32bit Windows 7 wont install on Toshiba T115 netbook

This may be lengthy, but I want to provide the best information I can:

Here is a pdf containing my netbook's exact specs, straight from toshiba's website:
http://cdgenp01.csd.toshiba.com/content/product/pdf_files/detailed_specs/satellite_T115-S1105.pdf

Firstly, background:

I bought this netbook in January and it came preinstalled with 32-bit win7 home premium. It has worked great until 3 days ago. I had just downloaded a new album and was organizing it into my library when the system got REALLY bogged down. So I began closing everything in order to restart the computer. It never truly booted again. It would boot to the login screen, but all menu (no start menu items, file menus, everything) items were gone and so was all the text for icons. This even occured in safe mode. So I rebooted, and tried the last known good config. Then it never booted again. Any attempt to repair the problem was met with failure and the repair program told me I had no restore points (when I know for a fact I did).

Stupidly I didn't make a restore disk, and toshiba doesn't provide you with any cds.

At first I thought it was a virus, but I run updated antivirus, keep up to date with windows updates, etc... Plus the album I downloaded was straight from the band's store on their website, and I've since downloaded it on my desktop where it works perfectly.

Skip to today, I've tried 2 different versions of 32 bit windows seven (ultimate and professional) and every single time I install I get the same old problem that many people have where it hangs at "Completing Installation."

Here's everything I've tried:
- loading all the drivers for the chipset/sound/wifi/lan/video prior to installation
- shift+f10, run explorer (it says it's an unknown command)
- disabling everything in the bios, one by one, all at once, in every configuration possible
- I've tried installing from an external USB2 DVD drive as well as a thumb drive
- every partition configuration you can think of (including leaving all 250 gigs unallocated)

The only thing I cannot disable in the bios is legacy USB support, when I do this the laptop doesn't recognize the usb device and I can't boot from it. How can I unplug all my usb peripherals, when the only way I can install on this thing is via USB? I tried preloading the USB drivers from toshiba's website, the installer wouldn't accept them (but it accepted everything else).

Also to note: in all the years I've built my own computers I have never seen such a terrible bios. There are almost no options in it other than turning on or off toshiba's proprietary crap. For the record AHCI is enabled, not that it matters because the result is the same either way.

I'm going on my 12th install with a new combination of bios settings try right now and I'm expecting the same results. What can I do?

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html

Try either tutorial. It may be helpful

Hi hiiamkardinal.
I strongly recommend you contact Toshiba for a warranty replacement. From your description of the failure, I think your HD has gone bad.

Have you tried running a disk check before trying to reinstall?

Another possibility is memory problems, suggest you run Memtest86

And welcome to the forums

Yeah I was getting that feeling as well, I just don't want to believe it.

Also to the poster above, repairs don't work, and I've only been doing clean installs. I forgot to mention these in the original post.

I will say though, this installation looks like it might work... It's been finalizing my settings for about 15 minutes now. This is the farthest it's ever gone, so who knows? Maybe I lucked out.

It may be hanging on the drivers you say you added into installer. The Win7 installer is driver-complete, so you only need to find drivers afterward for those devices showing them missing in Device manager.

This is not Vista or XP where you need to have drivers loaded in right away. MS spent a fortune building drivers with every manufacturer so they have the latest first in the installer or quickly via Windows Update.

I would reset the BIOS CMOS then boot from Win7 DVD and try a clean install after deleting and repartitioning before format: Clear CMOS - 3 Ways to Clear the CMOS - Reset BIOS

If this fails, then test the HD using maker's diagnostics/repair CD scan: Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities (Storage) - TACKtech Corp.

Next run memtest86 CD overnight to stress test memory: Memtest86 - Download Page

Hmm...

If I were you I would contact my manufacturer just to be on the safe side. You can try to continue without contacting them but you could end up going down a dark road which is more definately the road you do not want to go down.

I like Toshiba for some reason everyone in my work has a Toshiba. De-Ja-Vu!

- Lee

I got it to install earlier somehow, but it's running terribly slow (this is with w7 ultimate). So I ran a quick sdd scan using HDTune and 45 minutes later it wasn't halfway done with 1% of the blocks tested showing up as damaged. I'm pretty sure the hard drive is failing. I will update the thread after I try one more install after clearing the cmos, but I'm pretty sure it's the drive.

I'd like to know how a 3 month old hard drive goes bad though.

EDIT: I'm running SeaTools in DoS on it right now and it's 4% in and has found 83 errors. Hard drive it is :\

Contact the manufacturer tech support to assist you in testing it with their approved scan.

Don't tell them you have used any other scan on it, just have them you walk through the diagnostics to verify you need it RMA'd, if that's the case.

Always best to have tech support witness the problems themselves to get it RMA'd.

So it's almost definitely the hard drive. Toshiba doesn't have a scan system, and seagates won't let me repair the bad sectors for whatever reason, so I guess I have to find out how I get this fixed. ugh.

Try Data Lifeguard from Western Digital. It works on most other brands.

If it is only 3 months old, shouldn't it be under warranty and tech supportable for RMA?