Solved UEFI/GPT install stuck on disk.sys in safe mode

[egordiac]

I've been trying to get Windows 7 to work on my laptop for the past few days, and I'm at my wit's end. I own a Lenovo Ideapad 110-15acl with an AMD A8 APU. An important thing to note is that I do not seem to have compatibility/CSM in the BIOS menu, so I can only boot in pure UEFI.
I created a bootable Windows 7 x64 Pro flashdrive with rufus 3.17. Before I'd use 3.13 and get the 0xc000000d error at boot. After creating the flashdrive I put uefiseven on there, so I could boot from it in UEFI mode. I installed the OS without any errors and then tried to boot it, but it would get stuck on the windows logo with the message: "starting windows". I tried booting in safe mode, but it would always get stuck on disk.sys, which is the culprit of the freeze, I assume, since it's the last thing the boot loads before freezing.

Things I've tried:
-Replacing bootmgfw.efi with bootx64.efi, like said in the uefiseven tutorial through the command line in the system repair section of the install USB.
-Getting a disk.sys file from the web, or another Windows 7 x64 ISO
-Changing various settings in the bios, like the system optimized defaults, SATA mode, hyper-v (though I don't think that should ever cause problems, I've tried with it on and off)
-Repairing the system through the USB, running sfc /scannow and chkdsk.
-Doing a memory check in the system repair section of the install USB.


Maybe my HDD is at fault, though I don't recall having any issues with it earlier, and it runs just fine on Windows 8.1 and GNU/Linux.

 

[SIW2]

What storage media are you installing it onto and how?

 

[egordiac]

Using rufus 3.17, I install it onto a 64gb sandisk flashdrive.

 

[Megahertz07]

Don't use Rufus. Built your own Win 7 installation drive.

To make a Win 7 USB boot able drive:

Open a CMD window as administrator and type:

diskpart
list disk (it will list all drives. Identify the USB drive number)
select disk n (replace n by the USB drive number obtained with list disk)
clean
convert mbr
create part primary
select part 1
format fs=fat32 quick
assign
active
exit (to exit diskpart)

If you have a Win 7 installation iso file
On Win 7 use 7Zip to extract all files and folders from the Win 7 iso file to the USB drive.
On Win 10, mount the iso file and copy all files and folders to the USB drive.

If you have a Win 7 installation DVD
Copy all files and folders from the DVD to the USB drive

To make it UEFI boot able you must add the \efi\boot folder

To make it universal (all Win 7 versions), go to \sources on the USB drive and delete \sources\ei.cfg

To install as UEFI-GPT you must boot the installation drive as UEFI.

During POST, press F12(?) to launch the boot menu. You will see two options for the USB drive. USB UEFI (Name) and USB (Name). Select USB UEFI (Name).
Go to install and delete ALL partitions on the SSD till you have one and only one unallocated space and then proceed.

 

[egordiac]

I made my own USB drive with your method, this time using a 4GB drive so I could format it to fat32. When I booted to it I got the 0xc000000d error, so I placed the uefiseven bootx64.efi file inside of the efi boot folder, instead of the one you provided. The installer booted correctly and finished without any issues, but again the OS hung at disk.sys, when booting. This might be because I did not fully clear every partition on my drive, as I do not have a drive to back up my files from Linux and Windows 8.1. My HDD is already formatted as GPT. Is dual booting with Windows 7 impossible?

- - - Updated - - -

I messed around a bit more with uefiseven and the system booted to finalize the install, but now the system freezes on classpnp.sys. Should I close the thread since it's another issue?

 

[Megahertz07]

Where did you find uefiseven bootx64.efi file? I guess you're not using a original M$ Win 7 installation files.

During the installation load the SATA drivers files.

 

[SIW2]

MegaHertZ

it is for machines that dont have csm support

Vista users could also try version 1.24

Releases . manatails/uefiseven . GitHub

 

[egordiac]

Oh I apologize for not mentioning before, I use the bootx64.efi file from here: GitHub - manatails/uefiseven: An EFI loader that emulates int10h interrupts needed for booting Windows 7 under UEFI Class 3 systems. Booting with the original Windows 7 files bootx64.efi files always brings me to the 0xc000000d error screen when booting my USB. uefiseven is supposed to let computers with no CSM option boot into windows seven, and I found it in another thread from here.

Also what does it mean to load the SATA drivers?

 

[Megahertz07]

Thanks for clarifying.

disk.sys seems it to be a AHCI driver. SIW2 is the one that knows everything about installing Win 7 on new hardware. I'm sneaking out.

- - - Updated - - -

So you replaced the bootx64.efi on the Win 7 installation drive (WinPE).
Did you also replaced on the EFI partition on the main drive after installation?

 

[egordiac]

I think I might've found the solution. I don't know how, I don't know why, but using uefiseven 1.24 might have fixed the issue. I'll try to boot to Windows 7 a few more times and see if it launches after using Linux or Windows 8.1, but I think the issue is solved. I'll install the graphics drivers and after that I'll post an update and close the thread. Thanks, everyone!

 

[Anotyx]

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