Asus G60VX, originally Windows 7, won't recover

[overworkedirish]

Hey all,

So a few months back I got myself an Asus G60VX with Windows 7 64bit on it. Everything was going good until one day it wouldn't go past the Windows graphic loading screen. For hours. It was very frustrating.

In order to backup my hard drive, I brought in an Ubuntu Live CD to temporarily run Linux and backup my files on an external hard drive. Then I used the CDs provided for me by Asus to recover/wipe the system. Came with 2 discs: One titled "Windows 7 Recovery for Windows 7 Products," the other, "Driver&Utility Ver 1.0 G60VX."

I booted up the Recovery CD, it booted up. After a few tries with it freezing up along the way, I finally made it through the recovery, and the computer requested the "support CD," so I put in the Driver/Utility CD. Again, after multiple tries with it freezing up along the way, I FINALLY made it through the driver installations, and it brought me to the screen: "Setup is preparing your computer for first use."

There is now nothing I can do to get past it. I've tried F8, starting in safe mode, no matter what I do. The reason this is pissing me off so much is because I'm totally going the legit route and everything. How the hell can I not wipe my own computer???

 

[overworkedirish]

Additionally, every once and a while, during the "Setup is preparing your computer for first use" message, I'll receive an error message:

"Install Windows

Windows could not complete the installation. To install Windows on this computer, restart the installation."

RESTART TO WHERE??? I WIPED THE WHOLE THING!! GAHHHHH

 

[Night Hawk]

Welcome to the Seven Forums! overworkedirish

Youi could be facing a hardware problem like a bad dimm resulting in the recovery install not being able to complete the initial set up. Pressing the F8 option won't help since the recovery install never finished and arrived at the desktop.

The first thing now be to isolate the cause if bad ram is the source by running memtest or another memory stress tester. The recovery disks may be bad as another thought resulting in an incomplete install. Also inspect the disks themselves for any finger marks from handling.

The best thing would be to try is a second attempt using the F9 option if that is available to recovery automatically from the hidden recovery partition. If no faults are found with the memory, hard drive, optical drive the F9 option if available bypassing the need for an optical drive would take less time and would replace a bad or incomplete install if no hardware problems are discovered.

 

[gregrocker]

Did you wipe the Recovery partition, or can you try running it as an alternative to the disks? Read your Manual at Asus Support Downloads page for your model to find out how.

Test your RAM with memtest86 CD for 5-6 passes or overnight: Memtest86 - Download Page

Next test your HD using maker's full diag/repair CD scan: Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities (Storage) - TACKtech Corp.
Then boot the Win7 Repair CD to run http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/433-disk-check.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2083-system-repair-disc-create.html

Next try wiping the HD using Diskpart from Repair CD Command Line to overwrite any possible infection with zeroes, not just formatting which doesn't remove data: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/52129-disk-clean-clean-all-diskpart-command.html

Now try running the Recovery DVD again. If it is a Win7 DVD you should be able to boot it, and it should be driver-complete enough you don't need to run the driver CD just possible browse to it from Device Manager to install network adapter to get online. Newer drivers will arrive quickly via optional Windows Updates, or can be found on the Support Downloads webpage for your model or browsing the CD from Device Mgr.

If this fails, try clearing the CMOS: Clear CMOS - 3 Ways to Clear the CMOS - Reset BIOS

The next thing I would try is to locate or borrow any Win7 installer to create a Universal Installation Disk to install your licensed version with the Product Key off of the COA sticker on machine. This will be a cleaner install without the factory bloatware. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/85813-windows-7-universal-installation-disc-create.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html

 

[Night Hawk]

I went over all the faqs and docs at the Asus support site on that model and the only reference tor recovery was the F9 option. That certainly doesn't help any if it's not present for the preinstalled 7.

Nuking the C primary completely once all hardwares are ruled out to insure a clean install would be the next step to follow. Another thought if the disks are found flawless would be using a usb install key. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2432-usb-windows-7-installation-key-drive-create.html

That will get past a bad disk or bad optical drive problem. You would need to see the setup files written onto a 4gb flash drive for that method made up from the recovery partition or from the recovery disks. Then there's the use of no optical or usb device method outlined in another guide. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/7943-install-windows-7-fast-without-dvd-usb-device.html