Windows 7 Windows 7 install keeps freezing

[fjgold]

I was having this same problem. I'm pretty sure it's my DVD drive. I don't totally understand the differences between DVD+R and DVD-R and all that, but I'm pretty sure my problem was my drive being a bit too old.

So...I was able to following method 6 at this site:
Boot From A USB Flash/Pen/Key Drive

and make a USB drive (I used a 4GB one) bootable, then copied the windows dvd files there. Then, went into the BIOS on the affected machine and made it boot from USB first. Worked perfectly.

One thing, after it installs, make sure to go into the BIOS again and bump down the USB device in the boot sequence, otherwise, it'll feel like an infinite loop and keep asking you to install Windows from the USB

Hope this helps someone. Figured I'd post since I spent so many hours in DVD hell. Kept trying new disks, +R, -R, etc, but nothing worked. Go USB if you can, or get a new DVD drive maybe.

Good luck,
Ryan

I use unetbootin to automatically create a USB Flash installer.
Make sure you have a 4GB or greater drive, probably not a good idea to use a super cheap drive, go with a quality drive.

Format to NTFS first.

Download the MS Power Toy Iso Recorder.

Link Removed due to 404 Error

Run iso recorder it will add a right click menu item to allow you to make an image (,iso) of any file, folder you right click on.

Insert your DVD and right click the DVD icon in My Computer and select create image select your destination folder and let Iso Recorder do it's job.

When finished you will have an .iso image of your DVD.

Now download the latest version of Unetbootin, the version for Windows.

UNetbootin - Homepage and Downloads

Unetbootin is standalone.

Plug your Flash drive in.

Unzip the download and run the .exe.

Skip the first field (distributions) and select the radio button next to "Disk Image".

Make sure ISO is selected from the dropdown and use the browse button on the far right of the "Disk Image" field to navigate to your newly created .iso file.

Click OK and wait for Unetbootin to finish.

That's it, you now have a bootable USB Flash Win 7 installer that functions just like the DVD only must quicker.

You BIOS must support booting from a USB drive and the USB drive must be first in boot order in BIOS.

Sorry for posting all this here, I don't have my own blog to reference.

This works for me.

P.S. Unetbootin works when run from XP and Vista as well.

 

[Lamar]

You can't upgrade from 32 bit vista to 64 bit win 7. You will need to buy the complete install disc for 64 bit win 7. If you had vista 64 bit already installed on your machine, you'd not have any trouble with the 64 bit win 7 upgrade.