Can't install windows 7! Help!

[Roy Fenimore]

This is the same as the "Windows Won't boot even from repair disk"
thread, but I am desperate!

I just spent $100 I don't have for a new Windows DVD. It's the same
story: "Windows is loading files"..."Starting Windows"...then a blank
screen with a mouse cursor in the middle. Nothing happens then but the HD
activity light on steadily--with an occasional blink. After a couple of
hours the hard drive light goes dark. The mouse cursor moves, but the
screen is still blank. Windows won't boot, install or do anything else.

This computer ran Windows 7 just fine before. It still runs Ubuntu. (But
I don't like Ubuntu.) I've disconnected everything but the mouse and
keyboard and monitor. I've disconnected the hard drives one at a time, I
even tried getting a new DVD writer. Nothing works. Does anybody have a
useful suggestion? I've been trying to solve this for weeks now.

 

[Dave-UK]

This is the same as the "Windows Won't boot even from repair disk"
thread, but I am desperate!

I just spent $100 I don't have for a new Windows DVD. It's the same
story: "Windows is loading files"..."Starting Windows"...then a blank
screen with a mouse cursor in the middle. Nothing happens then but the HD
activity light on steadily--with an occasional blink. After a couple of
hours the hard drive light goes dark. The mouse cursor moves, but the
screen is still blank. Windows won't boot, install or do anything else.

This computer ran Windows 7 just fine before. It still runs Ubuntu. (But
I don't like Ubuntu.) I've disconnected everything but the mouse and
keyboard and monitor. I've disconnected the hard drives one at a time, I
even tried getting a new DVD writer. Nothing works. Does anybody have a
useful suggestion? I've been trying to solve this for weeks now.

Have you checked the memory ?

 

[Ed Cryer]

Where did you buy it?

It's the same

Can you run an Ubuntu Live CD?


Roy, try Linux Mint. You'll like it better than Ubuntu.

Does it have generic drivers to run my Netgear wireless dongle? I gave
up with Ubuntu.

Ed

 

[johnbee]

This is the same as the "Windows Won't boot even from repair disk"
thread, but I am desperate!

I just spent $100 I don't have for a new Windows DVD. It's the same
story: "Windows is loading files"..."Starting Windows"...then a blank
screen with a mouse cursor in the middle. Nothing happens then but the HD
activity light on steadily--with an occasional blink. After a couple of
hours the hard drive light goes dark. The mouse cursor moves, but the
screen is still blank. Windows won't boot, install or do anything else.

This computer ran Windows 7 just fine before. It still runs Ubuntu. (But
I don't like Ubuntu.) I've disconnected everything but the mouse and
keyboard and monitor. I've disconnected the hard drives one at a time, I
even tried getting a new DVD writer. Nothing works. Does anybody have a
useful suggestion? I've been trying to solve this for weeks now.

I can give a couple of probably useless suggestions. First the most
obvious: gently wash the disk in warmish water wiping with something soft
and dry with a tissue or a clean linen teacloth. Or at least have a good
look at the disk to ensure it is clean. Second (because you have another OS)
it might be that the way you have the disk partitioned is no good: take a
lot of care when you tell it where to install itself and use the supplied
tools to configure the disk correctly.

 

[ray]

This is the same as the "Windows Won't boot even from repair disk"
thread, but I am desperate!

I just spent $100 I don't have for a new Windows DVD. It's the same
story: "Windows is loading files"..."Starting Windows"...then a blank
screen with a mouse cursor in the middle. Nothing happens then but the
HD activity light on steadily--with an occasional blink. After a couple
of hours the hard drive light goes dark. The mouse cursor moves, but the
screen is still blank. Windows won't boot, install or do anything else.

This computer ran Windows 7 just fine before. It still runs Ubuntu. (But
I don't like Ubuntu.) I've disconnected everything but the mouse and
keyboard and monitor. I've disconnected the hard drives one at a time, I
even tried getting a new DVD writer. Nothing works. Does anybody have a
useful suggestion? I've been trying to solve this for weeks now.

Since it runs one OS well, even though you "don't like it", there would
seem to be a number of things you could try. One poster mentioned
checking RAM - that's probably worth while. Many Linux Live CD's have a
mem check option - I'd recommend that.

If it were Linux you were talking about, instead of MS, you could do an
md5sum on the DVD to see if it is good or not. Failing that, you should
check, visually, as best you can - as another poster mentioned. You might
alert MS to the problem and see if they'd send you another disk to try -
they probably won't.

