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Windows 7 Installation Halts at "Starting Windows"

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    Ruemer is offline Junior Member Ruemer is on a distinguished road
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    Question Windows 7 Installation Halts at "Starting Windows"

    After having solved the problem, I wanted to describe to the community here a problem I was experiencing while doing a fresh install of Windows 7 RC1.

    Before I begin, here are my computer's specs:

    Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 Conroe 3.0GHz, 775 socket
    MSI P35 Platinum, 775 Socket
    Lite-On 20X DVDR w/ LiteScribe, SATA connection
    MSI Radeon HD 3870
    Corsair XMS2 DDR2 800 3GB RAM
    Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM hdd, SATA connection
    Seagate 300GB 7200RPM hdd, SATA connection (unsure of model)

    At the time of installation I only had the 300GB hdd connected via SATA, along with my optical drive. I removed all USB devices except for my keyboard for booting and installation purposes.

    Every time I tried installing and booting from the optical drive, it would go through "Windows is Loading Files" and then move to the "Starting Windows" screen. At this point, the optical drive would stop reading, and the screen would sit there. I let it sit over night once, and it never moved.

    So I tried installing the OS on the 300GB hdd in a different computer. This didn't help, since the OS wouldn't boot when it was in my computer, obviously because crucial hardware (CPU, mo'bo) had changed. Not a big deal, it was a shot in the dark anyway.

    I tried installing from a USB stick, and this gave me an error in the BIOS when trying to boot from it, saying that it could not install the operating system. So I skipped that idea.

    I took an optical drive from work (Sony NEC 5200A DVDR) and installed it in my PC via IDE, booted from it, and it installed fine. WHY?! I have no idea. Windows 7 rocks, but for three days I had to fight with it and the hardware in my PC, trying to get them to agree with one another.

    Any ideas? I'd like to avoid this problem in the future. I'm just really curious as to what would have caused this; I'd like to learn from the experience, but I feel it was another random shot in the dark at fixing the problem and it just happened to work.

    Any suggestions as to what happened would be helpful. My SATA optical drive detailed above still works fine, reads and burns while in the OS without issue.

    Sorry for the long post! Thanks

    ~Ruemer

  2. #2
    cmn
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ruemer View Post
    After having solved the problem, I wanted to describe to the community here a problem I was experiencing while doing a fresh install of Windows 7 RC1.

    Before I begin, here are my computer's specs:

    Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 Conroe 3.0GHz, 775 socket
    MSI P35 Platinum, 775 Socket
    Lite-On 20X DVDR w/ LiteScribe, SATA connection
    MSI Radeon HD 3870
    Corsair XMS2 DDR2 800 3GB RAM
    Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM hdd, SATA connection
    Seagate 300GB 7200RPM hdd, SATA connection (unsure of model)

    At the time of installation I only had the 300GB hdd connected via SATA, along with my optical drive. I removed all USB devices except for my keyboard for booting and installation purposes.

    Every time I tried installing and booting from the optical drive, it would go through "Windows is Loading Files" and then move to the "Starting Windows" screen. At this point, the optical drive would stop reading, and the screen would sit there. I let it sit over night once, and it never moved.

    So I tried installing the OS on the 300GB hdd in a different computer. This didn't help, since the OS wouldn't boot when it was in my computer, obviously because crucial hardware (CPU, mo'bo) had changed. Not a big deal, it was a shot in the dark anyway.

    I tried installing from a USB stick, and this gave me an error in the BIOS when trying to boot from it, saying that it could not install the operating system. So I skipped that idea.

    I took an optical drive from work (Sony NEC 5200A DVDR) and installed it in my PC via IDE, booted from it, and it installed fine. WHY?! I have no idea. Windows 7 rocks, but for three days I had to fight with it and the hardware in my PC, trying to get them to agree with one another.

    Any ideas? I'd like to avoid this problem in the future. I'm just really curious as to what would have caused this; I'd like to learn from the experience, but I feel it was another random shot in the dark at fixing the problem and it just happened to work.

    Any suggestions as to what happened would be helpful. My SATA optical drive detailed above still works fine, reads and burns while in the OS without issue.

