remember seeing my video drop off and resuming later. It seemed in order to get into Windows 7 it had to restart.

I ended up changing the BCD store to allow the normal Windows 7 boot menu to start as opposed to the Win 8 one. I saw in a post by BigFeet where you could choose this option during the boot process, but I did not notice it.

If you want to try, while in Windows 7, open an administrative command prompt and type the following, assuming the Windows 7 partition is C:

bcdboot C:\Windows

This will replace the BCD Store with the Windows 7 boot options.

Also, I would think using EasyBCD for Windows 8 may not be a good idea, since the boot scenario is a little different in Windows 8. You really don't need it anyway. If the second OS isn't picked up during the install, you could use the bootrec.exe utility and the /rebuildBCD option.

 

[OldTimer]

Hi Mike!

Sorry for your dang luck!

I'm no virgin when it comes to installing a new OS to a computer. Been there, done that, got the tee shirt, coffee mug and ashtray.
I'm glad that psychological scars are not real scars, or I'd look like Frankenstein's Monster.
Installing a second OS on my computer still makes me shudder. I check, double check and then triple check, to made sure my main OS Drive is disconnected, to prevent it from being corrupted. I've loaded Win-7, Peppermint and now Win-8, all to separate hard drives.
If I get tired of an OS, I just wipe that drive and put something else on it, never in conflict with my main OS.

OK, down to business.
Win-8 DP will install as an upgrade, from boot on, if it sees another OS in the system.
I tried for hours to install W8DP on an old Compaq desktop PC, about 6 years old.
I disconnected the original IDE drive, to preserve that OS and connected a newer and larger SATA II drive to an available port on the mobo.
I guess Compaq was too cheap to put in a SATA II hard drive.
Anyway, the SATA II drive had some OS on it, not even sure right now, which one. But, W8DP tried to install as an upgrade to that older OS. I could not make it do otherwise. We fought, I lost. (Oh Crap!)

So I took the high road..... I booted up the PC with my DOS Utilities CD, ran FDISK and removed ALL partitions from the disk and let FDISK create just one partition on the drive.
With that done, W8DP installed without any more jerking me around. Now for the clinker..... the only version of W8DP that I have is the 64 bit version, but, it installed without a whimper on the old 32 bit Compaq and runs like a champ.

It installed video drivers (generic) that allow 1024x768 resolution, but it didn't have sound or lan drivers for the old mobo.
After hours of Googling and digging through my own archives, I finally got both the sound (AC97) and the LAN working.
I still have not found updated drivers for the SiS Graphics chipset on the mobo, but that's OK, the generic drivers are working OK.

I've been in communication with several other guys who have also tried to install W8DP on a drive with another OS and they have had similar experiences to mine. When they took my advise and loaded it to a completely BLANK HD, the install went off without a hitch.

So, that's my tip of the day. If you have a spare HD laying around, wipe it clean and use that for your W8DP install.
Do not let the installer see your main drive and your main OS, maybe by unplugging your main drive, during the process.

Happy Holidays Everyone!