Installation Problems

jackdelamare · Nov 27, 2008

I've been trying to install Windows 7, and so far I've got right to the final stage of actually installing but I've faced some problems.

After waiting for the installation menu to actually appear, I went through the normal setup just like Vista, where I selected my new empty 320GB hard drive and it continued to install. After finally getting to the end, it then came back to the start of the setup, where it asked me what hard drive to install it onto, and there were now 2, from the same hard drive but one was only 195MB free space, but it was the size of the whole drive.

I didn't go through the setup again, so I tried to boot from the hard drive, but it said "no boot manager" or something along those lines. I booted into the DVD again, but it said the same thing, and told me to press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart.

So basically, no Windows 7. Maybe there was something wrong with the ISO?

Brink · Nov 27, 2008

Hello Jack,

Could be a bad ISO. You might see if you can run a Startup Repair on the partition that Windows 7 did install on to see if it can fix the MBR boot file.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

jackdelamare · Nov 27, 2008

This is the message I generally got when booting from the hard drive that I installed Windows 7 on:

And then when I did repair it through the system repair thing, I got this in a loop basically:

Now, it mentioned something about having everything unplugged, and I know this sounds stupid, but I didn't unplug any of my external hard drives, webcam or DVD drives as when I do for whatever reason and then boot back into Vista, it always does that "searching for drivers" thing, which bugs me. So should I unplug everything that's not going to be recognise with Windows 7, and then repair again? Or do a fresh install?

MegaFixer · Nov 27, 2008

I'd recommend to unplug everything, check bios for boot record virus protection to be disabled and do a fresh install (re-create NTFS partition)

Bare Foot Kid · Nov 27, 2008

Hello Jack.

It all depends how bad you want to install Windows 7; is all the extra trouble worth it to you?
Were I you, I'd go for it; isn't experimentation what it's all about? You can almost bet money all the extra hardware is what's causing the trouble.

Keep us informed!

Later :shock: Ted

jackdelamare · Nov 27, 2008

Bare Foot Kid said:
Hello Jack.

It all depends how bad you want to install Windows 7; is all the extra trouble worth it to you?
Were I you, I'd go for it; isn't experimentation what it's all about? You can almost bet money all the extra hardware is what's causing the trouble.

Keep us informed!

That's the idea, I want to test it, I want to be a part of the whole beta thing. I find it quite fun. I was too young to do it with Vista, but I don't want to miss out of 7.

I will attempt to re-install it tomorrow after school hopefully, with everything that is not needed unplugged, and hopefully it'll work. It's definately on there as it gives me the menu shown in the second picture. Oh and should it be taking up 30GB or so? I believe I saw that the install was taking up that much - I was shocked.

Brink · Nov 27, 2008

Jack,

I think you may have an infested Windows 7 ISO. That funny looking coding at the bottom of your first (bootmgr missing) image looks a lot like the works of a virus. I would recommend getting another ISO and formatting the computer to wipe it clean.

jackdelamare · Nov 28, 2008

Brink said:
Jack,

I think you may have an infested Windows 7 ISO. That funny looking coding at the bottom of your first (bootmgr missing) image looks a lot like the works of a virus. I would recommend getting another ISO and formatting the computer to wipe it clean.

Yeah I did think the smiley face was a bit random. PM sent.

smarteyeball · Nov 28, 2008

jackdelamare said:
where it asked me what hard drive to install it onto, and there were now 2, from the same hard drive but one was only 195MB free space, but it was the size of the whole drive.

Seven creates a 200MB partition at the start of drive for the boot data. (If it's a fresh drive, with no other OS installed / connected)

And yeah, those symbols under CTRL-ALT-Delete do look sus simply because they are there, not from what they are:huh:

(Some look like Wingdings / webdings symbols ?)

Brink · Nov 28, 2008

Hi Smartey,

That's strange. Windows 7 did not create any other partitions with me. It only installed on the partitoin that I installed it on.

SIW2 · Nov 28, 2008

Hi Shawn,

Yes, it is interesting.

From Smarteyball's other posts, he used a brand new HD , which he partitioned with Win7 during the Install.

Seems that as he hadn't already created an Active (System) partition, Win7 automatically made a 200mb one as the first partition.

Looks like Smarteyeball is the only person to have done this so far.

It has it's advantages, but surprising we haven't seen this anywhere else - MS have been quiet about it.

SIW2

Brink · Nov 28, 2008

That could be why then SIW2. I installed Windows 7 on a partition that I created from Vista.

I tried this in Virtual PC, but it did not create the other partition in it either. However, it may be just because it was a VHD to.

johngalt · Nov 28, 2008

I am working on clearing out a 250 GB HD (I have over 400 GB free on my primary drive - I can use that for storage for now) so I can try W7 on that 250GB HD. Of course, with the news that I got today, I might just buy a pair, because TigerDirect/CompUSA is selling the big brother of my HDs, the 1 TB 32mb Cache drives, for $99.99 and *its* bigger brother the 1.5 TB 32MB Cache HDs for a scant $119.99 each. And with $1.99 shipping to the US....

Either way, though, I need to get a hold of W7 x64 - no sense in going a mere 32 bit, now is there?

wysiwyg · Nov 29, 2008

Why not do both, I find 32 is slightly better than 64.

davehc · Nov 29, 2008

No. I agree. It didn't install any extra partitions for me either. I think I have tried the whole monty. Separate partition. Separate HD etc. Never had that happen!
But Jack, where exactly is your Linus installation sitting, or is it not on that particular computer at all?
It looks suspiciously to me like the linux boot manager is interfering with that of the Windows boot manager??

jackdelamare · Nov 30, 2008

Linux boot manager? This is a brand new 320GB hard drive, which I just connect to my current PC and unplug the Vista hard drive (also 320GB). I didn't want to destroy my Vista.

How do I wipe the current 7 installation? Boot from XP install XP and delete partition completely? Any suggestions?

Bare Foot Kid · Nov 30, 2008

Hello Jack.

Have a look at these tutorial for some ideas; at the links below.

Disk Management - Delete and Extend - Vista Forums

Disk Management - Shrink Partition - Vista Forums

Later :shock: Ted

davehc · Nov 30, 2008

jackdelamare said:
Linux boot manager? This is a brand new 320GB hard drive, which I just connect to my current PC and unplug the Vista hard drive (also 320GB). I didn't want to destroy my Vista.

How do I wipe the current 7 installation? Boot from XP install XP and delete partition completely? Any suggestions?

OK.Sorry. I was just working on an assumption from your Avatar.

johngalt · Dec 1, 2008

Yanno, it could happen if you tell it to use an unformatted drive and don't *manually* create the partition. I manually created the partition on my system as one large 250 GB partition, thus it may have opted not to create that 200MB partition.

Of course, it may also be because I did not disconnect any of my other drives, so it saw my previous Vista install as well. Unfortunately I do not have the time to figure that out as of yet - but that 200MB partition still seems something out of line with the way M$ works....

jackdelamare · Dec 1, 2008

Well when Windows 7 finally downloads I'll burn it to a DVD and boot from the disk to see if this one is any better. Hopefully it'll allow me to just over-write what I currently have on there, the faulty 7.

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