windows 7 startup hangs after install

[sdprestwich]

I recently did a clean install from Windows XP to Windows 7 64 bit on my computer. Setup works just fine and installs correctly. After setup is finished windows tries to startup but it hangs after the starting windows screen.

My specks are (custom computer I bought from friend)
Asus A8N SLI motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual 3800+
OCZ PC 3200 400 MHZ 1024 MB Dual channel (x2) memory
Zotac nvidia GeForce 210 graphics card

 

[gregrocker]

Can you boot into Safe Mode to check which drivers may be in an error state (!) in Device Manager?

If install hasn't completely finished, you can access Device Manager this way: Device Manager - Access During Windows 7 Installation - Windows 7 Forums

Unplug all other peripherals and other HD"s. Use a VGA monitor, disable any TV Tuner card or projector.

You may need to start install over:

Check for latest BIOS update. If current, reset the CMOS: Clear CMOS - 3 Ways to Clear the CMOS - Reset BIOS While in BIOS setup, set SATA controller to AHCI first to try install.

Wipe the target HD before install: SSD - HDD Optimize for Windows Reinstallation - Windows 7 Forums

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello sdprestwich, welcome to Seven Forums!


It may be a good idea to start over and the best way forward would be to wipe the entire Hard Disk Drive before you start, have a look at this information below and be sure to post back with any further questions you may have and to keep us informed.


After you have copied out or made back-ups of the data you need to save to external media, use Step One of this tutorial at the first link below to do a wipe (secure erase) to the entire Hard Disk Drive / Solid State Drive.

• Then if you do not want to create the new Windows 7 "System Reserved" partition use the outline in Step Two #2 to create, format and mark Active a single 100GB partition to do the installation to.
• If you do want to create the "System Reserved" partition use the outline in Step Two #3 to create, format and mark Active the System Reserved partition and then create and format the 100GB partition to do the installation to.

Either way, running the "clean all" then creating and formatting the partition(s) using diskpart will get you the best possible space to do a clean install of Windows 7 to; you can always extend the Windows partition to include the remaining unallocated space on the HDD / SSD or create additional Primary partitions or an Extended partition after the installation completes if you choose.

SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

DISKPART : At PC Startup

Do a Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version

 

[sdprestwich]

I did wipe the HD clean before I tried the install for both 32 bit and 64 bit (both had the same problem). An interesting point is that I wiped the HD again and installed XP then upgraded to Vista 32bit then upgraded to 7 32bit and that worked. I wonder why it won't work after I wiped the HD and went straight to windows 7. It is a 64 bit machine and all the devices are capable of windows 7.

 

[gregrocker]

What about the BIOS version, resetting the CMOS, setting SATA controller to AHCI, removing all peripherals and other HD's?

You may also have a driver hanging Win7 setup which needs to be uninstalled in Safe Mode or by accessing Device Manager using steps I gave earlier. This driver may not have a problem with Vista install as it does with Win7.

If you want to try the clean install of Win7 again, save a backup image of your current install, let us know what happens at each step: Reinstalling Windows 7

 

[sdprestwich]

After fooling around with everything (clearing CMOS, looking at the BIOS) I decided to pull on old HD off another computer I had, wiped it then tried using it. Windows 7 64bit loaded like a charm and everything works fine. The difference is that this HD is an IDE instead of a Serial ATA. The motherboard can support up to 4 ATA HD's how do I get my ATA HD to work?

 

[gregrocker]

If you've tried all of the steps mentioned so far, then I'd save externally a Win7 backup image of your completed install on the IDE drive, unplug the IDE drive, boot the DVD Repair console or Repair CD to "Recover Using a System Image" then reimage to the SATA HD.
Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup - Windows 7 Forums
System Image Recovery - Windows 7 Forums

 

[LagoonLegion]

Gregrocker, he was mentioning that the issue arose if his more newer version of ATA drive was used. It was not about SATA...

Actually, ATA, PATA and IDE are the same thing with different terms/names.

In fact, he doesn't have the driver that can support his newer version of ATA drive.

Sdprestwich, you should find an appropriate hard disk driver for that. Most probably, it will work on your newer ATA HD too.

The only question is how are you going to install that as the matter of fact you couldn't even boot your Windows with the ATA HD?

Legion

 

[sdprestwich]

Here is what I found out. I installed 7 on the IDE HD and then did a scandisk on the ATA and it showed a bunch of bad sectors. I'm going to try a different ATA drive and see if it fixes the problem.

 

[sdprestwich]

I bought a new ATA HD, replaced the video card and everything worked fine. I was able to install windows 7 64bit. 1 problem that I did have was that during setup it hang for about 2 minutes in a couple places but then continued. Does anybody know why this would happen?