Windows 7 not starting at all

[Megahertz07]

May be that your 960 isn't a UEFI-GPT disk and is a Legacy-MBR.
Try to boot as legacy and see if it able to do the repair.

 

[MrZork]

I checked in Disk Management and I was sure it said that disk was "GUID Partition Table".

But, I booted from the USB stick without UEFI and got to the screen where it wants me to choose a drive. But, it is still showing no drives. I am assuming that means the NVMe drivers didn't load. Is that correct? I had put the Samsung_NVM_Express_Driver_3.0.exe file into the drivers/Bootx64 and drivers/Installx64 folders of the working folder for SIW2's tool when I ran the tool. Does that EXE file need to be extracted before I run the tool?

There is an option to load drivers. But it doesn't recognize Samsung_NVM_Express_Driver_3.0.exe as a driver. Is there any way I can extract the actual drivers from the Samsung_NVM_Express_Driver_3.0.exe file, so that I can continue?

 

[Megahertz07]

I'm 99.9% sure your 960 isn't GPT.
You're making things difficult as you don't follow my instructions.
Drivers can't be an executable file. They must be *.inf, *.sys *.cat.
I gave you the files on post#10.

Start over using the files from post#10. Unzip and place the files into the drivers/Bootx64 and drivers/Installx64 folders.

 

[MrZork]

Thank you for that link. I am away from my stricken PC for the evening. I will rebuild the installation USB and report back tomorrow when I test it.

 

[MrZork]

Sorry I am so thick about this. I have added the four files from 64bit-Sams.zip to SIW2's two 64 bit folders for drivers. Here's the Boot64 folder (and Installx64 has the same 4 driver files):


(I have already eliminated [3] and [4] from install.wim to save space.)

Then I run the 7UPDATEv5.cmd file and go through that process. I was thinking that the tool would add those driver files to the appropriate places in the installation distro created.

But, when I boot (non-EUFI) from the created USB stick and choose the "Repair your PC" option, it is still not seeing the Samsung SSD.

Megahertz07, you mentioned adding those files to the WIM files in the distro.

Just added the MVMe drivers to boot.wim (index 1 and 2) and to Install.wim (index 2 = HP)

I guess I should do the same thing. I can open boot.wim and install.wim in 7zip and see [1] and [2] (and [2]). But, there are lots of sub folders. Where in [1] and [2] (and [2]) should I put those 4 driver files?

 

[Paul Black]

Hi MrZork,

The drivers you added are fine and in the correct format of .inf, .sys and .cat [as they can't be .exe files].

Extract the files from the iso with 7zip to a Win7 folder. Don't use spaces or special characters on the folder name. Just Win7
Put the MVMe driver files on 7UPDATERv5\Drivers\Bootx64 and 7UPDATERv5\Drivers\Installx64
Run SIW2 tool. Browse to Win7 folder. Follow the instructions. Skip the updater.
It will take some time. Be patient.

Did you skip the 7UPDATER like Megahertz07 suggested in post #47?

I hope this helps!

 

[Megahertz07]

SIW2 has updated his tool to V6 https://www.sevenforums.com/attachm...-your-win-7-installation-media-7updaterv6.zip
Let's see if you did it right
- Extract the Win 7 installation files to a folder (for ex \downloads\7updaterV6\Win7hp) - The folder must have a short name without spaces.
- Add the four files from 64bit-Sams.zip to SIW2's two 64 bit folders for drivers (as you did).
- Run the tool, browse to \downloads\7updaterV6\Win7hp. Let it update boot.wim and install.wim. Skip the updates.
- Create an iso file.
- Transfer the iso to USB using MS tool or Rufus.
- Boot the USB as Legacy-MBR (not UEFI)

 

[SIW2]

The folder must have a short name without spaces.

Spaces issue has ( hopefully) been fixed in v6.

 

[Paul Black]

Spaces issue has ( hopefully ) been fixed in v6.

Outstanding work as usual SIW2 .

 

[SIW2]

The OP might not have the correct drivers. I suggest he add all these to the bootx64 and installx64 folders:

View attachment Windows_7_x64_nvme_17-07-18.zip

View attachment 404933

View attachment Windows_7_x64_usb3_2_17-07-18.zip

 

[MrZork]

The OP might not have the correct drivers. I suggest he add all these to the bootx64 and installx64 folders:

View attachment 404932

View attachment 404933

View attachment 404934

Thank you. To the bootx64 and installx64 folders, should I add those ZIP files themselves, or the folders in those ZIP files, or all of the files in the folders in those ZIP files? In other words, should my C:\Users\spiff\Downloads\7UPDATERv6\Drivers\Bootx64 folder look like it does below?

