Win 7 Custom Install Crash

richc46 said:

I was very fortunate, I had no problem whatsoever, installing W7. I'm just guessing based upon what I read in this forum, prior to my installing.
Do exactly what I did. Install from the OS, when asked for the Key do not give it. Give it when you are done and are happy with the install. In your case you would definately want a clean install.

Just so I'm clear, you want me to roll back to XP (my previous OS) and then install Win7 whilst in the OS (rather than booting from the DVD)?

I have the exact same problem as Foot describes. Crashing in the final installation steps. I'm getting desperate too. I'm upgrading from a Windows XP desktop. I have an Athlon 64 3500+ 2.2 GHz, 2GB mem, Seagate 500GB HD, ... I haven't checked my Plug and Play BIOS setting yet, but will shortly and post the results.

I'm in the same boat with a sony VGN-FZ140E/PCG-384L and now its in a constant loop and can not even restart the clean install if I wanted to....please help!

Worth a try, see if there are any BIOS updates which could, just could, fix whatever may be causing these sorts of problems with W7 Setup to occur...

Plug and Play BIOS was already set "yes" on my system. So this was not the problem. I'm trying to custom install Windows 7 on a separate physical hard drive (Seagate 500GB) than where XP is installed (WD 160GB). Could that be the problem?

Plug n' play and a BIOS update are two different things...

I was referring to the BIOS setting for "Plug and Play OS". My BIOS has this setting and was referred to on another thread " Windows 7 Fresh Installation = Unexpected Error ?". However this did not help me. I am checking for a full BIOS update from Phoenix as you suggest.

ronsco said:

I have the exact same problem as Foot describes. Crashing in the final installation steps. I'm getting desperate too. I'm upgrading from a Windows XP desktop. I have an Athlon 64 3500+ 2.2 GHz, 2GB mem, Seagate 500GB HD, ... I haven't checked my Plug and Play BIOS setting yet, but will shortly and post the results.

If you are running the Win7 installer from the XP desktop, you may be using XP NTFS formatting which has a different partition table.

Boot from the Win7 installer, delete the chosen partition, recreate, format and then install Win7.

Thanks for the suggestion. I have got it working now.

Windows 7 upgrade advisor had been warning my system's "video graphics adaptor would not support Aero". In a long shot, I replaced my video graphics card (a XFX GeForce 8500 GT 512MB) with a new one certified for Windows 7 (a PNY GeForce 210 512MB).

Regarding your suggestion, I had reformatted my target drive several times (after the failed installs) as you suggest "..delete the chosen partition, recreate, format". However, I don't remember if I would always do this from a reboot from Windows 7 DVD. Sometimes I would do this from Windows XP boot.