    Sorry for the long post! Thanks

    ~Ruemer
    Hi Ruemer
    Sorry for the long post!
    Don't feel sorry at all , you should feel good about posting something anyone can read and understand because it had all the ingridients needed -What, where , and how questions are fully answered by the Total Specification, the detailed explanation of the problem experienced, all the steps taken to solve the issue and finally how the problem was resolved. It is splendid.
    I believe by a process of elimination you have focused the problem on to the SATA LiteOn DVD RW drive whose full specification is given in your post.

    Now that you got the functioning Win 7 RC and the Liteon DVD-RW drive seems to be working well in all other read write functions, can you try to install the same system using the same DVD to another partition for a trial to see if problem can be duplicated? I don't have the exact LiteOn model to do a test.
    Thank you for enlightening me.

  3. #3
    Ruemer is offline Junior Member Ruemer is on a distinguished road
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    cmn,

    Thank you for the suggestion. I'll give it a shot tonight to see if it happens to work.

    The install did start fine on my lap top (what I'm currently using) though I never actually did the install. That was the first thing I tried when I couldn't get the install to start. I put the DVD in my lappy here, and poof, it started fine, so I just cancelled out of the install.

    Thanks again for the suggestion. I'll let you know how it goes.

    ~Ruemer

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    dabooga is offline Junior Member dabooga is on a distinguished road
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ruemer View Post
    After having solved the problem, I wanted to describe to the community here a problem I was experiencing while doing a fresh install of Windows 7 RC1.

    Before I begin, here are my computer's specs:

    Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 Conroe 3.0GHz, 775 socket
    MSI P35 Platinum, 775 Socket
    Lite-On 20X DVDR w/ LiteScribe, SATA connection
    MSI Radeon HD 3870
    Corsair XMS2 DDR2 800 3GB RAM
    Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM hdd, SATA connection
    Seagate 300GB 7200RPM hdd, SATA connection (unsure of model)

    At the time of installation I only had the 300GB hdd connected via SATA, along with my optical drive. I removed all USB devices except for my keyboard for booting and installation purposes.

    Every time I tried installing and booting from the optical drive, it would go through "Windows is Loading Files" and then move to the "Starting Windows" screen. At this point, the optical drive would stop reading, and the screen would sit there. I let it sit over night once, and it never moved.

    So I tried installing the OS on the 300GB hdd in a different computer. This didn't help, since the OS wouldn't boot when it was in my computer, obviously because crucial hardware (CPU, mo'bo) had changed. Not a big deal, it was a shot in the dark anyway.

    I tried installing from a USB stick, and this gave me an error in the BIOS when trying to boot from it, saying that it could not install the operating system. So I skipped that idea.

    I took an optical drive from work (Sony NEC 5200A DVDR) and installed it in my PC via IDE, booted from it, and it installed fine. WHY?! I have no idea. Windows 7 rocks, but for three days I had to fight with it and the hardware in my PC, trying to get them to agree with one another.

    Any ideas? I'd like to avoid this problem in the future. I'm just really curious as to what would have caused this; I'd like to learn from the experience, but I feel it was another random shot in the dark at fixing the problem and it just happened to work.

    Any suggestions as to what happened would be helpful. My SATA optical drive detailed above still works fine, reads and burns while in the OS without issue.

    Sorry for the long post! Thanks

    ~Ruemer
    yea seems i got a similar problem, i recently got the Windows 7 RC, i burnt it, booted up, it passed the 'Windows Loading' 'Starting Windows' phases but then freezes on the first screen after which uses a colourful, blue wallpaper and when the mouse cursor appears, i can move the mouse but the cd drive & hard drive have stopped loading. I am currently using XP SP3 and any help would really be appreciated, Thanks.

    UPDATE:I read in a few other threads this could be caused by the DVD drive im using, i replaced it and now when it reachs that same screen the mouse cursor shows the loading symbol for 5 seconds but then stops, nothing then seems to happen, i look at my HDD LED and it flashs every 2 seconds with a quik multi flash every 5 single flashs, if that made any sense, i hope you can help, Thanks.
    Last edited by dabooga; 05-07-2009 at 04:40 PM.