Another option would be to explain what it is that you don't like about
Ubuntu. There are quite a number of other Linux distributions available
which you might like better. If it's a matter of the GUI, there are
several dozen different desktop environments available that you might
prefer. Some are more like MS, others less so.

 

[a]

This is the same as the "Windows Won't boot even from repair disk"
thread, but I am desperate!

I just spent $100 I don't have for a new Windows DVD. It's the same
story: "Windows is loading files"..."Starting Windows"...then a blank
screen with a mouse cursor in the middle. Nothing happens then but the HD
activity light on steadily--with an occasional blink. After a couple of
hours the hard drive light goes dark. The mouse cursor moves, but the
screen is still blank. Windows won't boot, install or do anything else.

This computer ran Windows 7 just fine before. It still runs Ubuntu. (But
I don't like Ubuntu.) I've disconnected everything but the mouse and
keyboard and monitor. I've disconnected the hard drives one at a time, I
even tried getting a new DVD writer. Nothing works. Does anybody have a
useful suggestion? I've been trying to solve this for weeks now.

I would use something like Active Killdisk (the bootable CD version)
to completely wipe the hard drive you want to install on. I have done
this in the past and W7 installs fine on a disk which has been wiped
with this program. You can use the Freeware version, it will be
sufficient.

http://www.killdisk.com

 

[Paul]

This is the same as the "Windows Won't boot even from repair disk"
thread, but I am desperate!

I just spent $100 I don't have for a new Windows DVD. It's the same
story: "Windows is loading files"..."Starting Windows"...then a blank
screen with a mouse cursor in the middle. Nothing happens then but the HD
activity light on steadily--with an occasional blink. After a couple of
hours the hard drive light goes dark. The mouse cursor moves, but the
screen is still blank. Windows won't boot, install or do anything else.

This computer ran Windows 7 just fine before. It still runs Ubuntu. (But
I don't like Ubuntu.) I've disconnected everything but the mouse and
keyboard and monitor. I've disconnected the hard drives one at a time, I
even tried getting a new DVD writer. Nothing works. Does anybody have a
useful suggestion? I've been trying to solve this for weeks now.

What storage devices are connected to the computer ?

Obviously, you have a DVD drive.

You have at least one hard drive.

If you look in the BIOS, the hard drive is detected. It might be in
AHCI or IDE mode or the like. Windows 7 can handle either case, via
built-in drivers. RAID mode might be a different story. It's also possible,
if you had hardware newer than the Windows 7 DVD, that the Plug and Play
info isn't present on the installer DVD. In that case, I'd probably go back
into the BIOS and use IDE mode, just to prove I can install *something*.

Do you have any other storage devices ? An HP printer with a SD slot
perhaps ? Any USB storage devices ? A built-in card reader ?
Try to ensure the computer is as "simple" as possible, to try
to get around this problem. Unplug the built-in card reader
(internal USB cable). Unplug the printer. Don't give the install
DVD any excuses to get hung up on some hardware in the box.

*******

There are some more ideas here. One person suggests dropping to the
Command Prompt, by pressing "Shift" "F10". And then, using DiskPart,
to quick format the drive (so it won't take too long). DiskPart
takes a series of commands, which precisely specify what the tool
is to do, so it's a bit more complicated than "format C:". But
if you follow the logic in the example here, you'll get the idea
pretty quickly. After that, you can try the install again.
The quick format is going to wipe Ubuntu, so no going back...

http://www.sevenforums.com/installa...-7-installation-doesnt-detect-hard-drive.html

Now, if I was doing it, I wouldn't use DiskPart. Using the existing
Ubuntu install, I'd have Ubuntu "commit suicide", by deleting the
MBR. It would be something like this. This is the quickest way
I know of, to fool an OS installer into thinking the disk is
"factory fresh". (You can even do this, by booting the Ubuntu LiveCD,
and running from the CD, while you erase the MBR.) You'd enter this
command in Ubuntu, in a Terminal window. This wipes out the
Primary partition table, and prevents booting, so when Ubuntu shuts
down (or you press reset), there is no more Ubuntu on the hard drive
And the command runs super-fast, so no waiting around for your
"factory fresh" disk. When you realize how simple this is, you'll
also realize why some people back up the MBR for safe keeping.

