Windows 7 Clean Install - Install Loop/Freeze problem.

[qu4ke]

hey guys,

So I've had a few PC problems as of recent which ended up me needing to do a clean install of W7. It needed a good clean anyway so it was good timing. Anyway, I tried the first time on a clean install from my Ultimate 64 Disc. I had constant freeze/start-up issues (the freeze being on the Gathering files part of the install)

I read somewhere that booting from USB can bypass the possible issue of it being the CD drive so I set-up an iso and booted from my USB, it still hands randomly at gathering files BUT when get to the point where I can choose which partition if I create a brand new one at that screen it runs through the install fine, get's to the point of restarting and it reloads the install. Basically an install loop.

I have absolutely no idea how to fix this anymore, I've tried everything I can think of once it does install on how to get it to boot. Changing BIOS to boot HDD only incase it's just booting from usb instantly but I can't for the life of my get it to boot properly and sometimes even on the clean partition install it will hang.

I really really need help as I don't have that much knowledge in this sort of thing so a lot of the fixes I've used I can't really explain but yeah.. Any help would be greatly appreciate.

 

[herboren]

Were gonna fix this problem right here, right now.

First format the USB stick (Must be higher than 4GB+) from Start > Computer > Right+Click USB > Format = Defaults + Quick Format.

Once formatted jump over to this link to download a fresh copy of Microsoft Windows 7 (This is legit and no piracy involved. Digital River Content hosts most of the Microsoft's store content).

Also download the Microsoft USB/DVD Download Tool that will allow you to boot an ISO image from a USB (Just be sure that your BIOS is configured to boot the USB after POST.

Once you have the Microsoft Windows 7 Operating system that you have downloaded, open the Microsoft USB/DVD Download Tool and locate the Windows 7 ISO. Next locate your USB medium from the selection box. And click start/begin to create a bootable medium with the Windows 7 ISO. Once complete, reboot the system with the bootable medium (ie USB).

When the files copy over and the computer restarts, you will be required to remove the medium so that the installation may continue, remove the USB at POST or before POST. Leave the medium unplugged for the remainder of the time. Once Windows is installed, format your USB medium.

Note: Some users may experience prior to the installation: "cd/dvd device driver missing...". If you receive this erro, TomNeild found a solution at answers.Microsoft by saying that if you do receive this error, remove the USB and place it into another USB port on the computer (not the same port) then cancel out of the screen back to the "Install Now" button and hit Install now again, you should have better luck..

 

[qu4ke]

I've done all of this before with a different ISO, I'm going to give it another shot but for some reason when I select the ISO to use on the USB it says it's not a valid ISO file? I have read somewhere that you can use UltraISO to change the properties so that it works should I do this or is there a fix that doesn't tamper with the ISO itself? Thanks for the reply

 

[herboren]

I've done all of this before with a different ISO, I'm going to give it another shot but for some reason when I select the ISO to use on the USB it says it's not a valid ISO file? I have read somewhere that you can use UltraISO to change the properties so that it works should I do this or is there a fix that doesn't tamper with the ISO itself? Thanks for the reply

If the ISO shows up on the USB as a single file (not saying yours is, but if it is, now ya know), then this is not the correct method. The ISO has to be decompressed or expanded onto the USB done via the USB Tool provided above. Then after the ISO has been expanded to the USB then the partition on the USB has to be set as active in order to boot correctly which is also done via the USB Tool above.

Somewhere along the lines the ISO you are downloading is either damaged during the download process or has been accidentally renamed into a format the USB tool does not recognize (unlikely this is the case). Perhaps the ISO's that you have; delete them all and make sure there are no other variant ISO's that interfere with the same file naming convention. There should be no need to modify the ISO properties via UltraISO, the ISO's work as is and seeing that these ISO's are provided by Microsoft via Digital River Content as their host, it is unlikely that the ISO on their is damaged.

If it is Ok with Toms Hardware Mods that I post this video, there is no sound and it is very short, this is how the process should look and should also be successful when setting it up:

USB Format + Windows 7 USB/DVD Tool

If somewhere along the lines this does not work, you can try seeking other alternatives, however complications may and will arise.

 

[qu4ke]

Yeah I understand how to boot the iso from the usb and also how to mount it using the Windows USB tool. I did this for my previous ISO versions and it worked to the point where it got to installing the files.. Just when it does it either fails or loops the boot as I said.

The download went through fine from Digital River and I did not change the name and I saved it outside of any place the other ISO's were so there was no over writing of old file names or anything like that, the problem I had with my computer was a Hard Drive problem so I'm starting to wonder whether my hard drive is dying? It seems like it could cause the problems at hand e.g not writing properly and losing files so it reboots not noticing Windows 7 is actually installed.

If this is the case how would I go about finding out whether my hard drive is dying or not? As I don't have any access to programs etc. What do I have to do?

 

[herboren]

Yeah I understand how to boot the iso from the usb and also how to mount it using the Windows USB tool. I did this for my previous ISO versions and it worked to the point where it got to installing the files.. Just when it does it either fails or loops the boot as I said.

The download went through fine from Digital River and I did not change the name and I saved it outside of any place the other ISO's were so there was no over writing of old file names or anything like that, the problem I had with my computer was a Hard Drive problem so I'm starting to wonder whether my hard drive is dying? It seems like it could cause the problems at hand e.g not writing properly and losing files so it reboots not noticing Windows 7 is actually installed.

If this is the case how would I go about finding out whether my hard drive is dying or not? As I don't have any access to programs etc. What do I have to do?

The only way to find if a HDD is failing is to run tests/diagnostics on it. There are several tools you can use such as SeaTools, which comes in a LiveISO and other tools which are made specifically for the hardware, Western Digital has their own, but to numb it for the masses I strongly recommend SeaTools as it has compatibility for most HDD's out there.

