Windows 7: Need some Help guru's. Please.

Hey guys, I brought in a windows 7 disc to upgrade a coworkers dell laptop from vista to windows 7 ultimate. The install itself went fine, but after the 1st restart, the pc just does looping restarts and can't enter into the OS. When i boot from the Windows 7 cd, it recognizes that windows 7 is the only OS on the HD but it does not detect any problems when running the repair tools. So basically at this point all I can do is boot from the cd and either do a fresh installation (in which he will lose all of his data), or not boot into any OS at all. I'm thinking there is a problem with the bootmgr or the attempting to boot from the kernel from vista, but I'm not sure. Please guru's, any help you can lend me is much appreciate.

Also, he doesn't have his vista boot cd's anymore, so everything I have in front of me at this point is a Windows 7 cd and his laptop.

Try testing the RAM. Download a copy of Memtest86 and burn the ISO to a CD using Iso Recorder. Boot from the CD, and run at least 5 passes.

You can also try removing one stick of it, and see if that helps.

Also run a hard drive test: HD Diagnostic

Did you format & do a clean instal?

Also, did there problem start only after installing 7 or were there issues before?

It doesn't look like a clean install was done ... just an upgrade in order to save the friends files.

yeah, the problems only began after installing Windows 7. He had no issues with his copy of vista before any of this.

I also ran a memory test in his system bios and everything checked out clean.

Hi Groosh,

1 option is to install (clean) over the existing OS. Read Option 2 of the following tutorial.

Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version

Hope it helps

sorry link was lost lol


OS

How long did you let the scan run?

Please be sure to follow the other suggestions in this post.

Attempting any install or upgrade without first backing up files is reckless.

If the DVD Repair console finds an installation but can't repair it, click through to Startup Repair and attempt to run it repeatedly with reboots.

Next, download and burn to CD free Partition Wizard bootable manager, boot, select 1 for screen res, click on Windows 7 and see if you can explore files to know whether they still exist. If so, you can try copying the data to an external drive or another partition using Command Line, or install Windows 7 to another partition to browse from to copy your files over or onto external.

Or you can use Hiren's boot disk to boot to attempt to copy your data onto another partition, USB flash stick or external.

Once you get your files rescued, you can wipe the HD using Windows 7 DVD to do a clean formatted install, unless you have stashed your files in a partition on the HD, then use Partition Wizard to only wipe the other partiitions and leave the saved-date partition alone.