New HDD, same Windows 7, Freeze at Startscreen for Install

I searched around, but so far haven't found anything that addresses precisely my problem, so my apologies for having to make a new thread.

I did a custom build computer about a year ago, but my Hard drive was corrupt (as near as I can tell), so I finally got around to getting a new one. I am now trying to get the new drive up and running, but am unable to install windows on it.

Solutions I have found to the same problem (progress bar for loading files completes, then Windows Logo starts to appear, but freezes with a couple dots in progress for flying to make the flag) mostly claim that there is a hardware configuration issue. But as the ONLY change to my hardware is the new hard drive, I do not see that this could be my case (I tried disabling things in the BOIS anyway, to no effect).


Prior hard drive: Had installed XP 32bit first, thinking I had to actually upgrade to use upgrade disk, and forgetting I had a 32 bit disk I got yelled at when trying to do Win 7, so did a complete fresh install which was nice. Computer gets up and running, works fine, but eventually starts to BlueScreen on me randomly while writing data (leading to suspicion of hard drive corruption).

After some time, finally have a boot sector corruption happen to me. Make a recovery disk, fix my boot sector and I am good to go again.

After some time, finally have a registry corruption (near as I can tell), only solution is a clean install of Windows 7. Even though at this time I have my new Hard drive waiting to be installed, I install Windows 7 on old one first (needed computer operational again ASAP).


Now it is the next day after reinstallation on old broken Hard drive was successful. I completely removed that drive and put in the new drive. Both drives are 3 GB SATA drives, old one is 1 TB, new one is 1.5 TB. Windows 7 simply CANNOT install on new drive though.


My Motherboard
My new Drive
My Power Supply (Since some of the people with similar problems but on new builds found that the issue was the 950 PS)

I did disable USB controllers and attempt with only that change in BIOS, that was another solution that worked for some other people before.

I cannot use a non DVI monitor cable (well, I can, but have to use a converter. The only plugs on the computer itself are both DVI)

I have 2 SATA DVD drives installed as well (one Blueray, other just DVD)

And as I said: The only change from a configuration that did install just fine is putting in this new drive in place of the old one.

Can you use the excellent free Acronis Cloning program that comes with any WD drive to clone your old HD over to the new one? WD Support Read the Manual to understand how to do it. Best to use the Auto setting and it will adjust everything for you.

Or use Win7 backup imaging to save an image, then unplug the old HD, boot the Win7 DVD or Repair cd to Recover Using Image to new HD: Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup
System Image Recovery

I am assuming you tested the HD with the maker's diagnostic/repair full CD scan: Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities (Storage) - TACKtech Corp. followed by Disk Check run from the Safe Mode or DVD/CD Command Line if necessary.

If the old HD is in good enough shape you could reinstall to it, then it might be salvageable using the Repair scan and Disk Check, or at least to clone or image over to the new one.

Bare Foot Kid said:

Hello xienwolf, welcome to Seven Forums!



The easiest thing to try is to use the installer to create and format a single 100GB partition to do the Windows 7 install to as it seems Windows has an issue sometime installing to such a large space; try that and post back with the outcome.

click to enlarge

How do I get to the installer though? Right now, I see the BIOS loading screen, then a "loading files" progress bar, then a windows logo that stalls out. The only time I can ever give any input is in the BIOS, or in the Startup Selection menu (from F8) where I can choose Safe Mode (also fails to load) and other such options.

gregrocker said:

Can you use the excellent free Acronis Cloning program that comes with any WD drive to clone your old HD over to the new one? WD Support Read the Manual to understand how to do it. Best to use the Auto setting and it will adjust everything for you.

Or use Win7 backup imaging to save an image, then unplug the old HD, boot the Win7 DVD or Repair cd to Recover Using Image to new HD: Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup
System Image Recovery

I am assuming you tested the HD with the maker's diagnostic/repair full CD scan: Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities (Storage) - TACKtech Corp. followed by Disk Check run from the Safe Mode or DVD/CD Command Line if necessary.