Now SeaTools may be able to recover bad sectors but if there are several sectors that it cannot repair, I strongly suggest backing up the data on that drive and tossing it for a new one, as multiple bad sectors that cannot be fixed concludes an imminent HDD failure in the future. There will be however, several modes of repair options so pay close mind to what the program offers, it may benefit.

There are several different tests you can run, but as a beginner I would stick with the default test or read the SeaTools owner manual. You would let the HDD run for 2 ; 4 hours or even all night for thorough tests, which test you chose is up to you, but recommended is at least a 4 hours test or what ever SeaTools provides as a thorough test; quick scans tend to leave out all of the important information.

 

[qu4ke]

Thanks heaps for the replies, they are very much appreciated. I'd like to give SeaTools a try but how do I do this (the hard drive I have is completely empty now and obviously I can't get an OS installed on it so how do I go about running the program from it? Sorry this probably seems like a stupid question to you but it seems like I'm kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place..

EDIT--

Just found my old Vista Home Premium disc that I KNOW works, tested it out and got the same error I did trying to install from a burnt iso windows 7 disc. The error is : Windows cannot install required files. Make sure all files required for installation are available, and restart the installation. Error code: 0x8007045D. When I last got this error trying to install the W7 Ult disc, the fix was to use the USB boot (hence why I'm doing it now) so I'm not sure whether this means my hard drive is bust seeing as the Vista disc is a working factory disc produced by Vista therefore it can't be a bad burn or anything like that..

 

[herboren]

Thanks heaps for the replies, they are very much appreciated. I'd like to give SeaTools a try but how do I do this (the hard drive I have is completely empty now and obviously I can't get an OS installed on it so how do I go about running the program from it? Sorry this probably seems like a stupid question to you but it seems like I'm kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place..

EDIT--

Just found my old Vista Home Premium disc that I KNOW works, tested it out and got the same error I did trying to install from a burnt iso windows 7 disc. The error is : Windows cannot install required files. Make sure all files required for installation are available, and restart the installation. Error code: 0x8007045D. When I last got this error trying to install the W7 Ult disc, the fix was to use the USB boot (hence why I'm doing it now) so I'm not sure whether this means my hard drive is bust seeing as the Vista disc is a working factory disc produced by Vista therefore it can't be a bad burn or anything like that..

Error code: 0x8007045D - ERROR_IO_DEVICE means it is an Input/Output device error which is why people recommended the USB, but this doesn't fix your I/O error with the ROM. Your problem may not be the DVD medium you are using, and may actually be the CDROM/DVDROM you are using to read the medium.

For the SeaTool, when I say LiveISO, that means It works from the medium, the same concept also applies to using a USB, it works directly from the flash memory of the USB or from the CD (just like your able to install Vista or Windows 7 when no operating system is present on HDD), whichever route you choose, its loaded off the medium. Windows isn't required to run a LiveISO, most Linux distro's use LiveISO format so people can test the software before deciding if they want to install it. You can also try Hiren's boot disc, as they provide a plethora of utility's in aiding/repairing most of your hardware.

All your using the SeaTools for is to test the integrity and structure of the HDD (The Hardware), not the Windows Operating systems. You will notice that with the error: ERROR_IO_DEVICE, people recommend running 'Chkdsk /f /x /r', though the error applies to I/O Error it doesn't necessarily imply the CDROM/DVDROM, since HDD also work as I/O Devices. This is used to check for bad sectors and clusters on the hardware to make sure everything is in working order, SeaTools has the same concept, but is not run from Windows and is more in depth with it's testing.

However if it is the CDROM/DVDROM, then running testing directly from the USB would be an acceptable choice as the device is not tied in with any other I/O devices on the machine i.e: HDD and CD/DVDROM.

 

[qu4ke]

So basically my best bet at this point is trying to recover any bad sectors/finding out if there are multiple bad sectors on my current HDD and if it does come up bad I'm going to have to get a new hard drive?

From all the errors and loops throwing up I'm going to assume it's probably a faulty hard drive that I can hopefully save. I have run chkdsk through multiple times and it has never come up with any faulty sectors and says it should be clean. Though as you said it's not as thorough as these other softwares.

So seeing as it's 1:30am where I am now I'll try and get these running tomorrow and see if I can figure out where the problem is whether it be hardware related (I'm guessing yes) or software related.

Thanks for the advice, I'll post back my results as soon as I can..

 

[hvactech123]

This had been driving me crazy!!! Looping, over and over! Long story short, think I had flipped the power supply to 220 about a week or two ago and apparently really screwed up the operating systems, I say systems because I actually had 2 going on after I bought an SSD, I kept my older disk drives and OS, it was sweet. Was able to save some files but not much, the older disk drives showed completely corrupted, tried one software but it couldn't do anything. I finally decided I'd have to just wipe them all and re-install, that's when the looping began. After going back and forth with the Install after it would reboot each time as needed it would say it couldn't use the drive format as it was, needed to be ntfs, I thought I had it but would come back and say the same thing, I couldn't choose any of the partitions I had after the reboots again. Thank God finally I found a little you tube video of how to actually format the "larger" partition while actually at the "instal" screen. On my windows keyboard you hold shift and the f10 key to open a cmd prompt.Now type diskpart then click enter, then type list volume and click enter, then type select volume 2 where 2 is the larger of the partitions shown, it could be 3 possibly. Just make sure your on the right drive your installing to. Now type clean After that, exit the cmd window and click the install button, you should now be able to use that partition, it may want to set it up for you which is fine, they know what their doing, lol. After that the system loaded and on the reboot went right on back into continuing the installation like usual, asking for key ect. So so awesome!!! Hope this helps, it has been a really long, long day!