If a copied or cloned image will not start in target machine, boot a partition manager to make sure Win7 is marked active, then boot Win7 DVD repair console or Repair CD into Startup Repair to run up to 3 separate times with reboots as it will attempt to repair and may end up writing the MBR to Win7.
All previous MBR repair and recovery commands are automated in Win7 Startup Repair. It just needs to be run repeatedly until Win7 starts.
Sorry for the delayed reply...wasn't able to touch the system until tonight.
Big update for tonight. Before trying the image method, I had one last hunch that I wanted to try out. While I had mentioned earlier that I had tried disabled all on-board devices (built-in LAN, sound, etc) as well as all external peripherals (USB HDs, mice, etc), it occurred to me that there was one thing I forgot: the only PCI device that was installed in the back slot all by itself...a Hauppauge PVR-150 TV tuner card.
I removed the PVR150 from its slot and tried launching the install again. Sure enough, it skipped right past the old freeze point and is now at the language selection screen.
I haven't started the install yet, but I'm already 100x further than I was before. As soon as it made it past the freeze point, I had to run up to this computer and slap an update in this thread.
I can't believe something so stupid (and something I completely forgot to even mention I had, since I so rarely use it) could cause this whole mess. Thanks to all who replied, and I'll post another update once the install finishes (hopefully successfully).
One thing I wonder about (and I'll find out soon enough) is if after Windows 7 successfully installs and I re-install the PVR-150, will the O/S freeze at bootup at the same orange pixel?
Last edited by bash; 09 Apr 2010 at 19:15. Reason: Spelling
That is about 10 to 15 TV tuners that have hampered install !! That I have seen here on SevenForums. Good Luck, this just might be the trick
Install finished successfully, but now I have a new problem...
Since I had disconnected my 2 RAIDed drives to minimize installation issues, I decided to plug them back in now that the installation had finished successfully. Upon reboot, the RAID0 was detected properly after POST, but when Windows 7 loaded up and I click on my RAIDed drive (E:), it says something about needed to format the disk in order to use it!
So, I'm guessing Windows7 isn't recognizing my RAID array properly. Could this be related to a lack of motherboard driver support?
Additionally, I added another 1TB SATA drive (just a bunch of movies and pictures from another PC), and while it recognizes the drive is NTFS, clicking on the drive gives me an 'access denied' error. So, despite having 4 total drives (C - OS drive, E - 2 drives in RAID1 and F - 1TB SATA w/ movies & pics), only my OS drive is recognized!
Anyone have any ideas?
EDIT: Some searching reveals that the 'access denied' on the 2nd drive is likely due to an ownership issue. However, I'm hesitant to take ownership of the drive for fear that it will no longer be readable in XP. Does anyone know if taking ownership in Win7 will mess up the drive if I were to load it back up in XP?
Last edited by bash; 10 Apr 2010 at 21:43. Reason: Added question
If i was you i would download a linux live cd such as ubuntu and copy all u data to another drive. No reason to use raid as far as i can see. backup u data before it's too late.
The main reason why I want to use RAID (or maybe JBOD down the road) is to consolidate all the data onto one drive or one share within windows. I'd rather not have an E:, F: and G: drive or whatever. If there is another method within Windows 7 to make a share span several drives, I'd gladly get rid of the RAID setup.
Well, after some more fiddling this morning, I finally got the RAID array detected in Windows.
I was combing through device manager when I saw that my SATA controller was being detected as "standard AHCI 1.0 serial ATA controller" for some reason. I remember in Windows XP it said M1575/M1697 SATA/RAID controller, so I figured that was the problem. Unfortunately, searching for an updated driver didn't do the trick. However, thanks to another post in this forum (ULi M1575/M1697 Raid driver), I was able to manually force an update to the driver and after rebooting, the array was recognized!
So, another issue from the install from hell bites the dust, but just when things were looking good, another one arises...
Earlier in the thread, I removed my PVR-150 tuner card as it was preventing the install from starting up. Now that everything was good, I threw the tuner card in and guess what? Window froze on bootup again on the same first orange/red pixel. Tried it in several different PCI slots and had the same issue. This time, booting into safe mode freezes on CLASSPNP.sys.
The saga continues...
Last edited by bash; 10 Apr 2010 at 21:54. Reason: Edited driver safe mode freezes on
You might have better results on that tuner card issue in Drivers or Graphics cards forum where those specialists hang out. My only solution would be to somehow force the driver in Compatiibility Mode but you'd need to get into Safe Mode at least, or perhaps load the driver into the installer at "Where do you want to install Windows" screen link.
As far as the RAID goes, we see nothing but problems with RAID and Win7 here. The idea that you need all of your data on one drive array is not preferable because you lose everything if you lose one HD. In fact, having a separate data partition or HD protects your data if Win7 becomes corrupted and unbootable. Best config is to put OS and Programs on one HD and data on another.
Thanks man, I'll give the driver suggestions a shot.
Re: the RAID, the biggest thing for me is that all my Movies/Shows stay on one drive letter so that all my media extenders can easily access the data. RAIDing the two 1tb drives together gives me a nice single 2tb drive letter, whereas no RAID forces me to divide the media. It's probably inevitable anyway, but the reason I like it this way now is more for consistency and organization...
Oooops, just realized I put the incorrect driver in my earlier post...
I've edited it to show that safe mode now freezes on CLASSPNP.sys when the Hauppauge PVR-150 card is inserted.
I will follow gregrocker's advice and post this question in the drivers forum, but feel free to reply to this post if CLASSPNP.sys rings any bells...
Thanks again!
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