Windows 7 installation Problems.

[Sebpanas]

Hey,

I have a Sony Vaio laptop, and recently upon restart, I only got a black screen, the OS didn't boot up at all.

After trying to figure out what the problem was, I created a recovery disk to try and fix the laptop, but I couldn't get anywhere with the repair.

Eventually I had to un-install vista, leaving me with no OS. I bought a new Hard drive, a WD 500G Skorpio, and also an upgrade version of Windows 7. Today I tried to install it using custom install, however I couldn't get anywhere, some times it started installing, other times it froze on various stages. The farthest the install got was to reboot, where it said that it couldn't load the OS. Sorry if this information is too vague, i'll try and give more if you need it, but i'm no computer expert so I don't have a clue as to how to fix it.

Could anyone guide me as to how to solve this problem?

Thanks in advance.

 

[theog]

Take a look at these posts:

http://www.sevenforums.com/installa...on-installation-problems-their-solutions.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/installa...ck-reference-list-installing-windows-7-a.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/28129-questions-use-help-installation-issues.html

Can you post your specs
http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/22550-filling-out-system-specs.html

 

[Sebpanas]

Sorry for not posting the specs in the first post, I didn't have access to my laptop at that time.

Here are the Specs:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T5550 1.83GHz
Memory: 3GB/Go DDR2 SDRAM
HDD: 500GB WD Skorpio (Recently bought - it's completely clean)
WLAN: 802.11 a/b/g/n
Screen: 15.4 WXGA Black LCD
Optical: DVD RW/ R DL/RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GT GPU

No OS is installed onto the laptop anymore - and like I said in my original post, I can't install any OS, I've also tried installing Xp but had no luck.

 

[Tews]

Do you have your CD/DVD drive selected as the first boot device??

 

[Sebpanas]

Yes I did that. Infact I think I just fixed it. I got it up to the completing installation part, and it rebooted but then got stuck on 'completing installation'. I pressed Shift +f10 to open up the Command Promopt and typed in explorer.exe And now i'm on the desktop. Let's hope this worked.

 

[Sebpanas]

Great, it installed fine and then restarted, and suddenly it says it failed to start. I'm not sure what the hell the problem is but it's annoying. I'll post more details if I get the error again after doing a repair.

 

[Sebpanas]

Update: Whenever I startup the computer without the installation disk, I get an error saying "windows failed to load because the system registry file is missing or corrupt" I try running the system repair on the installation disk but it takes forever and then freezes.

As far as i'm aware, the OS is installed onto the hard drive, as I was able to get onto it by pressing Shift +f10 on the 'completing installation' part of the installation process, but now I can't do anything.

Help please!

 

[Petey7]

That part of the installation can take awhile. Basically, you interrupted, so it did not complete. I say start from scratch or boot on to the disk and select the repair option. Let it do a start up repair and wait for it to finish.

 

[Sebpanas]

That part of the installation can take awhile. Basically, you interrupted, so it did not complete. I say start from scratch or boot on to the disk and select the repair option. Let it do a start up repair and wait for it to finish.

I let the system repair run for some time, and it ended up freezing, although I could still move the mouse.

I'm going to try doing a clean install, see if that will work.

For some reason my laptop is reluctant to install any OS...If I don't get it working by tomorrow then i'll take it into a tech shop.

 

[Sebpanas]

New Update: It's now saying that My hard drive is at risk of imminent failure. Giving me the SMART Imminent Failure message.

This is a brand new hard drive so I highly doubt that this is the case, however due to this I can't even try installing the OS onto the laptop or anything. I'm really getting desperate now.

 

[Petey7]

Being new doesn't mean its not failing. If it is new, find a proof of purchase and contact the manufacturer of the hard drive. Usually they come with a 3-5 year warranty, and they should replace it for free.

 

[Sebpanas]

I guess i'll have to do that, but why would it fail so soon?

 

[Petey7]

roughly 2-3% of all electronics made have a problem from the moment they are made. Your drive had a problem that got worst and worst with use. We usually call items like these DOA (dead on arrival).

 

[Sebpanas]

Ah okay, thanks. But even so, it was working before, yet I still couldn't get the OS to actually load up and work. Do you have any idea why this would be? Could it be a hardware issue?
The laptop gets pretty hot, I think Sony have admitted to having problems with overheating Vaios, so is it possible that some of the hardware melted/warped?

 

[Petey7]

The hard drive was most likely messed up from the start. Problems take time to develop. It's like a auto-immune disease. It's there for a long time before you notice it, and once you do, you're already screwed.

 

[Sebpanas]

Ah okay, well I guess i'm not very lucky when it comes to hard drives. The reason I bought a new hard drive in the first place was because I couldn't install any OS onto my old one.

Well thanks for all the help, i'm going to take it into a tech shop tomorrow to see if they can work their magic and just make sure that it's the hard drive that's the problem at hand.

Thanks again

 

[theog]

Did you do a full format on the HD?

 

[Petey7]

Did you do a full format on the HD?

Would it matter on a DOA HDD?

 

[theog]

Did you do a full format on the HD?

Would it matter on a DOA HDD?

May not be dead.

 

[Sebpanas]

How do I do a full format? When I had to choose where to install Win 7 I formatted the drive then? Is that what you're talking about?