System Hosed after Windows Update

Wasn't sure where to post this. I'm hoping someone has an idea because I have tried many things and not yet found a solution anywhere.

I have Vista installed on a 750GB hard drive with a second partition. I created a 3rd partition. I then do a clean install of Win 7 from the upgrade DVD on the 3rd partition. Install runs smoothly. I can then boot into Win 7 from the boot menu. I successfully register Win 7.

At this point all is well. But I get to a point where Win 7 is hosed. It took several iterations of wiping the partition and reinstalling Win 7 to figure it out. What happens is when I go to install the Windows Updates, after I reboot I get a message to the effect of "One of your disks needs to be checked for consistency" yada yada. It refers to my Win 7 partition. Now if I skip it and boot up to Win 7 I already have some problem. Can't remember exactly what errors I get at this point. When I reboot I get the same message. If I let it do the chkdsk, one thing I notice is that there are many entries to the effect of "Deleting Index Entry...in index $I30 of file..."

When I boot up all kinds of problems. Some of the problems are that I can't run Windows update. Says that "Windows Update cannot currently check for updates, because the service is not running. You may need to restart your computer" But I checked and the service is running. Another problem..if I try to download a file I can't. I get an error when it gets to the point of letting me where to choose to save the file. I've also seen errors with Code 80070571 and Code C8000211.

Sometime I can not longer even boot into Win 7 after all that mess. Meanwhile I can continue to successfully boot into Vista.

The ONLY way I can fix at this point is to completely wipe or just format my Win7 partition and reinstall.

I've tried installing the Win Updates one-by-one and reboot after each. It's happened for different ones so not specific. Only consistent thing is that all is fine until I start trying to install the Windows Updates.

I've wasted way to much time trying to track this down. Until I find a solution I won't be able to move to Win7.

Any ideas out there for me?

Keilup

Download and burn to CD the DOS diagnostics for your HD from the manufacturer's Support Downloads webpage for your model. Do a full scan.

Next boot into free Partition Wizard CD, select 1 for screen res, delete Win7 partioning, create New primary partition, run a Surface Scan and System File check on both Win7 and Vista.

Now try installing Win7 using Custom install, then Drive Tools to format partition one more time before install.

After install, take all the time necessary to install Windows Updates one at a time with a System Restore point before each and several days to test performance in between them. Isolate the problem Update and open a Support case on the Windows Updates website - support is by email, but thorough until resolution.

Thanks for the detailed steps.

After I posted I decided to give it all one more try. I'm happy to say that so far so good. The only thing that I can think of that I did different than any other time I've attempted this so far is that when I was in the custom install, I chose to format the partition with the format option during the install process.

I'm currently cautiously optimistic. I plan to proceed with caution for few days keeping constant backups of my partition so as not to lose all my install progress. If I run into problems, I will attempt follow the steps provided in the above post.

Keilup

You might attach a picture of your disk managment window using the snipping tool. Maybe something will show up that could be causing problems.