 

[MrZork]

SIW2 has updated his tool to V6 https://www.sevenforums.com/attachm...-your-win-7-installation-media-7updaterv6.zip
Let's see if you did it right
- Extract the Win 7 installation files to a folder (for ex \downloads\7updaterV6\Win7hp) - The folder must have a short name without spaces.
- Add the four files from 64bit-Sams.zip to SIW2's two 64 bit folders for drivers (as you did).
- Run the tool, browse to \downloads\7updaterV6\Win7hp. Let it update boot.wim and install.wim. Skip the updates.
- Create an iso file.
- Transfer the iso to USB using MS tool or Rufus.
- Boot the USB as Legacy-MBR (not UEFI)

I am modifying two steps.

• I have added the drivers files linked by SIW2 in his post.
• Before running the tool, I have edited install.wim to remove the [3] and [4] folders, to reduce space.

 

[MrZork]

Answering my own question from post #71, it looks like adding the driver folders from those zip files to bootx64 and installx64 works fine. I am running the updater now and it is telling me that it is "Installing 29 of 29 - C:\Users\spiff\Downloads\7UPDATERv6\DRIVERS\Bootx64\VIA USB\xhcdrv.inf: The driver package was successfully installed." (And 28 similar messages.)

 

[SIW2]

should my C:\Users\spiff\Downloads\7UPDATERv6\Drivers\Bootx64 folder look like it does below?

Yes. It seems you already figured that out.

C:\Users\spiff\Downloads\7UPDATERv6\Drivers\Bootx64 is quite a long path.Shouldn't be a problem in your case, but some people have ridiculously long usernames with spaces, etc.

Tip for the future - when doing this kind of thing, I normally keep it short e.g by extracting the 7updaterv6.zip directly to the root of the drive, so the path is like this:

C:\7UPDATERv6

 

[MrZork]

Okay, recreated the install distro USB two ways. Both came after creating the distro files as above.

First, I used SIW2's CreateIso.cmd tool to create an ISO. Then I used Rufus to burn the ISO to the USB key. Rufus would not let me burn the created ISO as FAT32 with the partition scheme set to "MBR partition scheme for BIOS or UEFI-CSM" (as opposed to the other choices "MBR partition scheme for EUFI" and "GPT partition scheme for EUFI").

Since I was looking for a non-UEFI option, the one I chose was the only one that seemed applicable. That was "MBR partition scheme for BIOS or UEFI-CSM" and NTFS. Maybe there is a combination that I didn't consider. I didn't expect this to end up working, since Megahertz07 has said I will need FAT32. But, I tried, since the ISO that the tool created didn't seem to work with FAT32. It didn't (see below).


Second, I just formatted the USB stick as FAT32 and copied the distro files to it (not the ISO, the files, as shown below).



In both cases, I was able to boot the USB from BIOS (non-UEFI) and I got to the screen where I can choose "Repair your PC". In both cases, it failed with the incompatible error "This version of System Recovery Options is not compatible with the version of Windows you are trying to repair. Try using a recovery disc that is compatible with this version of Windows."


Is there a definitive way for me to check whether my M.2 SSD is low formatted as legacy - MBR or UEFI - GPT? I'd like to nail that down for certain. I do not have another PC that I can pop the drive into.

 

[Megahertz07]

If you just copied the files to the FAT32 USB disk, it booted as UEFI, NOT Legacy-MBR.
Fat32 is mandatory for UEFI, not MBR.
As I wrote before, I'm 99.9% sure your 960 M.2 drive is Legacy-MBR
Did you tried the MS toll to create the USB?
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=56485

 

[SIW2]

Is there a definitive way for me to check whether my M.2 SSD is low formatted as legacy - MBR or UEFI - GPT?

Instead of running startup repair, open command prompt.

Type diskpart (then press enter)
In a few seconds the diskpart prompt appears
Diskpart>

Type
Diskpart>lis dis (then press enter)

There will appear a list. See is there is a star in the GPT column.

to exit diskpart, type exi

 

[MrZork]

If you just copied the files to the FAT32 USB disk, it booted as UEFI, NOT Legacy-MBR.
Fat32 is mandatory for UEFI, not MBR.
As I wrote before, I'm 99.9% sure your 960 M.2 drive is Legacy-MBR
Did you tried the MS toll to create the USB?
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=56485

I tried using the MS Tool for creating the USB drive from the ISO. I got the following error at the end.


I tried booting (non-UEFI) using that USB stick. It boots, but I get the same compatibility error.

 

[MrZork]

SIW2, the PC isn't booting at the moment, except from the install USB stick. Is there a way to boot to the command prompt so that I can use diskpart?

 

[SIW2]

command prompt can be invoked by booting the usb stick. It is one of the system recovery options

Instead of running startup repair, open command prompt.