never finishes installation

gripshift · 03 Oct 2010

Installing 64 bit upgrade version on new 2T hard drive, when it gets to "Completing Installation" it restarts, then goes to Windows Boot Manager with only preexisitng OS (Vista) listed. I deleted OEM partitions (on old drive) per previous thread addressing the issue, to no avail. I didnt' get "Setup is Preparing Computer for First Use Screen" before the forced restart. I followed instructions in the "Clean Install" post. I have the new drive set as 1st priority in the Boot sequence (BIOS). The (partial) installation created various folders (including Windows) on the new drive.

gregrocker · 03 Oct 2010

Use Diskpart "Clean" command to wipe the HD first before creating/formatting a 100gb partition for install, after Create Partition Primary, add "Format" and "active" commands: SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

How long did you wait for installation to continue after bailing out? Let it take it's time if necessary.

gripshift · 04 Oct 2010

1. "How long did you wait for installation to continue after bailing out?" I didn't wait, it restarted and booted into the old OS, Vista, on another (boot) drive, before completing the installing - this happened during the last step of the install.

2. I have upgrade version of Win 7. Is it necessary to first install Vista on the install drive, and then upgrade to Win 7? I've heard both yes and no in various places on the web.

3. Doesn't Win 7 setup write over an (already) allocated/formatted disk? (I would like to avoid the diskpart clean procedure, which takes about 8 hours on a 2 T drive.)

Bare Foot Kid · 04 Oct 2010

Hello gripshift, welcome to Seven Forums!

#2 Have a look at this tutorial at the link below.

Do a Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version

#3 Contrary to popular belief, formatting does not remove any data at all, it just checks for sector errors and marks the space to be over-written as needed, all the data is still there including all the code from previous/failed installation attempts.

It would be best to use the "clean all" command as that does over-write every sector of the Hard Disk Drive (HDD) but you can try the "clean" command, that just over-writes the "boot sector" code, it may work for you.

The necessary thing is to create a partition of at least 100GB to install Windows 7 to as we've been seeing a lot of people have serious issues trying to install to as large a space as 1 & 2TB, Windows doesn't seem to like that. Be sure to do Step Two in this tutorial at the link below; be sure to post back with any further questions you may have and to keep us informed.

SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

gripshift · 05 Oct 2010

The "clean" command appeared to work fine, and the procedure only took a few seconds to accomplish.

With the 100gb partition created using diskpart, Win 7 was installed to it successfully.

Caveat: When the PC boots up it only boot into the old OS, Vista, and doesn't give an option to select booting to Win 7.

Win 7 is on the 100gb partition of (2tb) disk 1 (Windows Disk Management). It is a primary (not boot) partition. The rest of the disk is unallocated.

1. How do I configure it so that I can boot into Win 7?

2. Also, I have a small unallocated portion of another disk: how do I expand the (only other) (Primary, boot) partition of that disk to consume the unallocated portion?

3. As to the 2tb disk 1, should I (just) create one or more partitions out of the unallocated portion of it? What type of partitions should I create (primary of logical)? Then do a "quick format" of each?

Thank you.

Bare Foot Kid · 05 Oct 2010

Hello again.

Before we make any specific recommendations will you please post a snip/screen-shot of the entire disk management drive map with a full description as to which drive/partition is which, so we can see what you have going on as there may be a fairly simple way to resolve the situation.

In the Windows start menu right click computer and click manage, in the left pane of the "Computer Management" window that opens click disk management and post a snip of that.

Be sure to post back with any further questions you may have and to keep us informed.

How to Upload and Post a Screenshot and File in Seven Forums

gripshift · 05 Oct 2010

Disk 1, F is the 100gb partition where Win 7 was installed.

Disk 2 is the old disk, with the boot partition in C (Vista), would like to expand to include unallocated portion of that disk.

Also wondering if 100gb is enuf size for Win 7 - could I (easily) expand it to, say, 200g?

So,

1. How to make PC boot to Win 7 in F (Disk 1).
2. As to unallocated portion of Disk 1, is it ok to create one or more partitions out of it? Type of partitions: primary or logical? Then "quick format" each?
3. How to expand Disk 2 to include unallocated portion?

(Disk Management screen shot attached)

Bare Foot Kid · 05 Oct 2010

Before I go into a big explanation, do you want to continue to dual boot Vista and W_7 ?

gripshift · 05 Oct 2010

no need to dual boot, but would perhaps like to be able to boot to Vista (for a week or so) via changing the boot sequence in the BIOS - later on I wouldn't want/need to do this . . .

Bare Foot Kid · 05 Oct 2010

OK, here's what I would do and how I'd do it, so it will be easy to remove Viast when needed.

1. How to make PC boot to Win 7 in F (Disk 1).

Disconnect all the Hard Disk Drives (HDD) except the one Windows 7 is installed to, use Option Two of this tutorial to mark the W_7 partition as "Active" and then do the 3 separate startup repairs with a restart between each repair to get W_7 booting good all on its own, then power down to reconnect the other HDDs; set the BIOS to boot Windows 7 HDD as default and when you want to boot Vista use the one-time BIOS boot menu for your motherboard to do that.

Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times

2. As to unallocated portion of Disk 1, is it ok to create one or more partitions out of it? Type of partitions: primary or logical? Then "quick format" each?

Yes though I would create primary, not logical partitions and I would do full formats.

3. How to expand Disk 2 to include unallocated portion?

This tutorial "Option Two" (disregard the "System Reserved" reference) outlines how to recover space to the left of a partition back into the OS partition; have a look at the rest of the tutorial to see the other things Partition Wizard can do for you.

Partition Wizard : Use the Bootable CD