Windows install : device drivers needed

Kaktussoft said:

Lukas123 said:

Kaktussoft said:

From what device did you BOOT????

Should be DVD, but possible he's still trying from any of both ex-RAID disks. There's no other disks, so it can't be a big mistery. I've seen that error before, Windows was "fixed" by my computer shop already.

must be one of the harddisks. Can you temporary detach them form system and boot from DVD to prove I'm right?

Starting now with only DVD player ... gives same error: Windows failed to start.

Kaktussoft said:

Lukas123 said:

Kaktussoft said:

must be one of the harddisks. Can you temporary detach them form system and boot from DVD to prove I'm right?

Starting now with only DVD player ... gives same error: Windows failed to start.

Remove DVD from DVD drive and boot. What happens then?

Says:

Reboot and Select proper boot device
or Insert Boot Media in select Boot device and press a key

I also have a Windows restore disk, which does show the System Recovery Options

I had to use this menu earlier, when I had Windows issues.

The funny thing is, EVERY single option fails:
startup repair: startup repair cannot repair this computer
system restore: must select operating system
recpvery: cannot find a system image
memory diag: an error is preventing

The command prompt works though. Nice.

I would start over using the latest official installer ISO for your licensed version, burned to DVD or written to flash stick using the tool provided in Steps 1 and 2 of Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7. The steps in the tutorial assure a perfect install.

I would not use RAID since we see nothing but problems with RAID here. Set SATA controller to AHCI. Disable any RAID popup at boot.

Kaktussoft said:

From the Intel Raid tool I can only choose Striping or Mirroring

In the BIOS I can choose RAID, AHCI and IDE

As a test change BIOS to AHCI instead of RAID. Can you do the diskpart "clean" commands afterwards successfully?
If so, reboot again from win7 install DVD. Can you install win7 now?

That seemed to have worked better; after switching the option in BIOS to AHCI, I managed to install Windows.

BUT, I only saw one disk (instead of 2). Windows did not state anything wrong with either disk, he just displayed one only. It seems like on that level, he is in RAID mode (that is, Mirroring mode, which I just selected to see what happens, at some point during switching RAID modes).
On boot, I didn't have RAID menu, but that is OK, but more important; when I HAD that menu, I last option I chose was to remove the RAID volume (before that, I had mirroring).

Then I enabled RAID again, first in BIOS, then in RAID menu. If I then start Windows installer, he states something is wrong with the ATAPI driver, and cannot install. He DOES read the DVD to get to that point, but then suddenly states he misses some driver.

gregrocker said:

I would start over using the latest official installer ISO for your licensed version, burned to DVD or written to flash stick using the tool provided in Steps 1 and 2 of Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7. The steps in the tutorial assure a perfect install.

I'm using a legal pressed DVD ... I keep the option open that something may be wrong here, but I have only 1 copy, so copying that to another DVD or USB will not make it better.

gregrocker said:

I would not use RAID since we see nothing but problems with RAID here. Set SATA controller to AHCI. Disable any RAID popup at boot.

I'm getting the same idea. In fact, in my above update, it says that at this point I CAN install Windows only, by disabling RAID. I get the impression that either 1 disk is failing (which is not a RAID problems, but it shows the fragility of RAID), or ... it is hard to remove RAID configs.

The RAID menu that removes my RAID volume, says he does the trick in 1 to 2 seconds ... which is, fast. Isn't there some format I can do, to make sure RAID is really gone ? I don't need the content of the disks anyway.