Vista to Windows 7 install ending in system recovery

[ristenk]

Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum as well as to troubleshooting operating systems.

I have a Gateway with Windows Vista x64 and want to upgrade to Windows 7. I've been trying to figure out how to do it by following along to another thread in here but as BarefootKid mentioned, it is probably best that I start my own thread.

After I install Windows 7 and it completes and reboots it takes me to system recovery but it is the system recovery for Windows vista. I've been trying different things like formatting the partition right before the install and making the partition that Windows 7 is going to go on "active" in the .cmd prompt. I keep going in circles: installing Windows 7, getting system recovery and eventually choosing to reformat from Gateway's manufacturer settings...although once I do this I can't actually get back into Windows Vista as that now seems to be messed up. (I don't have the original Vista installation cd). Then I try rebooting and installing from the Windows 7 cd again to try more techniques to get it to work...

I'm at the point of possibly deleting the recovery partition because the Vista remnants seem to be on this partition and taking over once I install Windows 7.

Any thoughts would be very much appreciated!:shock:

 

[whs]

It looks like there is a mess-up with the MBR. The MBR is still pointing to the Vista partition which you have deleted. Try to fix the MBR (there are several tutorials and threads explaining that on this forum).
Or, if you can get at all into the system, go to msconfig > Boot tab and delete the Vista entry.

 

[myzr7]

ristenk, Welcome to SevenForums.
Depends on what you want to do. If you have all your data from vista backed up then you could do a clean install and use the advanced options to delete all partitions and make new one to install the win7 on. This should give you a good install to work with. Make sure you follow # 6,7,8 custom install, select advanced drive options and delete and format partition. Good luck to you with your install. Lots of help here if you get stuck,

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

 

[ristenk]

now I've really messed things up. I deleted all of the partitions (including the recovery). When it asks me where I want to install Windows and I click "next" with the Disk 0 unallocated space highlighted I get the error message "windows installation encountered an unexpected error. Verify that the installation sources are accessible, and restart the installation. Error code: 0xc0000005

When I click "Drive options (advanced)" and try to format or click on "new" to make a new partition with the unallocated space I get the same error message....

I don't know what to do?

Help anyone?!

 

[gregrocker]

Where did you get Win7?
Did you burn your own DVD? If so, burn another using ImgBurn at 4x speed.
Or try install from USB flash stick: install UltraISO trial, on File tab open ISO, on Bootable tab Write Image File, format first, then Write. Boot stick under USB or HD's.

Remove all but 2gb of RAM to try install.

Reset the CMOS: Clear CMOS - 3 Ways to Clear the CMOS - Reset BIOS

I replied to your other post, but it seems like you deleted your Recov Partition before we confirmed you made your disks. Did you?

If you only deleted then you need to wipe the HD now: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/91339-ssd-hdd-optimize-windows-reinstallation.html

When you List Disk, determine which disk number is the target HD then use that # in Select Disk #.

 

[ristenk]

ok, you gave me a lot to work through..thanks Greg...

 

[gregrocker]

Refresh my last post as I added steps.

Ask back with any questions and report on progress. Here all day.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

That's ok my friend, I told you when I added them but we do so much togethre it's hard to keep up sometime.

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