Freeze During Vista Install

[rufio1066]

I began having trouble with Vista and decided to just do a complete reinstall to fix everything. However I am running into trouble when reinstalling. When I get to the screen where I type in my Windows Vista Product Key, it completely freezes. The mouse cursor is able to move around but when I click on 'Next', nothing happens. I have tried it at least 6 times now but every time I get to this screen no matter what I do, it freezes. I've done a few reinstalls of Vista before but have never had a problem or freeze. Is there a fix or work around for this?

I appreciate any and all help! Thanks

 

[rufio1066]

I installed the new IDE DVD-Burner and gave the installation a try. Results are a failure. I tried to call MS today but they are closed so I will call on Monday to see if I am able to obtain a replacement disc.

 

[notherdude]

let us know how it goes

 

[rufio1066]

I was about to order a new replacement disc from Microsoft for $30 when I realized I hadn't tried to see if the disc in question would run on my HP laptop. I popped the disc into my laptop and it opened in my laptops Vista. I could explore the contents of the disc such as looking in the folders.

*I did not run autorun for fear of the unknown and not wanting to wipe my HP laptop's O/S and hdd data.

The fact that my laptop was able to run autorun and I was able to view the contents of the folders on the disc, does this mean that the disc is good or still potentially bad? I kinda want to be 100% sure before I go and purchase a new CD for $30 bucks ...I also ran my little disc-scratch-remover gadget again over the disc and it looks really good now.

...I know I am backtracking a little bit here, but I think I will take my PC into a local shop that I think I can trust and brief them of the situation and see if they can troubleshoot the problem and let me know what needs to be fixed or replaced so that this thing can get rolling again. I'm unfortunately getting to the point where I shouldn't be purchasing spare part after part to troubleshoot. I want to be able to solve this on my own (with your help northerdude!) but its getting to the point for me where I'm fed up and just rather pay someone to fix it

 

[rufio1066]

I spoke to the folks at the PC shop I'm going to take my rig into and the gentleman said it "sounds like you are doing everything correctly and it sounds more like a virus after what you described was occurring with current O/S installed". He asked if I had Kaspersky on a floppy or CD that I could boot from and run a scan; unfortunately I do not have that, I only have the Install CD that came with the retail package.

It would cost approx. $70 for them to look at it at which point he said they would attempt to install the O/S and see what the problem was and then fix it. (I'm sure the final bill will be over $100 easy). At this point I'm content with that I suppose.

One thing I am worried about is my data. I have only 1 hdd but have it partitioned with a C and D drive. C: has the O/S and D: is basically a copy&paste of all of "My Documents" (i.e. docs., movies, music, pics, etc.) Obviously I want to keep all of my irreplaceable data. The PC repair guy said that if they had to wipe the HDD clean they would first transfer over the data onto their virtual server and then transfer it back over when repairs are complete. However, during this process they would be able to view the names of my files during the transfer process, yes?

I would like to avoid that if at all possible. Here is what I'm hoping to do...

I realized that my laptop has an eSATA port and I could connect my HDD to my laptop via this connection. However, would connecting my HDD to my laptop to transfer over these files myself potentially expose my Laptop it this possibly virus infected HDD and infect it as well? I have Norton Internet Security 2009 installed on the laptop and not sure if that would protect it or not.

Thanks

 

[notherdude]

So they think a virus is stopping an install off of a DVD onto a hard drive? - but nothing on the hard drive is running because you have booted from the Vista DVD, correct? Or were you running Vista and trying to install from inside the OS? If you were doing the latter than try the former.

If you have a virus then it's always possible it could transfer over to the laptop but by this time it "should' be in Norton's definitions. It is possible though. And yea, if they choose to look they can see anything you have.

Blaming malware is a standard answer for a PC tech who doesn't know what your problem is. If you were booting from the DVD when installing Vista I find it hard to believe that the virus propagated over to the new install all by itself. Viruses need to be either set running or already running, neither of which seems very likely if you booted from a DVD. I suppose anything is possible though.

I really want to know what would happen if you tried to install XP on that hard drive. Can you borrow someones disk, or maybe even download Ubuntu or something?

 

[rufio1066]

I'm really the only techish person I know. I don't know anyone with a regular XP or Vista CD laying around that I could use. I could try Ubuntu I suppose but I've never used that or even see it in person and don't have the foggiest idea where to start with that.

This morning what I thought I would try or research doing is completing wiping my hard drive clean. I was able to transfer over the most important files I had on my Desktop to my laptop via a thumb drive.

During my research for wiping clean a hard drive I came across two programs that seemed rather popular; Darik's Boot And Nuke (DBAN) and Kill Disk.
Reading each program's website I found in the FAQ section that when wiping your HDD it erases literally everything (duh!), but it also erases C: which is what I would install Vista on. This is probably a noobish question, but how would I get C: back? If I had literally a blank HDD and I popped in a Vista DVD to install, would the Windows installation create that C: to install the O/S on?

Another item that I noticed in the FAQ was that its possible for your HDD to shrink to 137GB after wiping it clean?

Here is the FAQ section to what I'm talking about...


Opinion on trying this method? At this point I don't think I have much left to lose and if it is a virus then doing this should kill it and allow me to install my OS I would think.

*I also tried today to create some A/V boot CDs but neither of the two I created worked. :-(

 

[notherdude]

When you erase the hard rive completely you will lose all data and the 'partitioning' of the drive, so you will lose 'c', however, the Vista install routine will offer to create a new partition for you - when you get to the screen where it asks you where you want to install Vista I think it will allow you to install to the wiped drive which will show up as 'unpartitioned space' if not you can choose 'drive options' and then 'create' which will create a new partition - after that the rest is automatic. Screenshot here: http://maximumpcguides.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/vista_clean_install8.png

Those programs you are looking at are overkill, all you really need is to simply delete the existing partition but I guess they would do the job too.

 

[rufio1066]

How do I simply delete the existing partitions then? Is there some other program I should probably be looking at instead?

 

[notherdude]

well, I usually use the Windows disc itself but if I recall you were freezing up before you got to that point, correct?

I alternatively use fdisk but there is a free partitioning tool called gparted - it's the ISO first on the list - you burn it to a CD

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=115843&package_id=271779

 

[rufio1066]

I tried the gparted partitioning tool and no such luck. The first 3 screens feel a little bit more "peppier" than before I used the tool but it still the windows installation still gets stuck on the product key activation screen. I feel like throwing my tower out the window of my 23 story condo building so it can hopefully suffer a painful fall and then get ran over by an 18 wheeler of some sort... It's time for a beer!