Windows 7 Installation Failure - Overcome

Windows 7 Installation Failure - Troubleshoot

   Information

These steps cover most of the current installation failures encountered. They do not cover hardware issues which can be tested separately from Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7.

1. Back up your files, power down to unplug all other Hard Drives and peripherals except keyboard, mouse and ethernet cable (which increases chance it will start up connected so you can get most of your other drivers via Updates).

2. Boot into BIOS setup, reset to defaults, set SATA controller to AHCI, Hard Drive first to boot, Save changes and Exit. An SSD may have newer firmware to install on its Support Downloads webpage.

3. Search all tabs in BIOS setup for evidence of an EFI BIOS, including settings choices for UEFI, CSM, Legacy BIOS, Secure Boot, or UEFI Boot choices in BIOS Boot Priority menu. If EFI is enabled then proceed to Install Windows 7 with UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface). If you don't want a UEFI install you can Bypass UEFI to Install WIn7. This video can help you decide: UEFI BIOS vs. Legacy BIOS - YouTube

4. The problem is often bad media. A prompt for drivers during booted install almost always means bad installation media. Confirm or download the latest ISO for your licensed version and burn to DVD or flash stick as discussed in Step One here. You can test your media in another PC to see if it will boot and queue up correctly. If not replace it. If DVD fails even after replacing, try flash stick install and vice versa. For UEFI install you'll need to create a UEFI Bootable USB Flash Drive - Create in Windows.

5. Boot the media by tapping the BIOS one-time boot menu key below for your PC brand. Select DVD or for flash stick choose USB, Removable or HD choices which might need to be expanded to choose your stick. If you have a USB3 stick use USB2 port since SP1 does not support USB3 drivers. Asus - F8
HP/Compaq - Esc
Sony - F2
Acer - F12
Gateway - F10
eMachnes - F10
Toshiba - F12
Dell - F12
IBM/Lenovo - the blue Thinkvantage button

When prompted Press Any Key to Boot Disk.
6. At first installer screen Press Shift + F10, or enter System Recovery Options to open a Command Box, typeISKPART
LIST DISK
SELECT DISK 0 (after confirming Windows 7 target HD #)
CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
FORMAT FS=NTFS LABEL="WINDOWS 7"
ACTIVE
EXIT
EXIT
7. Next click Install Now, then Custom install to Clean Install Windows 7 to the partition you created. If it fails then report back at which step and the verbatim error message.

8. In addition read over these steps to understand the tools and methods which work best to get and maintain a perfect Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7. The steps are the same for retail.

9. After install you can adjust partition size or Create new partitions for data, etc. in Disk Mgmt. You are creating the partition here for the purpose of wiping the HD and marking partition Active which overcomes certain install failures. If necessary to test the hard drive, Disk Check will also work best on a full disk partition.

10. If the above steps don't help test your RAM and hard drive from Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7.

You may start a separate thread in Installation forum or ask in the Comments section below for more help. Please identify the exact failure point, any error message or behavior, include pictures if possible attached using the paper clip icon in reply box.

 

[DupreeeM]

I did this exactly as it said and I'm still getting error code "setup was unable to create a new system partition or locate an existing system partition. See the setup log files for more info. I've tried everything plz help

 

[gregrocker]

Do you have a UEFI BIOS? Enter setup to look for settings for UEFI, EFI, CSM or Legacy BIOS. Does the DVD give a choice for UEFI DVD drive in Boot Menu? http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...e-firmware-interface-install-windows-7-a.html

Test the hard drive with maker's diagnostics Hard Drive Diagnostic Procedure

 

[Holland34]

My head is making a nice, hollow drumming sound on my wall...

Background: I had a perfectly functioning Lenovo Y570 laptop running Windows 7. I thought I would wait for things to shake out and upgrade to Windows 10. Unfortunately, the upgrade went very badly. On the down side, I have completely blown out my hard drive. It has been deleted, recreated, and reformatted so many times, I've lost count. On the bright side, I was at least bright enough to completely back up my computer before attempting the upgrade, so I should have all my data once I get this figured out.

Microsoft wants me to reinstall Windows 7. Lenovo won't play nice and provide a recovery disk, so I am attempting to do this from scratch (which may be a win in the scheme of things, anyway). So far, I have spent many hours over 5 or 6 days trying to make this work, but I keep running into the same issue: when I get to the screen of "Where do you want to install Windows", I keep getting the same error.

I tried Step 6 in the instructions and ran into the same issue. I select Custom install, but I get the error "Setup was unable to create a new system partition or locate an existing system partition. See the Setup log files for more information." (Of course, I don't know how to access Setup log files in any case.) As best I can tell, I do not have a UEFI BIOS setup. One new thing I learned (or I think I learned) from Step 6 is that my SATA HDD is the only drive that shows up on the "Where do you want to install Windows" page. Basically, I have a single "Disk 0 Partition 1: WINDOWS 7" option (the "WINDOWS 7" portion of the name was a new addition based on the Step 6 process).

