Windows 7 Installation Keeps Repeating Itself

[thegeorge613]

So this is a continuation of a problem I had before, outlined in this thread in the Windows 7 Driver section: Windows 7 Install Issue - Hard Drive not detected. However, another problem unrelated to drivers popped up, this time during installation.

Long story short, Windows wouldn't detect my hard drive beforehand, but now I got it detecting and partitioned, and can finally install Windows 7 Home Premium (fresh install on a newly built PC). Although it says on screen that the computer will reboot itself during the install process, the install seems to be starting from the beginning every time. When it did get near the end (finishing the "Installing Updates" step), the computer would reboot itself and install would start from the beginning, and the process keeps repeating itself and eat into the hard drive capacity more and more.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Specs:

AMD 2.4GHz Phenom X3 8750
GA-MA785G-UD3H motherboard
WD Caviar Blue 7200RPM 250GB hard drive
G.Skill 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 800 RAM
Rosewill 500W PSU
PNY GeForce 9500GT 1GB 128-bit Video Card
Samsung SH-S233L DVD Burner

Booting Windows 7 from a USB flash drive, ISO from Digital River store.

 

[Gandalf]

You are installing Windows from a flash drive. When Windows starts to reboot, suggest you remove the flash drive. I thing it's seeing the flash drive and starting the install process from scratch.

 

[buzznut]

It sounds to me like you may have the cd/dvd drive as the boot first drive (selected in bios). Check the bios and make sure your hard drive is selected as 1st boot device. Save and exit the bios.

For an install, you should boot the machine and when the post data comes up, hit the option (f11 on some machines) for boot menu, then select the cd drive as boot first. It should come up with the now quite familiar "hit any button to boot from cd." It should do this only once now.
Then when the install program reboots, it will point to the hard drive and not the cd rom, which would restart the process again. If the machine is pointed toward the boot drive then the install routine should continue as normal

Hope this helps. gl

 

[buzznut]

ok, sorry I just noticed about the flash drive at the bottom. In this case I would follow gandalfs advice.

 

[evongugg]

Yup. Gigabyte boards have a tendency to have this problem. I think what's happening is that the BIOS is trying to boot from the USB drive and we all know when rebooted multiple times in a short period of time it clears the CMOS.
Try using a DVD.

 

[thegeorge613]

I removed the USB drive when Windows rebooted, and it works perfect now. Thanks everyone! 😀

 

[audiblackrs4]

Change the primary boot device in your bios !! If you install from USB (If I remember correctly) after install reboots your computer enter the bios and set your harddisk as the primary boot drive. Make sure second and third "boot from" are set to disabled (and that the boot from removable drive is disabled).
Anyway as a general principle you should avoid making clean installs of an OS from a usb-source. Burn your ISO to DVD and install from an optical drive.
Enjoy your PC. I built over 50 and still love it....

 

[johnleii]

Hey I just wanted to add too. Installing Windows 7 on my Dell mini-9 using USB, I had this problem. But thanks to these posts.. pulling out the USB device worked too! thanks again!

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey