7 Home Premium in-place setup cancels itself, cannot sfc nor wupdate

[Mr Smiley]

He has factory preinstalled Win7 which is corrupt to begin with and which no tech enthusiast would run. I've advised him to get a Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 which I hope he is considering while he rearranges the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Lol ... Love your work gregrocker.

 

[gregrocker]

Thanks, Smiley.

That's an interesting Updater. Bookmarked.

 

[Mr Smiley]

Yes Greg, I used it a few weeks ago and it works very well if you need or want to download all of Windows Updates prior to executing a clean install.

 

[gregrocker]

There's another Updater here that Si uses to slipstream the latest Updates into the Win7 installation ISO: http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/282232-test-update-7-installation-media.html. Saves hours of updating after a Clean Install.

 

[tom982]

What I said about the presence of an embedded null was wrong, it turns out that there are no embedded nulls and the inability for anything to access that key is simply due to how malformed the registry is. I've never seen anything this bad in my life!

Hi DaveF, NoelDP, Golden and GregRocker

Please forgive me in advance if I'm barking up the wrong tree on this thread, but would it help DaveF if he was to use the WSUS Offline Updater to get his Windows Updates ? Just a thought.

WSUS Offline Update - Update Microsoft Windows and Office without an Internet connection

Kind Regards, Neil.

Hi Neil,


No forgiveness will ever be needed here - as individuals we're nothing much but as a community, we shine, it's the combined knowledge of everyone around the place that has made us such a well known forum Right or wrong, suggestions will always be appreciated because either way, someone will learn from them.


Whilst WSUS Offline is a great tool, which I use and love, and saves a lot of time when reinstalling Windows, nothing but a clean install can rectify this problem. He has unimaginable levels of corruption in his registry that has been caused by something very substantial (failing hard disk, dodgy RAM etc.). This problem couldn't have been avoided by using WSUS Offline either as it is definitely hardware related, but I completely understand why you mentioned it!



Tom

 

[DaveF]

Firstly I want you to test your RAM with memtest:


http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/105647-ram-test-memtest86.html


Then run a chkdsk scan:


http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/433-disk-check.html

I have just very recently run both without found errors.

I am afraid that registry corruption is more likely my fault than the hardware's since, after first noticing the Windows Update problem several months ago, I used some bad registry cleaner software. Too much time has elapsed to try restoring. But I think I have found some reliable backup hardware and will no doubt very soon be looking for advice and assistance in implementing the best possible procedures for backup, clean install, restore.

I'll try Memtest+ & chkdsk /f /r again right now.

 

[gregrocker]

I am afraid that registry corruption is more likely my fault than the hardware's since, after first noticing the Windows Update problem several months ago, I used some bad registry cleaner software. Too much time has elapsed to try restoring. But I think I have found some reliable backup hardware and will no doubt very soon be looking for advice and assistance in implementing the best possible procedures for backup, clean install, restore.

I gave you everything you need a week ago, in the blue link below:

You said you dread getting the vastly superior Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 but did you read it as no one who has tried it has lost any software that came preinstalled that they still needed. We can help you with any of these that you are concerned with.

Since you came here to the top resource on the web for this specialty then why not get the best possible install instead of the worst one which you have if you have preinstalled Asus Win7? It will truly be better than getting a new PC under the circumstances.

 

[DaveF]

I'm also trying to follow the well-documented yet labyrinthine how-to on creating a slipstream installation image, and download of the Update7v4 zipfile, whatever it is, keeps failing due to an unreadable source.

 

[gregrocker]

That's OK, Si will help you in the thread if you ask as he did me.

The 7v4 file is working fine for me from Skydrive. Try another browser, PC or connection?

The Updateslist.zip once unzipped and run will auto-load the latest edited Updates list into the Downloader dropdown menu so you can preselect the Updates he recommends which were all I needed.

 

[DaveF]

Yes Greg, I used it a few weeks ago and it works very well if you need or want to download all of Windows Updates prior to executing a clean install.

Si, one thing in your installer+updater ISO building howto has me confused.

3. Extract this onto C. UPDATE7v4.zip

Do you mean that the contents of the Windows Updates Downloader program need, after the WUD has run, to be added to the Update7v4 zip archive?

And anyone/everyone: I am nervous about any special considerations because of UEFI. Its bootability is fully supported in the BIOS I'm now using but will Windows7 Home reinstallation be fully aware of it?

I wish I could promise that's my final question.

 

[DaveF]

Yeah, that would be a copy not an extraction. The instruction makes no sense at all to me.

 

[gregrocker]

No, just unzip the Update7v4 files to C and run the .exe as Admin.

Have the Updates in a file in C so it will find them easily when prompted to show location. You can change the destination in the Updater's dropdown.

 

[gregrocker]

I use that installer for all of my installs without having to do any more than 2 or 3 Updates lasting 5 minutes.

When you have the Update7v4 file extracted to C and run it's .exe it will ask you for the folder location of the Updates you've downloaded, and for the Win7 installer files which you've also extracted into their own folder. You'll then choose your licensed version and it should run.

So these are three separate functions which once each is complete are knitted together by running the Update7v4 .exe from within its folder. It starts a script that does the work for you from there.

If you'd like I'll connect via TeamViewer to run it for you. TeamViewer Download

 

[DaveF]

Sounds like a timesaver. To construct it however I just let it go build itself for a couple of hours, and it appeared quite busy but seems not to have done anything.

 

[DaveF]

Now I can't figure out whether the changes made to install.wim before it went into permanent hang have rendered my setup files useless.

 

[gregrocker]

It shows you the progress as you run Updater7. Did it find the Updates and ISO files? Watch its progress, have it make an ISO or just drag the files it's updated onto the stick if you've already formatted it to replace the ones there now.

 

[DaveF]

It took around four hours but did allow me to save and burn an ISO; I just have no idea whether it's a valid installation package and whether my UEFI will allow it to reboot/reload itself to successful completion if so - also, whether there's any way to avoid destroying the manufacturer's recovery partition.

 

[gregrocker]

I cannot imagine it taking that long until I scroll back up and remember the condition of your OS.

So boot the DVD and see: UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) - Install Windows 7 with - Windows 7 Forums http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/15458-uefi-bootable-usb-flash-drive-create-windows.html

 

[DaveF]

I have no idea how to interpret the difference(s) - if any - between Option/Step #2 and Option/Step #3. I appear to have a bootable DVD on a UEFI/USB DVD-R drive. Is that bad?

 

[gregrocker]

I have no idea how to interpret the difference(s) - if any - between Option/Step #2 and Option/Step #3. I appear to have a bootable DVD on a UEFI/USB DVD-R drive. Is that bad?

What are you talking about? I just gave you a tutorial to install in UEFI mode. So boot the disk and install. If you are booting a DVD use the option for booting a DVD. The other one is for booting a flash stick.