Windows 7 Ultimate x64 clean install issues.

Hello everyone,

Today I decided to help my Brother in law by upgrading his HP Pavillion Entertainment Notebook from Vista Ultimate x64 to 7 Ultimate by means of a clean install as he didn't want most of the junk on the HDD.

I've done many, many Windows installs in my life and haven't encountered any problems that I couldn't work out quite quickly, though today has been a real challenge!

I'll describe the situation below;

1) As any HP user would know the HDDs are often partitioned in an irritating fashion. In the Windows installer I formatted the partitions and was left with two 150gig partitions. There was an original system partition for Vista OS, but I deleted it as it wasn't large enough for the Windows 7 install.

2) Fist problem encountered was that the unpacking of files was interrupted due to 'corrupt files'. I know this isn't the case as the disk is fine, I checked it on another PC to be sure. Probably a dodgy DVD drive in the old notebook. I did a workaround by installing from an external hdd and that went fine. Here's where things get strange...

3) On restart after installation the notebook booted from the external hdd again and wanted to do another install... I figured it was a boot order issue and changed the boot order in bios accordingly (HDD first etc.)

4) On restart there is a report of OS missing or not found...

5) Tried a re-install, I noticed however when selecting the HDD for install, Disk 0 partition 1 has a message at the bottom of the screen saying it can't support an install due to bios related problems. I didn't write the exact message down, something like "Windows cannot be installed to this device. The hardware prossibly does not support the reboot on this device. Make sure that the devicecontroller in the BIOS menu of the computer is enabled". Disk 1 was fine though, so I installed to that drive. No cigar. Still has missing OS error, or err1err3...

Have since tried various bootable CDs for formatting and editing partitions and it hasn't made a difference. Tried fixmbr as a long shot.

The problem is that the bios on this notebook is so crummy, it only lists boot order, it doesn't allow any more indepth analysis of the HDD to my knowledge... Uses phoenixbios.

So have I got a corrupt drive on my hands? Any workarounds for the crummy bios? Is this a common problem?

I'm fairly sure the notebook only has one physical drive, it's just split into these two partitions that I can't get rid of. As mentioned '0' seems unable to accept a Windows 7 install for some reason and I get the feeling that's where bios is looking.

HELP!!!

Not sure what's happening here but when you're installing 7 the partitioner should show what partitions are on the drive as well as show the options to delete them under advanced settings. Delete all partitions and then hit next, it should install fine on the hdd.

Can you post a screenshot of the disk management window, dont know whether its possible on that machine right now?

Also, what exact model HP Pav notebook is it?

HPs use dumbed down bioses with most advanced options locked but that shouldnt come in the way of installing win7.

The notebook is a dv9000, I haven't been able to get screenshot. But three drives are listed, I'll provide a rough analogue below.

Disk 0 partition 1; 149gig space. (notice at the bottom of the screen about bios setup)
Disk 1 partition 1; 149gig space. Will install to this drive but doesn't seem to want to boot from it.
Disk 2. This is the external disk I'm installing from.

Dumbed down bios indeed. It's the worst heap of garbage I've ever used. It's only functions are setting date and time and boot order. Rubbish.

Looking at what I've just written does it seem that there may be two physical drives? I may pull the notebook open and have a look, if it is the case I'll just swap them around... would that work? Haven't dabbled with notebook hardware before.

theavatar said:

The notebook is a dv9000, I haven't been able to get screenshot. But three drives are listed, I'll provide a rough analogue below.

Disk 0 partition 1; 149gig space. (notice at the bottom of the screen about bios setup)
Disk 1 partition 1; 149gig space. Will install to this drive but doesn't seem to want to boot from it.
Disk 2. This is the external disk I'm installing from.

Dumbed down bios indeed. It's the worst heap of garbage I've ever used. It's only functions are setting date and time and boot order. Rubbish.

Looking at what I've just written does it seem that there may be two physical drives? I may pull the notebook open and have a look, if it is the case I'll just swap them around... would that work? Haven't dabbled with notebook hardware before.

It looks like it has 2 hard drives, i just checked dv9000 specs and it comes with a dual hard disk option.

IMO, the simplest option would be to disconnect and remove one of the hard disks, then install win7 on the connected one so theres no confusion between system disk and boot disk. The other way of doing this is to boot to diskpart either in windows or from the install dvd, then set the active partition.

Aha, now I think we are getting somewhere. I think I'll try that in the morning, pull out one drive and see how it goes from there.

Then I could just put the other one back in after windows is installed right?

Yep, you could use the 2nd disk for data or for a dual boot with another OS if you want to.

Try cleaning your HD with clean all command.
SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

If you have two identically-sized HD's then you may have RAID0 set up on that machine. Look for the RAID controller prompt at bootup- if engaged it is normally a pre-screen, if not you'll need to enter BIOS setup to look for SATA controller setting to change it to AHCI or IDE and not RAID. If you can't find it, unplug second HD to break RAID.

Then of course you need to wipe your HD as theog says, following the steps in the tutorial which we post here a dozen times a day but still hasn't sunk in. Hopefully you made your Recovery Disks off the Recovery partition so you have a path back to Vista if needed; if not you'll need to hunt down a Vista installer for your version or order the Recovery Disks should you ever want to revert to sell/gift the machine but keep Win7.

Once you've wiped both HD's you can try install to DISK0. Use tutorial step 2.2 to format and mark Active the target partition. SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

If this fails, try removing all but 2gb of RAM, the other HD and all peripherals to try install.

You may have interference from external HD which is hard to make bootable. If you have a flash stick, use UltraISO trial to write ISO to flash: on file tab Open ISO, on Bootable tab Write Disk Image, Format, Write. Boot under USB or HD. Or try another DVD drive - burn DVD at 4x speed with ImgBurn.

If you have continued rebooting problems with installer, set HD as first device to boot then boot the installer from BIOS one-time Boot Menu key which on HP's is ESC.

Problem solved.

I just pulled out the HDDs and swapped their physical locations. Booted from the right HDD and then I just formatted the other one from inside of Win7.

Magic!

The problem was the dumbed down bios wouldn't let me do that without changing the disks around physically.