Win7 clean install won't complete

[karlsnooks]

I repeat,
"installer" will install to the partition you mark as ACTIVE

I've done this numerous times.

 

[SIW2]

That's probably because you selected the Active partition to install onto.

 

[ibex]

OK - so when I get to the install screen to choose where to install win7 I simply click NEXT and the installer will choose the SYSTEM partition irrespective of which letter it was assigned.

However I presume it is still best for the SYSTEM partition to be assigned as "C" ?

 

[karlsnooks]

When you declare a partition as Active, then you have told Win7 that this is the "System" partition. Try it out if you have an extra external HDD laying around to play with.

 

[karlsnooks]

OK - so when I get to the install screen to choose where to install win7 I simply click NEXT and the installer will choose the SYSTEM partition irrespective of which letter it was assigned.

However I presume it is still best for the SYSTEM partition to be assigned as "C" ?

True to the first sentence and myself I prefer for the SYSTEM partition to be assigned as "C" but necessary it isn't.

 

[ibex]

Here's where I'm up to

Memtest ran for 12+ hours no errors

Output of List volume

Volume 0 F UDF DVD-ROM
volume 1 D NTFS partition 250GB Healthy
volume 2 C NTFS partition 501GB Healthy
volume 3 E NTFS partition 645GB Healthy

Volume 1 is the ACTIVE volume
Running the install again from here

The "Where do you want to Install Windows?" screen shows

Disk 0 Partition 1 250.6GB System
Disk 0 Partition 2 501.3 GB Primary
Disk 0 partition 3 645.4 GB Primary

partition 1 has come up selected by the installer so I am just choosing NEXT

Let's see what happens ...

 

[ibex]

Not so successful. Now back to rebooting during the "updating registry settigs" phase.

 

[Jonathan_King]

Try deleting the recovery partition, if applicable. http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/34853-common-installation-problems.html

 

[ibex]

SUCCESS of sorts.

I now have a working win7 installation.

The change I made was to replace the 1.5TB drive with and old 80GB drive. I removed all the partitions and let the installer decide what to do with the disk.

End result - the disk has two volumes,
C: 76GB
System reserved 100MB

I am still totally confused about why the 1.5TB disk was so problematic so I guess I still need advice on how to properly set up that disk. Is cloning the disk and then extending the C: drive and adding in other drives the best way to go.

I also need to go back and turn on the disabled components of the motherboard. Do I just do these one at a time and reboot each time to see what Win7 does with it?

 

[Jonathan_King]

Try testing the hard drive: Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities (Storage) - TACKtech Corp.

 

[karlsnooks]

Ibex,
First, do as Jonathan suggested and test the drive-use the web address he gave you.

I expect the drive to get a clean bill of health.

Cloning and other such things are a definite possibility.
BUT-since you are not an experienced chap in these areas, I strongly suggest avoiding cloning, despite the availability of some excellent software for this task, including use of the XCOPY command with an entire alphabet of options.

Here's my suggestion:
Leave, for the time being, your little drive connected.
Connect up, as a 2nd drive, your monster drive.
Use DISKMGMT.MSC to view the current structure of your monster (and your dwarf).
Using DISKMGMT, you can:
1. mark the partition as "active" on the that monster that you want to use for your future C: drive.

With power off,

1. disconnect the dwarf drive,
2. move any connectors, change any settings needed so that your bios uses your monster
3. as the main drive
4. Install Win7

 

[karlsnooks]

Ibex,
Since I expect more questions, could you make and include in your next post, a copy of the output of DISKMGMT.MSC with both drives connected?

Thanks, karl

 

[gregrocker]

I am not sure the purpose of marking Active in this case.

Partitioning is one thing: use Disk Mgmt, the Win7 installer, or a 3rd party partitioner like free Partition Wizard CD to create the partitions you want for your HD. Format the OS partitions Primary and data partitions logical if possible.

From there, I believe just pointing the installer at the partition where you want to install is sufficient.

Was there an additional reason why the selected partition needs to be marked active beforehand, perhaps related to the OP's issue? Just asking, because I am missing it and want to learn.

 

[karlsnooks]

Greg,
I recommend always, unless needed, partitioning as Primary Partitions.

By marking a specific partition as "Active" then you've indicated that this is to be the "System" partition. With Microsoft, the "system" partition is the one with boot files and the "boot" partition is where the \windows directory is. I've never liked this obtuse definition by MS but have learned to live with it.

DISKPART> help active

On disks with master boot record (MBR) disk formatting, marks
the partition with focus as active.

Syntax: ACTIVE

Writes a value to the disk which is read by the basic input/output
system (BIOS) at boot. This value specifies that the partition is
a valid system partition.

A partition must be selected for this operation to succeed.

Caution:

DiskPart verifies only that the partition is capable of containing the
operating system startup files. DiskPart does not check the contents of
the partition. If you mistakenly mark a partition as active and it does
not contain the operating system startup files, your computer might not
start.

Example:

ACTIVE

 

[gregrocker]

Perhaps marking the target partition Active in a multi-partition setup can avoid having System Active derailed to a data partition as frequently happens here, since the installer looks for the first available Active partition for System MBR.

This cannot happen however if the data partitions are created as Logical, which is why I recommend that.

I have never understood exactly how these Primary data partitions get marked active, but it happens often: Video, Music, Data, etc. end up System because they were somehow marked active and installer came across them first.

 

[karlsnooks]

Greg,
A disk can only have one active partition.
You can have two disks, each with an active partition.

If you ever end up with a partition marked as active which you do not want to be active, then you can use either the DiskPart Inactive command or the disk management console to change to inactive.

I've never had a partition marked as active which didn't have an operating system installed on it. Maybe someone deleted all files from a partition which had an OS installed and then used the partition for data.

 

[gregrocker]

I've never had a partition marked as active which didn't have an operating system installed on it. Maybe someone deleted all files from a partition which had an OS installed and then used the partition for data.

I suspect so as it happens pretty frequently around here and it's commonly the first partition on Disk0.

Another reason why it's good to ask for a Disk Mgmt screenshot.

 

[karlsnooks]

Greg,
Thanks. I'll have to remember that when some of these questions come in.
Karl

 

[ibex]

Just an update to thank everyone for their help and let you know were I got to.

PC now boots Win7 from the 1.5 TB drive and all options on motherboard that were switched off are back on and 8GB RAM is in.

The way I got the 1.5TB drive going was to create a backup image of the working install from the 80GB drive and then restore it to the 1.5TB drive. From there I extended the C: drive to 256GB and created the other two partitions.

Only outstanding issue now is the audio driver - I will start a separate post for that at some stage.

 

[karlsnooks]

Ibex,
Great. Glad to hear that the problem is solved.

Thanks for letting us know how you solved the problem.

Which software did you use to create the image?
Which software did you use to restore the image to the 1.5T disk?

Karl