Windows 7: Clean Win 7 Pro install issues

Installed Windows 7 Pro in this system I built in April 2011. No major issues and has functioned very well. For a little background, I have Win 7 on a Vertex3 drive, data on a Vertex 3 drive and both are backed up to a Seagate drive. I have used the Casper backup programs for years and currently using Casper 7. I have the Vertex data scheduled for backup to the Seagate every day and the Win 7 Vertex scheduled for backup once a month. I do a lot of experimenting so crashes are a given for me but I simply boot to the Seagate and restore the Windows 7 Vertex --- until now.

About 3 weeks ago, I decided it was time for a format and clean install to eliminate lots of garbage. Done one back in September with no issues. Set my Seagate for my primary boot drive so that I could keep business running, shutdown, disconnected all the drives except the Win 7 Vertex and done a clean install with no issues. As time would permit, I would boot to the Win 7 and do the tweaking issues and installation of programs that I originally done on the new system. Everything worked great. Played with it until about a week before deciding everything was perfect and time to disconnected the Seagate, connect the Win 7 Vertex to the data drive and let her work. Again no issues until about a week ago when I decided it was time to hookup the Seagate, backup the Win 7 Vertex and go back to a normal routine. I thought!

A few hours later, I opened MS Word only to have it "configure" and request reactivation which never happened before. Gave me an error message saying that it could not verify the license. Then I noticed Window Washer showed an expired notice but does not expire until 2014. Went to Mail Washer to get to my Windows Live Mail to send Window Washer and email but it gave me a weird error message and would not load. Reinstalled and reactivated it only to find that I had to reconfigure my Windows Live Mail before it would work. The Start>All Programs list had all my program folders but most of them were now empty. Too many problems - glad I made a backup only to find that it had most but not all of the same problems. Messed up somewhere so I go back to square one for a complete format and clean install - six times now and still cannot get it to work. No issues until I back it up the the Seagate then both become corrupted.

I have researched, experimented, cussed and discussed but cannot find what's causing these issues. Just went through resetting everything a couple hours ago and it will work fine until I do a backup to the Seagate. Have done installs with only one drive connected, with two drives connected and with all 3 drive connected - makes no difference. Hope someone has some suggestions as this is getting old quick!

Ron Burnes

Hello anaron. If you are interested in another clean install, these tutorials may come in handy: SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation (created by Bare Foot Kid)
and then
Clean Install Windows 7 (created by Brink)

I do not know what you mean by this:
What exactly are you doing, and what do you hope to accomplish by it? I am confused by that statement...

Are you using the SSD to install windows? Why are you connecting and then disconnecting drives? And how are you doing it and why? o.0

"time to disconnected the Seagate" Mistatement! I don't disconnect it - I change the bios to boot the Vertex3 instead of the Seagate. I disconnect the Seagate only for the intial install to the Vertex and reconnect it when done. That way I can boot to the Vertex to tweak the install and install my programs or boot to the Seagate to conduct business. The reason is that the Seagate has my operating system and data both on it that I need for my business operations. I got into this habit back with XP when a couple times, a clean install went badly and corrupted the operating system completely shutting me down. I have done this since the move to XP years ago and have had no issues with this procedure. Could it be an issue with Windows 7? After my first back up from the Vertex to the Seagate corrupted both (still usable-just not right) I no longer disconnected the Seagate on the rest of the install attempts and the results were the same.

I have a copy of Brink's Clean Install on my computer. Bare Foot Kid's article looks interesting and I will go thru it now.

Thanks!
Ron Burnes

So I am guessing you do a dualboot of Windows 7 and another OS? If so, what other OS?

No, not a dual boot. Using Casper 7, I create a bootable backup of the Vertex to a partition on the Seagate then I select which one I boot to from the bios. Only time I ever need to boot to the Seagate is when I need to restore the Vertex because of corruption, virus or whatever.
Ron Burnes

I am not certain of this, but are you sure that works from an HDD to SDD? I would think it might mess up the alignment, maybe more. Is that what you have done? Restored the SDD from the HDD? Do you have the CD so that you can install from it? Here is something I've found that at least is an interesting read: Partition Image - Restore from a HDD to a SSD - by tw33k

I'll see if I can't find more

Here is the alignment tutorial: SSD Alignment - created by whs

Aside from this, I'm just not sure how it would turn out. You might research this on your own, or perhaps someone will see this and respond on whether it is perfectly fine to do this.

Alignment was never a concern as hard drives are automatically aligned by Win 7 on the initial installation. Did double check and the Vertex is at 1024. Got another brainstorm that I am going to attempt today. The only thing I see that might be different is the Microsoft updates during the installation. Will do a clean install without the internet and see what happens. Not going to be happy if it ends up being their updates!

I'd use tools that work best with Windows 7.

Since you have a Seagate HD in the mix you can use the free Premium Acronis version: Seagate Acronis cloning free util. The manual is there on the download page and easy to understand. I'd prefer imaging so I have a stored backup rather than cloning.

Or you can use Windows 7 built-in backup imaging:
Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup
System Image Recovery
Another favorite alternative: Macrium - Image your system

Having a stored image on your secondary data HD that can reimage the primary in minutes causes a lot less issues than grappling with a bootable clone which often triggers software activation issues.

Wiping the HD (boot sector) with Diskpart Clean Command to get a perfect Clean Reinstall
is also a good place to start.

Diskpart clean all is not recommended for solid state drives. I let the Windows 7 do the format which also correctly aligns the drives. But all that aside, I now have my system running solid. I disconnected the internet before I did the installation to prevent an update being installed. On the previous bad installs, the update list showed no updates but in the system restore there was one update ever time. I done a clean install on the seagate and backed it up to the vertex. I done a clean install on the vertex and backed it up to the seagate. No issues what so ever.

Worked perfectly which leads me to believe my suspicions that the update done during install was causing all the weird issues. Took a little digging in the backups of the faulty installations today but I finally found the update info - KB 958488. Get brave in a few days, gonna install it an see what happens. Until then I'm doing no updates. Not the first time I have had issues with MS updates.

Ron Burnes