  5. #5
    cmn
    cmn is offline Senior Member cmn has a brilliant future cmn has a brilliant future cmn has a brilliant future cmn has a brilliant future cmn has a brilliant future cmn has a brilliant future cmn has a brilliant future cmn has a brilliant future cmn has a brilliant future cmn has a brilliant future cmn has a brilliant future
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    Quote Originally Posted by dabooga View Post
    yea seems i got a similar problem, i recently got the Windows 7 RC, i burnt it, booted up, it passed the 'Windows Loading' 'Starting Windows' phases but then freezes on the first screen after which uses a colourful, blue wallpaper and when the mouse cursor appears, i can move the mouse but the cd drive & hard drive have stopped loading. I am currently using XP SP3 and any help would really be appreciated, Thanks.

    UPDATE:I read in a few other threads this could be caused by the DVD drive im using, i replaced it and now when it reachs that same screen the mouse cursor shows the loading symbol for 5 seconds but then stops, nothing then seems to happen, i look at my HDD LED and it flashs every 2 seconds with a quik multi flash every 5 single flashs, if that made any sense, i hope you can help, Thanks.
    Please post your system Specification in the same format the previous poster has done. that will give us all the information needed to know your setup.


    Please post your System Specifications using the format similar to the original poster of this thread. Unless you have the exact same Computer hardware as the original poster, even if you have same problem , the throubleshoot can be different. Your post is not ignored but there are no data to go on.
    A lot of us are happy and willing to help if you can help us with information about the computer you have the problem. Please read the FAQ on this Forum to help you as to how best to post for help. Here is a link in case you miss the FAQ on top of this page by any chance : Windows 7 Forums - FAQ: Windows 7 Forums FAQ
    Thank you and good luck.

  6. #6
    George_Serbia's Avatar
    George_Serbia is offline Junior Member George_Serbia is on a distinguished road
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    Question

    I have the similar problem with installing Windows 7. I downloaded 32-bit iND's 'version' from RS links, and it gave me an error during the installation, when I tried to install Win 7 .iso image mounted by Alcohol 120%. At first everything ran smoothly and then there was an error "file missing or corrupted", so I deleted it. I said "What the hell!? I'll download the RC1 7100 version from MS site,and their server!!" Tonight the original .iso finished downloading, and I tried to install Windows 7 RC1 7100 Build 32-bit on an empty 16GB partition formatted in NTFS system. I ran it from Win XP SP3 - I mounted the .iso image, everything went fast and smoothly, it recognized the HDDs, and all 8 partitions on HDDs, I chose empty 16GB F partiton, and when it came to the second phase of installing - "Extending Windows files", it came to 27%, and there popped-up this window which said "Your computer needs to restart", it restarted and continued the installation, came to the well-known black screen with flashy Windows 7 logo with "Windows Starting", and it just stood there for 20-30 minutes, and nothing happened..I tried to install it again a few times, plugging out my speakers, Logitech webcam on USB, even my mouse and ethernet cable from Sagem F@ast 1200 ADSL modem, and still nothing...I burned iND's .iso on DVD and I tried yesterday to install Win7 but in both cases - booting from BIOS or from Win XP - the results were the same as today...It just comes to the second phase "Extending Windows files" comes to 27%, restarts and nothing, and on F partition there is a 2.06GB folder "$WINDOWS.~LS"...

    My PC has these components (you can see them in my profile, but nevertheless) :

    AMD Athlon XP,Barton core 2500+ (1.83 GHz, not overclocked)
    Epox EP8 KRAI-X (VIA Apollo KT 600 chipset)
    1 GB RAM DDR400MHz, Dual Channel (2x512MB Kingston + Transcend)
    PowerColor Radeon HD2600Pro AGP 8x (not overclocked), the newest Catalyst 9.3 AGP Hotfix installed
    3 HDDs (1 ATA WD 160GB, 2 SATA - Maxtor 160GB and WD 80GB, with 8MB cache,7200 rpm)
    LG DVD-RAM GSA-4160B
    Audigy 2 LS
    PSU - Xilence 500W
    Main OS - Windows XP + SP3
    Philips 107S61 17" Flat CRT monitor, connected to HD2600Pro with VGA to DVI adapter

    I tried Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Fedora, PCLOS 2007, Vixta 3D, MS Vista 32-bit Ultimate, and I have Mandriva Linux 2009 on 2 CDs, 32-bit version, but I haven't tried it yet..I am a Windows "power" user so to speak, I bought my first PC in March 2003, this PC is my second one with a few differences from the original one, but I didn't experienced such a hard time installing and using these Linux distros. If you are PC literate and know the basics of software and hardware functioning, you shouldn't have many problems, but if someone doesn't know english that's another problem, because there is a lot of literature about Linux on the net and it's mainly in English. But being an English teacher it's not a big deal for me...
    But I don't know why Windows 7 won't install on my machine, I haven't got the slightest idea, and it drives me mad...

