critical system drivers missing

All,

Thanks for your help so far. Here is an update..

cleaned the HD and did a new install - things looked alot better this time (previously it was doing odd things like creating a 100mb C drive and installing 7 to the D drive).

Anyway the instalation got all the way through and restarted the machine. It then was updating the registry when it just restarts and says "Windows failed to start" trying to start in any mode results in the machine restarting.

I have tried installing 7 twice now and both times a repair has not worked either.

Any suggestions welcome....

Chris

This is a nightmare - i thought computers were supposed to be getting more user friendly!!!

Managed to get the install a bit further after removing the hidden Acer partition and removing some RAM. Now the laptop takes ages to load (sits at a blank screen with a cursor then at the "please wait..." screen) and loads to a log on screen. This would be great however i have not been given the chance to do any of the installtion set-up - time zone, user accounts etc so i do not have a log on. if i try leaving it blank that doesn't work either!!!

update.. just tried a repair and it could not find any problems

Can you boot into Safe Mode? If so, check the Event Viewer for which driver is failing.

Run chkdsk on the HD, then the maker's diagnostics/repair full CD scan: http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287

Test your memory using memtest86 CD.

Clear the CMOS to return BIOS to defaults: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixthe.../clearcmos.htm

Try setting SATA controller to AHCI first, then IDE if necessary.

Did you zero the HD using Clean All command, then create and format partition before install?

Hi Dinesh,

CD is a guenuine windows CD form my local computer store so i would hope it wasn't the CD.

I have just run a chkdsk on the c: drive and got the same error four times:

Error detected in index $I30 for file 2774. Does this give any more clues?

chkdsk is still running.

Hi Pebbly,

I did suspect the HDD may be failing however i didn't want to go and waste £50 on a new one until i had tried everything else and was sure that was the problem. chkdsk has finished and it looks like it had to do a lot of work! 12 kb of bad sectors have now been identifed so i will try an install one more time and if this fails the only think left i can see to do is try an new HD. I just don't want to do this if it's a driver issue not a HD issue as i will loose £50.

If i do a clean all and create a new partition (again) would the the hard drive still remember the bad sectors or would i need to re-run chkdsk?