Windows 7: Having a weird issue when booting from CD.

Hello,

you guys must feel exhausted of all the double work with the tons of windows 7 questions that keep flooding these forums. I however will (unfortunatly) be no difference. I have as well bumped into an issue.

So, I recently bought the Windows 7 Home Edition Upgrade. It came nicely with both 32bit and 64bit discs as expected. Since I "upgrade" (read clean install) from a windows XP 32bit OS I decided to go with the 32 bit version. However, after doing some reading I saw the 64 bit would be the better option if your hardware could handle it.

I downloaded this handy tool called SecureAble and it told me my PC could handle a 64 bit OS.

I think I'm going a bit overboard on the extra info here, but just want to make sure you guys see I've done all steps necesarry.

I read that when you want to install the 64 bit version over the 32 bit version you need to do a clean install. Since I recently done one and haven't spent hours yet in configuring my PC I defenatly did not mind this and went for it. I hopped into my BIOS and enabled CDROM as the first boot tool to use. I restart with the 64bit DVD in the DVD station, I hit a key when it asks if I want to boot from CD. Then it takes me to a few loading screens so I start smirking "Ah yes, finally something that goes smooth" yet then I see a colorfull windows background image but nothing moves at all. It just sits there. I see my mouse pointer without any "busy" signs or anything, nor does my DVD drive gives me any busy-lights or does my processor seems to be working on anything.

Does this sound consistant with a known issue? Is there some option I need to change in my BIOS? Or does it mean my PC just wont take any 64bit version?

Any help or suggestion would be welcome, and I already thank everyone of you wholeheartedly beforehand!

Best regards,
Sven.

Update

After digging deeper into old threads here on the forum I found this one:

Booting to a blank screen

The problem the OP discribes is exactly the issue I'm having right now. I'm currently trying to see if I need some BIOS updates (which seems to be the case). Once finished I'll keep you informed about the outcome for future reference (if I get lucky )

Sven.

So far the attempts were unsuccesfull... :X

Any suggestions would still be helpfull

Sven.

You need the latest BIOS version. Then set your BIOS to defaults, with SATA controller set to ACHI.

Please fill in your System Specs in bottom left corner of your post.

Remove any more than 2 gb of RAM to try install, along with any USB connections or extra HD's.

Hi, thanks for looking into this greg.

Anyways, to business. I updated some of my specs so you have an idea what I'm running here.

I also noticed the following under RAM memory when I ran Belrac:
"3328 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory

Slot 'A0' is Empty
Slot 'A1' has 2048 MB
Slot 'A2' is Empty
Slot 'A3' has 2048 MB"
I'm not a wiz, but the math doesn't seem to add up... But then again, could be "normal" or something, don't know.

Update on what I've tried so far:
- cleared out CMOS and restored default BIOS settings: unsuccesfull
- I tried looking into updating my BIOS: ran Driver Robot which found some outdated drivers. Which I then couldn't find, or when I found them they didn't seem to install properly... (If you want I can copy the list that Driver Robot gave me to see if the problem lies there somewhere)
- For reference I tried booting from the Windows 7 32 bit DVD which was unsuccesfull either.
- I'm a bit reluctant to dive into my PC case unplugging one of the RAM sticks I've got, but I think I'll manage that. Do I need to pull out one and then try to boot from the DVD again?

Thanks already
Sven.

I'm no hardware expert , but looking at your specs - it would be astonishing if your pc can't support x64 o/s.

The ram thing is normal as you are currently running 32 bit o/s.

This is one of my preferred install methods - see if it works for you.

You currently have 7 x86 installed on partition C ? You can do this:

d/l this .zip , rt click Properties>Unblock, Apply, ok.

imagex.zip

extract the .zip and copy imagex into your C:\Windows\System32 folder.

Put the x64 dvd in the drive - open to view files - in the sources folder - you will find install.wim. Copy and paste install.wim onto the C drive.

Make sure you have another ntfs primary partition ready made to install 7 x64 - e.g. D partition. ( make it smaller than your current C partition - 16gb is recommended - you could get away with less)

Open an elevated command and type:

imagex /apply c:\install.wim 2 d:\

press enter.

it will take about 6 mins.

type: d:\windows\system32\bcdboot d:\windows

then press enter. close cmd prompt.

Restart the pc and select windows 7 from the boot menu. Should be finished in 5 mins or so.

A new update, just tried Greg's tip to boot from the DVD with just one 2GB RAM card in place and it had the same result.

Yours sounds a bit complex SIW, the part where you suggest to make another ntfs primary partition ready took me off guard :P

Perhaps my problem is my C drive itself? It only has room for 24GB, I use another drive, the E drive to save the larger files on such as movies, music, etc... That one has 500GB space on it. Could the fact that my C drive only has 24Gig be the origin of my issues?

Thanks!
Sven

Before you do anything else - you need a disk backup program - you have 10 mins left to get this one - free:

Paragon Backup & Recovery Compact Free registration

Paragon Backup & Recovery 10 Compact [32-bit]

Paragon Backup & Recovery 10 Compact [64-bit]

Don't wait for the registration email to arrive - start downloading - it will run out soon.

Allright here's the screenshot you've requested.



It's dutch though, but I assume you know where to look and what to look for, if not, let me know!

Sven

And I'm currently downloading the 32bit and 64bit one as well.

Sven