Extremely slow Windows 7 Installation (Clean)

[mistereisb]

My friend's Computer recently crashed and fails to boot up. It had 2 partitions (1 HDD) and was to the brink of its capacity. Seeing that it was no longer booting up, I initially tried loading up an install CD and attempted to repair the windows install. This attempt failed when it told me that the Windows version installed was not compatible. This got me stumped since it was a 64 bit version of Windows Home Basic and I do not understand why it would not be compatible. I then moved into performing a clean install. At first, I formatted the drive where Windows 7 was installed and chose it as the location for the clean install. I became suspicious that there is a problem when it was taking forever to "expand the files". I left the computer for 8 hours at the least until it moved into "install features" "Install updates" and more hours of waiting to "complete Installation". and so, it finally does and I try to boot. It spent at least 45 minutes in the "windows starting screen" and it did not even reach the stage where it said that windows was being set up for first time use. (I was also expecting the computer to restart on its own a couple of times but it did not seem to do so)I came to the conclusion that it was a bad install as it was unreasonably slow to boot up. Read a few threads hoping to fix the issue, I ended up going to Bios and changing the SATA configuration from IDE to AHCI. (the symptoms and behavior at that time seemed that it was a 'write' issue on the Hard Drive. I then tried again, this time around I have deleted the partition and installed it under one partition to rule out the possibility that the machine was getting confused in accessing the boot files. Again the extreme slow loading time, but I decided to wait it out. (I left the machine to do its thing for at least 24 hours) it got to the point where it asked for the computer name etc. then it said that it had to restart. To my utter frustration, the machine was stuck again at the start screen and was taking more than 30 minutes to boot up. Not new to performing installations, I said that this is not acceptable. So I thought that my install CD or CDROM may be bad and may have corrupted necessary drivers causing the extreme lag (I was using unlocked Install disk having 64 bit for Home Basic). So I download Windows USB/DVD Download tool and got an ISO from my still fresh 32 bit version of Home Basic. It seemed to load the files faster but it went through the "expanding files" "completing Installation" stages around 4 hours or more. The install restarts and still goes back to clean install options (choose language, region etc) and when I move it on, it shows that windows 7 is installed on D: (shouldn't it be C:?)I tried repairing to continue the installation and it says that it is not a compatible version of Windows. ?????I go to bios and chose the HDD as boot drive and again, it takes forever to get it to boot up. Displays black screen for a long time and more time on "starting windows" page etc. I already made sure that there is only Mouse, keyboard, HD and Installation USB connected to the board. I took out the CD Rom and Video card. And I already used my other rig to install windows onto the drive and even swapped out memory sticks to no avail.I have tried plugging in my own HD from another system, and it went freaking fast in loading up windows. I am inclined to think that there is something wrong with the HD, but check disk and disk part (yes, I've tried that too) shows that the drive is in good health and no bad sectors have been detected.I wouldn't want to get a new HD and end up with the same slow behavior even if I do another clean install.Any help would be greatly appreciated. Apologies for the long narrative, but I want to avoid wasting folks' time by having to post things that I have already tried. I am currently riding out a 4th or 5th install and it is currently at "completing installation" running install time 6 hrs.Problematic Machine Specs:Motherboard: Asus P8H61-M LX3CPU: Intel Pentium G620 2.6GHz dual coreHDD: WD5000AAKXMemory Stick: 4 GB 1333 DDR3Video Card: (currently taken out) Sapphire HD7770CD ROM: ASUSPSU: Corsair VS4502nd Machine Specs:Motherboard: MSI B75MA-P45CPU: Intel I3 3220 3.3 Dual CoreHDD: WD10EZEXMemory Stick: (2) 4 GB 1600 Kingston HyperXVideo Card: GTX 650 Ti BoostCD ROM: Samsung Super Write MasterPSU: Antec VP550

 

[indianacarnie]

Welcome to the forums mistereisb!

Wow, you are correct, thats taking way too much time. And yes, it "should" be C drive. While no noob to installing its not my area of expertise and I'm sure you'll get more (and probably better) help soon. Not trying to be rude but have you read these? Our tutorials are written by some very talented people and are worth a look even if not totally needed. Just click on the links.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219487-clean-reinstall-factory-oem-windows-7-a.html

Both of these are excellent sources of information.

From what you wrote I tend to agree that your problem is most likely the HDD. Do you have any just sitting around you could spare for this machine? At least temporarily? Or conversely you could take the problem HDD and put it in a machine you KNOW is working right just as a sort of double check.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Might I suggest these and there is a WD tester there
7 Free Hard Drive Testing Software Tools

 

[mistereisb]

Thank you indianacarnie!I have gone over both tutorials and doing the clean install is more applicable since I pretty much gave up on recovering previous Data. I rode it out until I got to desktop (which took another 4 hours) hoping to reinstall the drivers for the Mobo. I have another HDD but it's the boot drive for my other rig and is working fine. I am not too excited about reinstalling windows on this one for fears that it may end up just like the problematic system right now. I'm currently trying to boot under Safe Mode, but it's not very encouraging that it's running 20 minutes now and I'm still at "Loaded: \Windows\system32\drivers\CLASSPNP.SYS.I'll try ICit2lol's advice and download the diagnostic tool for WD. If reinstalling the Drivers for the mobo does not do much, I'll try booting my other system using this HDD. I'll let you guys know what happens. Thanks for the posts!

 

[mistereisb]

Many thanks to ICit2lol! It is starting to look like it was indeed the HDD. I downloaded the Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostic tool, hooked up the drive and gave it a scan. It reported a bad sector and offered to repair (and so I did). I tried booting off on the faulty HD using my own rig, and what do you know, it's at desktop in under a minute. I tried slapping it back into my friends PC and it booted up really quick. I am currently writing zeroes onto it as I plan to do another clean install. This time with the 64 bit. Wish me luck and I'll let you know as soon as I'm sure that it's all right as rain.

 

[gregrocker]

Try another copy of the latest official installer for your licensed version provided in Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7.

It's an unnecessary waste of time to write zeroes to the drive as any troubleshooting benefit of doing that is handled by running Diskpart Clean Command which takes just seconds.

If after cleaning the drive the new installer takes too long, define an Active partition using Step 2.2 of SSD - HDD Optimize for Windows Reinstallation.

If that fails then test the HD again with WD tool, run a full Disk Check while it is connected to the other PC, or from installer's Command Line in System Recovery Options

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Many thanks to ICit2lol! It is starting to look like it was indeed the HDD. I downloaded the Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostic tool, hooked up the drive and gave it a scan. It reported a bad sector and offered to repair (and so I did). I tried booting off on the faulty HD using my own rig, and what do you know, it's at desktop in under a minute. I tried slapping it back into my friends PC and it booted up really quick. I am currently writing zeroes onto it as I plan to do another clean install. This time with the 64 bit. Wish me luck and I'll let you know as soon as I'm sure that it's all right as rain.

That good mate but Greg is right the other methods he has given you are so easy.