Windows 7 clean install problems

[jslater25]

So the past few days, I've been working on a reinstall of Windows 7 after changing a bunch of hardware (motherboard, RAM, processor, p/s) due to some issues that popped up from my daughter using the power button or yanking the power to kill the computer. I ran into a interesting issue that took some time to figure out (since I wasn't able to access the internet while troubleshooting).

Because my computer resides in an enclosed area under the desk, which makes cracking the case very time consuming, I made sure to get all hardware installed the way I wanted it. I was very vigilant to connect all fans, make sure all parts were seated properly, I spent time managing cables for air flow, and I even went so far as to change the layout of the hard drives (I have a total of 4 hard drives, 3 SATA and 1 IDE). I reconnected all peripherals (USB mouse/keyboard, printer, monitor, USB extension, headphones...), tossed in the Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade DVD and booted the computer.

I changed the boot order from HDD to the DVD-Rom instead, and let the Windows installation process begin. Before swapping hardware, I had taken the time to use Windows Easy Transfer to save my user profiles and my settings to one of the other HDDs. That allowed me to simply reformat the primary hard drive and install Windows 7 clean.

Here's where it got weird. Upon the install process rebooting the computer, I started getting errors. Bootmgr was missing. I tried everything until, by fluke, I changed the setting in the BIOS to boot to the DVD-Rom first each time. I reformatted the hard drive, installed Windows, and upon reboot this time, it was able to complete the installation.

I was even able to log into Windows and import my Windows Easy Transfer settings.

I removed the Windows install DVD, and rebooted. Another error popped up this time. Bootmgr was missing. And there was no boot partition (I forget the exact wording of the second error...). I tried everything I could think of in order to repair the install. I used the Windows install CD to repair, I tried rebuilding the boot config data (BCD), I tried repairing the main boot partition.

In frustration, I rebooted. And Windows loaded. But each time I removed the Windows installation DVD, Windows would not load.

So finally, I pulled the case out of the desk, removed all hardware except what was minimally necessary (RAM, DVD-rom, 1 hard drive, video card). I installed Windows AGAIN, and AGAIN I reformatted the hard drive.

Once Windows finished its install, turns out that I was able to boot directly into Windows without use of the DVD. AND, I also noticed that this time Windows partitioned my hard drive with one 100MB partition at the beginning (which wasn't there the first few times I tried installing).

So ... to prevent anyone else's frustration, I highly recommend that when you install Windows 7, make sure there is only one hard drive installed. Afterwards, you can then add in all your hardware.

But seriously, this took me two long evenings to figure out. :-(
In the end, the only other issue I had was that by adding in all my extra hard drives after the install, Windows didn't give them the same drive mappings which then caused issues with Windows Easy Transfer. But that's another story.

Sorry for the novel. And I hope this helps someone.

 

[ob1]

Yeah I was surprised by the 100MB partition as well, but for me, I repartitioned the drive during installation anyway, so during the creation of new partitions, that new 100MB one was already there as default. So maybe if you had repartitioned the boot drive prior to formatting option, it would have created this partition and resolved the problem.

However, I agree that it should be noted somewhere that this needs to happen, because its not very clear in any of the instructions....

 

[grss1982cvg]

So the past few days, I've been working on a reinstall of Windows 7 after changing a bunch of hardware (motherboard, RAM, processor, p/s) due to some issues that popped up from my daughter using the power button or yanking the power to kill the computer. I ran into a interesting issue that took some time to figure out (since I wasn't able to access the internet while troubleshooting).

Because my computer resides in an enclosed area under the desk, which makes cracking the case very time consuming, I made sure to get all hardware installed the way I wanted it. I was very vigilant to connect all fans, make sure all parts were seated properly, I spent time managing cables for air flow, and I even went so far as to change the layout of the hard drives (I have a total of 4 hard drives, 3 SATA and 1 IDE). I reconnected all peripherals (USB mouse/keyboard, printer, monitor, USB extension, headphones...), tossed in the Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade DVD and booted the computer.

I changed the boot order from HDD to the DVD-Rom instead, and let the Windows installation process begin. Before swapping hardware, I had taken the time to use Windows Easy Transfer to save my user profiles and my settings to one of the other HDDs. That allowed me to simply reformat the primary hard drive and install Windows 7 clean.

Here's where it got weird. Upon the install process rebooting the computer, I started getting errors. Bootmgr was missing. I tried everything until, by fluke, I changed the setting in the BIOS to boot to the DVD-Rom first each time. I reformatted the hard drive, installed Windows, and upon reboot this time, it was able to complete the installation.

I was even able to log into Windows and import my Windows Easy Transfer settings.

I removed the Windows install DVD, and rebooted. Another error popped up this time. Bootmgr was missing. And there was no boot partition (I forget the exact wording of the second error...). I tried everything I could think of in order to repair the install. I used the Windows install CD to repair, I tried rebuilding the boot config data (BCD), I tried repairing the main boot partition.

In frustration, I rebooted. And Windows loaded. But each time I removed the Windows installation DVD, Windows would not load.

So finally, I pulled the case out of the desk, removed all hardware except what was minimally necessary (RAM, DVD-rom, 1 hard drive, video card). I installed Windows AGAIN, and AGAIN I reformatted the hard drive.

Once Windows finished its install, turns out that I was able to boot directly into Windows without use of the DVD. AND, I also noticed that this time Windows partitioned my hard drive with one 100MB partition at the beginning (which wasn't there the first few times I tried installing).

So ... to prevent anyone else's frustration, I highly recommend that when you install Windows 7, make sure there is only one hard drive installed. Afterwards, you can then add in all your hardware.

But seriously, this took me two long evenings to figure out. :-(
In the end, the only other issue I had was that by adding in all my extra hard drives after the install, Windows didn't give them the same drive mappings which then caused issues with Windows Easy Transfer. But that's another story.

Sorry for the novel. And I hope this helps someone.

Had encountered the same issue as well with a friend's PC. You could have also just left that one hard drive that had Windows 7 on it and boot to the Win7 DVD and use the repair options.

Also, one very important practice when installing Windows 7. Make sure there is only one hard drive installed on the computer for the moment AND make sure ALL usb devcies are disconnected, especially mass storage devices. I've had this issue were the the BCD store is stuffed into a external hard drive (instead of on the target hard drive) that was attached during the installation of Windows 7, and what happened was when i removed the external hard drive and booted up the computer I get stuck at the BIOS screen.