If the old HD is in good enough shape you could reinstall to it, then it might be salvageable using the Repair scan and Disk Check, or at least to clone or image over to the new one.

Interesting, can I download the Acronis Cloning program? Wasn't any software in the box from Newegg (was sent to me as a gift). I'll look around for it at any rate.

But I am not sure that I would WANT to clone my other drive, since it has (suspected) corrupt sectors in it, and because it is a clean install anyway (so none of my settings are on it). But of course if that is the only solution to get Win7 onto this drive....


I can't make an image of the old drive unfortunately, as it has 600 gig of space filled and I don't have any external drives large enough to back it up (well, some are large enough, but all are also full. We got a lot of archived data...)


I'll try out the HD diagnostics that you linked. Hadn't thought about that option. I had done numerous scans (but not from manufacturer) on the old drive, and they would also come out clean, or crash midway through the scan.


EDIT: Just thought - Can I maybe install both drives at once (old as master) and install windows on the slave drive while windows is running on the master? Seems if I can just get TO the disk that is progress...

As an update on my side of things (thanks for all the ideas guys, really appreciated, doing the ones I understand the best, or that involve the fewest things which have already proven to go wrong reliably first).

I went home last night and got my other cables and screws to install both drives at once, set up the new drive as slave to the old (well, SATA doesn't seem to make that distinction, but boot target is still the old drive).

When I first booted up like this, there was a period of "setting up your computer" stuff before windows finished loading, I thought it was doing a bit of a configuration on the new drive so it would be accessible, but it never showed up on the list of drives in My Computer for me.

Had to figure out where the CMOS jumper was and reset my BIOS by playing with it, cause I left my PS2 keyboard at work and only had a USB version at home (and I left the USB disabled when I went home, stupid of me). Ran with my old HDD for the nigth and things went fine.


Took computer back to work and my old HDD started to show some issues (Firefox was randomly crashing while looking at fairly minimal code/content websites).

I decided to see if I could install Win 7 on the new drive with both hooked up. The install disk made it past the point it froze before, all the way to letting me ask for installation, but then at 3% into the install it would crash on me:

Windows cannot install required files. The file may be corrupt or missing. Make sure all files required for installation are available, and restarat the installation. Error code 0x80070570

So I came here and saw the recommendation from Barefoot. A full wipe sounds pretty nice (want to do that to my old HDD when done here, so experience is good). I have the Clean All command processing right now. I guess i should expect about 6 hours for it to finish since the drive is 1.5 Tb.


I am starting to suspect I may have repeatedly overheated a component of my computer and that the issue isn't just the HDD. This due to having had install problems with the new drive, and the installation from a disk that did work on the old HDD. I didn't think till just now of re-re-installing Win7 on the old HDD just to verify that the install disc isn't scratched or corrupt somehow since the last install I did.

Once the clean is done if I still cannot install I'll try the 100 GB partition. After that since I'll be at work with the ability to actually acquire the diagnostic files I'll try them out for each of my HDDs and my MB and maybe even ram.

Ok, I finished running the "Clean all" command on the new drive. I had entered the command prompt through recovery disk since I couldn't get the SHIFT+F10 thing to work on the install disk. I opted to just do the cleaning, not to set up an initial partition just yet.

So after Clean All finished, I restarted and selected the install disk as my boot option. Clicking on "Install Now" results in: "Windows could not retrieve information about the disks on this computer"

So I went back and tried doing the command prompt with the install disk again. This time it worked for me (got a semi-standard main OS screen which allowed selection of starting in safe mode with command prompt). It hung up on disk.sys again, which was an issue before, but got past it after a bit. Maybe that is a sign that if I waited (much) longer before I could have passed this point... hope so.

Anyway, now making the 100 GB partition.

So had to go figure out how to delete the primary partition I made the first time of the whole disk. Fortunately easy and fast. With the 100 GB made and having used the install disk for the command prompt, I get into the selection of drive.

I noticed that my old HDD has listed 931.5 GB as a System type Partition 1, and 9.0 MB Unallocated. No Primary like I formed by this bit of help. I don't know that this should be a problem, but maybe?

Anyway, I have a 100 GB Primary Parition (didn't make the 200MB System), selecting it to install.

Copying Windows Files completes without issue. (Been there, done that...)
Expanding Windows Files (previously halted on an error at 3%) has been sitting at 0% for quite some time now. I'd say about 10 minutes. Now 15 minutes later and some mild internet time wasting, I see it at 30%! Yipee. Progress. Maybe I'll get to state that .... I was going to say "...it works by the end of this post!" But as I typed that I get the damn error:

Windows cannot install required files. The file may be corrupt or missing. Make sure all files required for installation are available, and restart the installation. Error code: 0x800705570

Off to find a flash disk install iso, or write a new DVD. Maybe this disk did get damaged... I could try my other DVD drive maybe, try that while I search for install files to use.

Wow, so using the other DVD drive I try loading up. I get to the drive selection section and Disk 0 Partition 1 (my old drive) says that I am not allowed to install there because it couldn't verify that it supported the necessary drivers.

As I type this, with the other screen sitting there so that I can write exactly what the error is, the computer blips itself off. Takes a while for the BIOS to start loading, I hit F11 and select to boot from my disc

Press any key to boot from CD or DVD.....
BOOTMGR is missing
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart

I was slow to hit the any key, so maybe it gave up on my starting from disk and tried to start from my old drive, and it is MASSIVELY corrupted now? No boot manager, and no driver signing?

Try again.

Get to the "Install Now" on install disc. Click it and I get: "Windows encountered an internal error while initializing COM."



Is it sounded like a Motherboard or Ram issue yet? I am starting to give up on the idea that the HDD is my real problem. It ought not be involved at all at these points I am having problems.... Taking it out might help though.


BTW: When I use the repair disk, or access repair functions of the Install disc, I don't get ANY operating systems listed in the initial screen. I tried to select the startup repair and I get "Windows cannot repair this computer automatically" Which kinda makes sense with them not seeing any OS and all that.

Where did you get the ISO? Use ImgBurn at 4x speed to burn DVD
.
Try install from USB flash stick. Install UltraISO, on File tab open ISO, on Bootable tab Write Image, Format, Write.

Check for newer BIOS version update. If none, Reset the CMOS: Clear CMOS - 3 Ways to Clear the CMOS - Reset BIOS

WHile in BIOS setup, set SATA controller to AHCI first, then if neccessary try IDE mode.

Test your RAM with memtest86 for 5-6 passes. Remove all but 2gb RAM for install, swap RAM sticks.

Test your HD with maker's diag/repair full CD scan: Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities (Storage) - TACKtech Corp.

See if the HD not detected by installer is seen in BIOS setup. Swap cables, check connections.

Ok, took the SATA plug out of the old drive. Set the BIOS to boot from the DVD drive as first choice so I can stop hitting F11.



Got myself up to selecting my 100 GB partition once again. So now we sit at 0% and see how far we can get. Fingers crossed, and show on Hulu to keep me from watching this kettle boil too nervously.

32%, highest yet. Ooh, 34. Back to watching a show and ignoring things.

Install done with this portion, computer restarting. Trying to remember if there is a time I need to NOT boot to the DVD... bugger. I'll just leave things alone and let it skip to windows.

Setup is updating registry details. Good, I wasn't supposed to go back to DVD. Yup, here we are, Completing Installation....

Setup is preparing your computer for first use.
Setup is checking video performance.

And I get to name my account. I think I have myself an installation!


Now the big question is if I can get all my data off the other drive. I pray that I can, told my wife I could certainly recover the pictures of our 1 year old ><