  7. #7
    cmn
    cmn is offline Senior Member cmn has a brilliant future cmn has a brilliant future cmn has a brilliant future cmn has a brilliant future cmn has a brilliant future cmn has a brilliant future cmn has a brilliant future cmn has a brilliant future cmn has a brilliant future cmn has a brilliant future cmn has a brilliant future
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    Quote Originally Posted by George_Serbia View Post
    I have the similar problem with installing Windows 7. I downloaded 32-bit iND's 'version' from RS links, and it gave me an error during the installation, when I tried to install Win 7 .iso image mounted by Alcohol 120%. At first everything ran smoothly and then there was an error \"file missing or corrupted\", so I deleted it. I said \"What the hell!? I'll download the RC1 7100 version from MS site,and their server!!\" Tonight the original .iso finished downloading, and I tried to install Windows 7 RC1 7100 Build 32-bit on an empty 16GB partition formatted in NTFS system. I ran it from Win XP SP3 - I mounted the .iso image, everything went fast and smoothly, it recognized the HDDs, and all 8 partitions on HDDs, I chose empty 16GB F partiton, and when it came to the second phase of installing - \"Extending Windows files\", it came to 27%, and there popped-up this window which said \"Your computer needs to restart\", it restarted and continued the installation, came to the well-known black screen with flashy Windows 7 logo with \"Windows Starting\", and it just stood there for 20-30 minutes, and nothing happened..I tried to install it again a few times, plugging out my speakers, Logitech webcam on USB, even my mouse and ethernet cable from Sagem F@ast 1200 ADSL modem, and still nothing...I burned iND's .iso on DVD and I tried yesterday to install Win7 but in both cases - booting from BIOS or from Win XP - the results were the same as today...It just comes to the second phase \"Extending Windows files\" comes to 27%, restarts and nothing, and on F partition there is a 2.06GB folder \"$WINDOWS.~LS\"...

    My PC has these components (you can see them in my profile, but nevertheless) :

    AMD Athlon XP,Barton core 2500+ (1.83 GHz, not overclocked)
    Epox EP8 KRAI-X (VIA Apollo KT 600 chipset)
    1 GB RAM DDR400MHz, Dual Channel (2x512MB Kingston + Transcend)
    PowerColor Radeon HD2600Pro AGP 8x (not overclocked), the newest Catalyst 9.3 AGP Hotfix installed
    3 HDDs (1 ATA WD 160GB, 2 SATA - Maxtor 160GB and WD 80GB, with 8MB cache,7200 rpm)
    LG DVD-RAM GSA-4160B
    Audigy 2 LS
    PSU - Xilence 500W
    Main OS - Windows XP + SP3
    Philips 107S61 17\" Flat CRT monitor, connected to HD2600Pro with VGA to DVI adapter

    I tried Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Fedora, PCLOS 2007, Vixta 3D, MS Vista 32-bit Ultimate, and I have Mandriva Linux 2009 on 2 CDs, 32-bit version, but I haven't tried it yet..I am a Windows \"power\" user so to speak, I bought my first PC in March 2003, this PC is my second one with a few differences from the original one, but I didn't experienced such a hard time installing and using these Linux distros. If you are PC literate and know the basics of software and hardware functioning, you shouldn't have many problems, but if someone doesn't know english that's another problem, because there is a lot of literature about Linux on the net and it's mainly in English. But being an English teacher it's not a big deal for me...
    But I don't know why Windows 7 won't install on my machine, I haven't got the slightest idea, and it drives me mad...
    Thank you George_Serbia for the details. I was looking at Epox support page for this board's drivers and could not even know if it can support VISTA (a surrogate for Win7) as there was no downloadable or viewable system SPECS. I get this message:
    Here are the results of your query.Sorry, no files found.
    I guess it might be a pre-2005 board and probably does not support VISTA and its available BIOS are dated
    Do you have Vista drivers for them?
    My guess is Win 7 is failing to recognize & communicate with system toward the end for want to drivers and that might be the cause of your failure to install. As you know unlike LINUX where you can watch most if not the whole of setup process through text by pressing ESC during setup and we can pretty much know what happens Windows does everything behind the scene and there is very little we can acertain if something goes wrong during setup. If a BSOD or STOP ERROR occurs it's all Greek and Latin to us and may need MSKB search for some clues to see what would all those 00000000 and LETTERS mean!

