Re-Installed 7 for the 4th time...

Hi All,

I just reinstalled Windows 7 Pro 64 bit for the 4th time on the same HDD. I'm worried that my set up is causing the problems but maybe someone here will know better? I have y specs updated in my profile.

I'm not sure what the problem was for the first few installs but the most recent two, the registry was corrupt. I get to the load screen for windows (the logo never gets to appear) and then Windows Repair starts up... and fails to repair the damages automatically.

The copy of windows is an iso from MSDNAA and it's ok because another classmate had no problems with it. I was concerned about the hard drive before it crashed the last time becuase it always came to a grinding halt after a few minutes of running windows. Everything took ages and it would make this sound as if it's having trouble reading the data from the disk. I contacted Western Digital and they advised me to run checks to make sure its not an OS problem first. Their Diagnostic tool gave no errors.

Upon reinstalling windows this time, there were some corrupt files in one of the windows.old folders and upon first run CHDSK needed to run. This always came up before it crashed too. it never finds any Bad File Records and about 6 EA records are processed. What are they? and about 164 reparse records are processed. is this normal? Then it verifies indexes and corrects some errors in index $I30 for file 350935 before sorting that index. It goes on to recover Orphaned files into the same 350935 file.

Any thoughts on how I might be able to narrow down the problem?

Thank you all in advance,
Michael

Hello there, Michael.

It seems like your HDD may be defective. but let's try something first.

Here: SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

Wipe the HDD and do a clean install:

Clean Install Windows 7

If it gives you errors again. we could narrow it even more. install Windows 7 from a USB (could be your DVD-Drive the defective one)

Here: USB Windows 7 Installation Key Drive - Create

Post your results after finishing

Michaelp said:

Hi All,

I just reinstalled Windows 7 Pro 64 bit for the 4th time on the same HDD. I'm worried that my set up is causing the problems but maybe someone here will know better? I have y specs updated in my profile.

I'm not sure what the problem was for the first few installs but the most recent two, the registry was corrupt. I get to the load screen for windows (the logo never gets to appear) and then Windows Repair starts up... and fails to repair the damages automatically.

The copy of windows is an iso from MSDNAA and it's ok because another classmate had no problems with it. I was concerned about the hard drive before it crashed the last time becuase it always came to a grinding halt after a few minutes of running windows. Everything took ages and it would make this sound as if it's having trouble reading the data from the disk. I contacted Western Digital and they advised me to run checks to make sure its not an OS problem first. Their Diagnostic tool gave no errors.

Upon reinstalling windows this time, there were some corrupt files in one of the windows.old folders and upon first run CHDSK needed to run. This always came up before it crashed too. it never finds any Bad File Records and about 6 EA records are processed. What are they? and about 164 reparse records are processed. is this normal? Then it verifies indexes and corrects some errors in index $I30 for file 350935 before sorting that index. It goes on to recover Orphaned files into the same 350935 file.

Any thoughts on how I might be able to narrow down the problem?

Thank you all in advance,
Michael

Hi Michael and welcome


There is an easy way to do a clean install (format). It is a bit of a pain because you will have to re-install all your apps,etc, but it will make your machine the most stable and efficient it can be


Ken j

Thanks for the quick replies guys, I really appreciate it. I literally just finished installing windows there. It wasn't a format though, but I see how that would help more. So before I go through all that again, is there anything I can try from this fresh install?

Run as much tests as possible.

Try a Disk Check

To discard anything. but try to do a wipe + clean install, it'll give you better results :)

Ok I've done a clean install as suggested. Actually this time it installed without any problems at all (touch wood).
But I'm still worried that problems will manifest themselves with time. I've downloaded and installed all the updates windows update can find (havent installed service pack 1 just yet).
Is there anything I can do to pre-empt the registry from getting corrupt again?

Thanks again for your help so far guys, much appreciated.

Michael

I guess the only way to pre-empt that, is not using it. but the safest way to go is to have a little bit of common sense, never install untrusted software. Do not use cracks/keygens. Have a good security software (MSE is more than enough for the average user) and again, common sense. :)

That's the best way to be "protected".

Cheers. Keep us updated