Windows 7: Dell Inspiron 530 freezes at Windows 7 32 bit "completing installation

Ok so yesterday I did a boot and nuke, completely wiped the hard drive because Vista had made it crash pretty bad earlier. Did plenty of check disk and memory tests beforehand and everything was fine.

Now, I am trying to install Windows 7 and I get to completing installation and it tells me it can't finish because an installation file is corrupted.

I have formatted the hard drive to no avail. Right now I am cleaning the disk through cmd prompt. The DVD is a valid copy, purchased from a military store, brand new. Please help me as I am at my wit's end.

Set the drive type to IDE in the BIOS (F2 Setup) to install. After install you can set it to ACHI if desired.

After you get Windows installed, it will install most of the needed drivers, however it will not install the correct sound driver. I do a lot of support on the Dell users forum and we have found that non-Dell sound drivers either do not work or do not work correctly. At a minimum you will have to install the Dell sound driver (for integrated audio).

Its too bad you completely reformatted the hard drive. Although the Dell recovery partition (accessed by F8 at power on) is no longer valid, the Dell hardware diagnostics (accessed by F12 at power on) are and should not have
been deleted.

Here is the driver: Drivers and Downloads | Dell [United States]

You can also get help from the Dell community forum (users helping users) Home - Dell Community

I have been unable to find the drive to switch to, I have the BIOS set-up running, where should this setting be?

I had no choice in nuking it, a patch in Vista corrupted the entire hard drive to where I couldn't even format it without using Windows XP. It's a big mess.

Also, since you do support for Dell...do you know how to fix a problem on my Dell Dimension desktop.
I go to boot and after booting BIOS it tells me AHCI BIOS not installed (WD HD runs off RAID BIOS). I was attempting to reinstall Windows XP from a USB CD-Rom but now it will not load the CD, shows me a blinking cursor if I have the USB plugged in. Using internal CD-Rom is not an option as it is removed from a malfunction.

I have found it however, in SATA mode I can choose between IDE and RAID and it was already set to IDE.

Where did you get Windows 7? Did your burn the DVD yourself?

Wipe the HD first before install with Diskpart Clean Command.

Unplug all other HD's and peripherals.

Reset BIOS to defaults, then set SATA controller to AHCI to try install: Clear CMOS - 3 Ways to Clear the CMOS - Reset BIOS

If installation fails, test your HD with maker's HD Diagnostic extended CD scan, then wipe with quick wipe function, create a full disk Active partition from step 2.2 here: SSD - HDD Optimize for Windows Reinstallation then run full Disk Check, try install again.

On the Dell forum, we tell users to remove the battery (with the PC powered off) for at least 10 minutes to reset the CMOS Memory (BIOS). On the Intel site they say 15 minutes.

Here is the Dell instructions on a manual install, this requires an internal CD/DVD drive: Windows 7 Manual Reinstall | Dell

Is there an option to reset to defaults in BIOS setup?