  8. #8
    George_Serbia's Avatar
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    The funny thing is that I had similar problem with Vista Ultimate 32-bit, it waited for some time, BUT at the end it installed, and I actually used Vista on my PC for some time...This Windows 7 has to be faster and better than Vista, better in recognizing hardware, and so I wonder why it doesn't install and work..

    A few minutes ago I found this:

    http://www.4pcsoft.com/Drivers/Bios/file_d13628.html

    What do you think,should I try to download this and install? It is a problem for me because I have never updated the BIOS before, and I don't want to screw something up, because if I do, I'll damage my MoBo and it'll be a problem to find a good used KT600 or even better nForce2 Ultra 400 MoBo..I had the famous Abit NF7-S v2.0 MoBo, but the overcurrent killed it so I found only this VIA crap, it's not a crap but compared to that Abit..UHHH it was such a great MB..
    Last edited by George_Serbia; 05-08-2009 at 01:36 PM. Reason: Found BIOS

  9. #9
    cmn
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    Quote Originally Posted by George_Serbia View Post
    The funny thing is that I had similar problem with Vista Ultimate 32-bit, it waited for some time, BUT at the end it installed, and I actually used Vista on my PC for some time...This Windows 7 has to be faster and better than Vista, better in recognizing hardware, and so I wonder why it doesn't install and work..

    A few minutes ago I found this:

    Download Epox EP-8KRAI-X Bios 5304- Supported CPU: Socket A AMD AthlonXP/Athlon/Duron/Sempron ProcessorsChipset: KT600 + VT8237FSB:. - 4PCSoft.com

    What do you think,should I try to download this and install? It is a problem for me because I have never updated the BIOS before, and I don't want to screw something up, because if I do, I'll damage my MoBo and it'll be a problem to find a good used KT600 or even better nForce2 Ultra 400 MoBo..I had the famous Abit NF7-S v2.0 MoBo, but the overcurrent killed it so I found only this VIA crap, it's not a crap but compared to that Abit..UHHH it was such a great MB..
    There are a lot of False ads in the Internet that take you for a "clicking merry-go-round ride" and sometimes loading your computer with Adware! So beware of such players. I don't know whether this outfit 4pcsoft.com is a genuine site or one of those Adware traps. If it is not from your Motherboard manufacturer , avoid going for any software/Bios Update is my cautious advice. If it is from a major Chipset manufacturer, you can go for drivers circumventing the System board manufacturers.
    Last edited by cmn; 05-08-2009 at 02:37 PM. Reason: typo

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    sgtarky is offline Junior Member sgtarky is on a distinguished road
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    I have a similar issue, using a sata liteon dvd. I would just have a black screen and a pointer. depending on mother you need to set the sata settings to legacy, that's what dells say. I have gigabyte mb and I set the sata settings from AHCI to IDE the install appears to be working now but it is very slllllllllllllloooooooooow.

    oh well that didnt work. I spent hours doing various things. I even got an IDE dvd drive and I am installing it on a ide harddrive. X64. upgraded to f8a bios for gigabyte .I took all the memory out but one stick and hooked up a monitor to the db15 connector, removed tv tuner still nothing. the disc installs on my older hp laptop within 25 min.
    Last edited by sgtarky; 05-18-2009 at 07:25 AM. Reason: Automerged Doublepost
    GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2H AMD Phenom 9600 Agena 2.3GHz , Hauppauge HVR-2250

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