Windows 7 UpgradeHelp "Windows could not retrieve information about the disks on this computer"

Fix

I was having the same problem on an un-partitioned drive and realized that the virtual disk service had been turned off which was preventing windows from seeing the current config of the HDD. It seems the user had disabled it for performance reasons. To fix the problem follow these steps:

- Right click on computer under the start menu and chose manage
- In the computer management window click on services and scroll down to the service labeled "Virtual Disk" right click on it and chose properties.
- Under "Services status" click start then click apply and ok
- close all the windows and retry the upgrade
Good Luck

Same Problem

Hey!

I have the same error message when I try to install Windows 7!

Windows could not retrieve information about the disks on this computer

I feel like I could fix this problem by starting the "Virtual Disk" but no matter what option I set it on (manual, automatic....) the "start" option is grayed out!! The status is stuck at "starting" even when I restart the computer...

Any Ideas??

Thanks!

I have the same stupid problem! When I put in the Windows 7 installation disk into the DVD drive and click "Install Now", it goes to a full-screen setup page, which reads:

Setup is copying temporary files...
Setup is starting...

Then an error window opens stating, "Windows could not retrieve information about the disks on this computer."
That's it. No help, suggestions, no nothing! Just an "OK" button that closes the installation session completely! WTF???
This appears to be a pretty common problem for a lot of users, and should be easily identifiable and resolvable by Microsoft! Why is it happening???

And yes, I ran the Win 7 Upgrade Diagnostics first, which reported:
Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor Report
Computer Name: EDWARDO-PC
Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium
Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard
Model: HP G60 Notebook PC
CPU: AMD Turion Dual-Core RM-70
Memory: 2.8 GB

154.2 GB free space available on C:
Your hard disk meets the minimum requirement of 16 GB free space for 32-bit Windows 7.

Does ANYONE at Microsoft have ANY information about this and how to get past this?

Thank you,
Ed Newbold
Columbus, OH

"I feel like I could fix this problem by starting the "Virtual Disk" but no matter what option I set it on (manual, automatic....) the "start" option is grayed out!! The status is stuck at "starting" even when I restart the computer... Any Ideas??"

Click on start-up type and select Automatic, then click OK.
You should then be able to click on the now not-grayed-out Start button.

=Ed=

Thanks Ed,

But I've tried that already and all the start, stop options remain grayed out! Even when I set it on "automatic". The status is also stuck at "Starting".....

Any Ideas??

Thanks!

While I have received no help or advice from Microsoft whatsoever regarding this serious installation deficiency, I have managed to get past it and successfully install Windows 7 on my laptop. If you recall, the original problem was:

When I put in the Windows 7 installation disk into the DVD drive and click "Install Now", it goes to a full-screen setup page, which reads:
- Setup is copying temporary files...
- Setup is starting...
- Then an error window opens stating, "Windows could not retrieve information about the disks on this computer."

That's it. No help, suggestions, no nothing! Just an "OK" button...

The first thing I noticed when I started poking around with my security settings was that even though I am the only user on this machine and I had given myself Administrator privileges, I still didn't have FULL and complete admin rights to everything! 99% of the rights were there, but 1% was still being denied. So, I logged off as a user and logged back in as The Administrator.

Then I started playing around with the Vista Device Manager. I went to
Start | Control Panel | Hardware and Sound | Device Manager.

Then I selected Disk drive and double-clicked on my hard drive, which brought up the Properties window for the drive.

I clicked on the Volumes tab and noticed there was no information displayed there whatsoever. So I clicked the
Populate button, and poof... like magic all the volume information correctly appeared.

But I noticed that when I clicked the OK button, then went back into the hard drive to recheck the volume information, it was blank again! Go figure.

So I did this one more time, populating the volume information tab, but this time I did NOT click the OK button; I simply left it open with the volume information displayed. I then ran the Windows 7 setup program, and wow... it worked - no problem.

I don't know if this is the the answer to everyone's installation problems, but it worked for me, and I hope this information can help someone else too.

Ed Newbold
Columbus, OH

hi

I purchased a dell inspiron recently and got windows 7 ultimate installed. It worked fine for one week. the problem started when i tried to install darker edition. I couldnt see any partitions there. I got " no drivers found" message below. From then on i am getting the same message" windows coundnt retrieve information about diskdrives in this computer". The worst thing is I am not able to open with the ultimate version now. It just stuck with 'Windows error recovery" message. The options under that also not working.

Can anyone help me in this issue?? please..