When I did Step 6, I saw there were actually three drives shown: Disk 0 (my HDD with nearly a TB of space), Disk 1 (which I didn't know what it was, but had 29 GB's of space), and Disk 2 (which appears to be my thumb drive that I am using for the installation process and has about 8 GB's of space). However, as mentioned above, only Disk 0 shows up in the "Where do you want to install Windows" page.

Based on my BIOS setup page, I have the following:

SATA HDD: WDC WD10JPVT-24A1YT0
Internal SDD: SAMSUNG MZMPA032HMCD-000L1

After some *more* internet research, I found the WDC WD10JPVT-24A1YT0 is a 1 TB SATA drive and the SAMSUNG MZMPA032HMCD-000L1 is a 32 GB SSD drive. This leads me to believe that the former is the Disk 0 and the latter is the Disk 1. My guess is that somehow, this is the causing the issue in trying to reinstall Windows 7. Of course, it could be a totally different issue... but I've done a ton of scouring on the web and tried what most of the easily stuff suggests.

SO... if you have any ideas, I would be eternally grateful. Otherwise, I have an expensive doorstop. Thanks!

 

[derekimo]

Welcome to the forum,

There are some specific steps for installing with that mSATA cache SSD + HDD combo.

What I didn't see you mention is installing the IRST drivers during install. In your case you will need a second USB thumb for those.

Here are some very good instructions for doing what you need,

https://support.lenovo.com/ca/en/pr...pad-y570/documents/HT100133?tabName=Solutions

The SSD is a cache drive, you don't want to install on that. Windows would outgrow that quickly.

 

[Holland34]

Thank you for your reply. I took a look at the link you included and had a few issues... first, a copy of the info:

1. NO BIOS settings related to RAID, AHCI or Compatibility mode need to be changed. If you have the HDD+SSD combo, LEAVE IT on RAID.

2. All of these files retained their original download names. They are all from Intels website. You can find them, but it can be difficult, their website is a bit hard to navigate. Feel free to get them though if you're not comfortable.

Detailed steps:

1. You will need your Win7 or Win8 disk. In this guide a 64 bit has been used, so for all intents and purposes, all drivers listed here will be the 64 bit variety. After you have your installation media, head over to Intel website and attain the following drivers.

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First, unfortunately, when I go into my BIOS settings, the only options I have are for AHCI or Compatibility. RAID is not shown as an option.

Second, I don't have my Win7 disk as Lenovo would not provide my a recovery disk (long story). I got an ISO file from Microsoft and have gone through the appropriate hoops to set it up properly on a USB 2.0 thumb drive.

Third, the link they included for the drivers no longer works. I tried to look at the Intel site to see if I could figure out which driver to get, but was a little lost (I'm good at following instructions and am adaptable, but I have very little actual core knowledge of all this).

One other note included in the link is "Delete all of your partitions. You will be left with your 500GB disk, unpartitioned - and a 8GB drive, unpartitioned - this is your SSD. It only shows up as 8GB because 22GB of that is dedicated to RapidStorage cache, due to the driver you just installed. Now create a partition on the main HDD and let windows create the other necessary ones." This is another challenge as I only see the single unpartitioned disk (the HDD).

I continue to do as much research as I can to help myself (I currently have 15 tabs open to various pages trying to figure this out), but any additional feedback is appreciated.

 

[derekimo]

OK, honestly I don't know why they would use a host for that link anyway, but the driver is listed on the downloads page for your computer,

Laptops and netbooks :: IdeaPad Y Series laptops :: IdeaPad Y570 - Lenovo Support (CA)

I wouldn't worry too much about the BIOS if you haven't changed anything, just leave it like it is.

As far as I'm concerned, if you have an installer, that is your Win 7 disk, you will need the product key on your COA,

This tutorial will probably help you out as well, obviously not the first part since you have already deleted all your partitions, and disabling anything is a moot point,

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/307529-install-windows-system-msata-isrt.html

According to that tutorial it looks like you can deal with the SSD mSATA after the install of windows.

 

[Holland34]

Thank you for your help. It looks like I am finally able to get this going. Ultimately, it was as simple as changing the order of the boot preferences. The SSD was listed first... per your insight, since that is a cache drive, the install was going to take place on the optical drive which meant I had to move it to first in the boot order preference. I am working on getting everything set up again, but it looks like I will survive. :-D Thanks!

 

[derekimo]

Thank you for your help. It looks like I am finally able to get this going. Ultimately, it was as simple as changing the order of the boot preferences. The SSD was listed first... per your insight, since that is a cache drive, the install was going to take place on the optical drive which meant I had to move it to first in the boot order preference. I am working on getting everything set up again, but it looks like I will survive. :-D Thanks!

You're welcome, let us know how it turns out.