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1

For that command to work, you have to adjust the "sda" part, so
that it points at whatever your hard drive is. Your hard drive
could be sda, sdb, sdc, ... or it could be hda, hdb, hdc and so
on. Doing "df" or checking /etc/fstab with a text editor,
may give you some hints. On occasion, I even get info by
doing "ls /dev" and looking for sda1, sda2, as proof sda is
being used. If you can't figure it out though, you can always
go to the Command Prompt option on the Windows 7 installer DVD,
and do the job with DiskPart. Just not as much fun

And if you're doing this with multiple hard drives present - stop.
Unplug the data cables on all the hard drives, except the one
you're installing the OS on. I do that for safety, as it is all
too easy to have an "accident" when multiple disks are present.

Good luck,
Paul

 

[Parko]

No idea. I don't use that hardware. Try the Netgear web site and see if
Netgear supports Linux.

Netgear *does not* support Linux, however you can install the Windows
drivers using ndiswrapper which should be installed as a kernel module by
default.
Have a read:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/answers/Networking/
NdisWrapper_The_Ultimate_Guide

 

[Parko]

Thanks for the link

You're welcome.

 

[Ed Cryer]

Netgear *does not* support Linux, however you can install the Windows
drivers using ndiswrapper which should be installed as a kernel module by
default.
Have a read:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/answers/Networking/
NdisWrapper_The_Ultimate_Guide

Been there, done that, stayed up all night once trying to get it to
work; joined a Linux group, got accused of being a Windoze troll,
persevered against prejudice, finally realized that nobody else could
get it working either.
Reverted to WinXP.
It's kind of nice to be a pioneer and flog your guts out trying to
extend the horizons, a bit like doing crosswords and such.
But you have to know when to give in for the sake of your health and sanity.

Ed the Tryer

 

[Ed Cryer]

So instead of learning to not buy Netgear again, you blame Ubuntu.

No I didn't "blame" them. I tried my best.
Well, that was some time ago and I've just been looking again for
drivers; and found some here;
http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Devices/USB

Whether they will work or not I don't know. They probably will, but I
just haven't got the time to start fiddling with them.

Ed

 

[Roy]

*******

There are some more ideas here. One person suggests dropping to the
Command Prompt, by pressing "Shift" "F10". And then, using DiskPart,
to quick format the drive (so it won't take too long). DiskPart
takes a series of commands, which precisely specify what the tool
is to do, so it's a bit more complicated than "format C:". But
if you follow the logic in the example here, you'll get the idea
pretty quickly. After that, you can try the install again.
The quick format is going to wipe Ubuntu, so no going back...

http://www.sevenforums.com/installa...-7-installation-doesnt-detect-hard-drive.html

Now, if I was doing it, I wouldn't use DiskPart. Using the existing
Ubuntu install, I'd have Ubuntu "commit suicide", by deleting the
MBR. It would be something like this. This is the quickest way
I know of, to fool an OS installer into thinking the disk is
"factory fresh". (You can even do this, by booting the Ubuntu LiveCD,
and running from the CD, while you erase the MBR.) You'd enter this
command in Ubuntu, in a Terminal window. This wipes out the
Primary partition table, and prevents booting, so when Ubuntu shuts
down (or you press reset), there is no more Ubuntu on the hard drive
And the command runs super-fast, so no waiting around for your
"factory fresh" disk. When you realize how simple this is, you'll
also realize why some people back up the MBR for safe keeping.

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1

For that command to work, you have to adjust the "sda" part, so
that it points at whatever your hard drive is. Your hard drive
could be sda, sdb, sdc, ... or it could be hda, hdb, hdc and so
on. Doing "df" or checking /etc/fstab with a text editor,
may give you some hints. On occasion, I even get info by
doing "ls /dev" and looking for sda1, sda2, as proof sda is
being used. If you can't figure it out though, you can always
go to the Command Prompt option on the Windows 7 installer DVD,
and do the job with DiskPart. Just not as much fun

And if you're doing this with multiple hard drives present - stop.
Unplug the data cables on all the hard drives, except the one
you're installing the OS on. I do that for safety, as it is all
too easy to have an "accident" when multiple disks are present.

Good luck,
Paul

" sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1"!
Oh, you NASTY man! You did it. I have Windows 7 again! And no more
Ubuntu for me. Thank you, Paul.

And thank you JohnBee, Ed Cryer, Ed-UK, etc. I tried all your
suggestions and appreciate your help.