Windows boot failure

[Dorsetmike]

Tried all of your suggestions yesterday, DVD drive is first on the list, USB is not available as an option, the drive from the old machine won't boot (that's what started all this!).

I'm going to check if one of my older XP machines will take a SATA 6Gbs drive, if so will try and reformat the new drive and create a larger partition. I think that may be part of the problem, I had formatted and partitioned and installation had started on the new drive but hung at 2%, maybe just enough to make the bios think it's a viable drive?

I've never had problems like this in the 30 years I've been using PCs. When shops reopen if it's not sorted by then i'll buy a cheap  drive install Win7 on it then try reformatting the new drive (the external drive in the USB adapter is a 2.5" from a laptop so can't use that, I also have older drives but none SATA)

[Dorsetmike]

Update, dragged out a Gateway with XP, not used for about 3 years, can't find a PS2 mouse and rthe K/B arrow keys ain't moving the cursor so it's stuck with a few error messages which, without being able to move the cursor, won't go away. I've tried USB and wireless mice, put  a Logitech driver disc in the drive, won't run without being told.

After a bit of nosh and a rest I'll continue the mouse search, probably in one of the many boxes in the spare room, buried under bits of dismantled baseboards, backscenes and associated railway paraohernalia.

What a way to spend Chrimbo! At least no screaming kids or family to bother me, have to remember to put the turkey breast in the oven though!

[Malc]

Mike, I had similar problems with windows install hanging at a few percent and it turned out to be the hard drive. The first bit of the expansion is into memory, then it starts saving on the hard drive. I hadn't enabled the HD in the bios.

[Dorsetmike]

i've now managed to put 7 home premium on an old Gateway machine - upgrade from XP, next will be to format and partition the drive that failed at 2% yesterday then have another go at installing, after all that is accomplished (crosses fingers) I'll have another go at the machine that started all this by not booting after a Win update.

What a way to spend Chrimbo!!!!!!!!  (at least I remembered to cook the turkey breast, small ham joint and xmas pud - can't move now!)

[Dorsetmike]

Bad move, the old machine formatted in MBR , the new machine wants GPT and refuses to install windoze, so now I'm trying to either "repair" the old drive or if that fails then looks like I'll have to go the whole install everything route, BUMMER!!!!!!!!

[lil chris]

@Dorsetmike  Mike try looking up the diskpart utility, you might be able to use that to convert the partition.

[Dorsetmike]

Hi Chris, at the moment even the install CDs just sit there with the Starting Windows screen, the only things currently working are  2 ancient Dual core pentium Gateway machines and this Panasonic Toughbook. The Gateways partition in MBR, the new ones GPT (I had to WIKI that), I've tried to run the CDs in safe mode and command prompt but they don't even get that far, just hang.

USB is not available as a boot option in the BIOS, I did try with an 80Gb disc from a laptop, no joy. I may resort to going to a local computer  shop and see if they can work any miracles, although I hate to admit defeat!

[lil chris]

Hi Mike it sounds to me like you have a faulty drive.if you load w7 from a dvd nowadays it installs pretty quick,w10 even quicker.you can buy a dvd drive for a tenner and get a new cable at the same time.if you have access to a dvd burner download w7 iso  and burn it to a dvd.I take  it you are using the sata interface not the old type connection.

[Dorsetmike]

Problem is the same on both machines, unlikely to be two duff drives. Also if drives were duff I wouldn't expect any action, they both get as far as the Starting Windows screen then hang, ,same with both win7 pro and win7 home premium CDs.

In the BIOS screen both hard drives show as having Windows boot manager which suggests to me that a partial install has ocurred on the new drive and the old drive still has whatever problem stopped it booting; until I can get the new drive formatted in a GPT machine I doubt I'll make any progress.

One suggestion i had was to get an SSD drive about 240G or 320G, enough for a C: drive and use the hard disc for other partitions.

[lil chris]

Hi Mike make sure your motherboard supports AHCI before you get a ssd drive,if you do you will be amazed how quick it installs windows, in mins.

[lil chris]

Like I said in my previous post use the diskpart utility to convert and format your drive to GPT, it is command line based and it works from a floppy or usb I think, that is what I had to use once when I bought a new drive. It sounds like your windows cd's or something is faulty although it can take a while to install using that method and sometimes you think it is doing nothing when it actually installing. Installing from a dvd is better than cd and it will be a lot quicker,have you got access to a dvd burner.

[themadhippy]

Are the windows cds  full commercial releases or cds that came with a specific machine? If there manufacturers discs then its possible there locked to that machine or require extra software stored on a hidden partion of the machine.

I use, photo editing & plotter cutter driver among others won't run on Linux

Hence my suggestion to run a virtual windows machine within linux.
Also if you run a live linux disc it will run without installing anything so you can get to your hard drives and back up anything important,see exactly how the drives are partitioned and  format them in a flavor to suit

[Dorsetmike]

Commercial CDs.

I repeat I DO NOT WANT LINUX with or without a virtual windows machine within Linux.

I am currently doing a full format (not a quick one) but 2TB obviously takes a while, it's been running for nigh on an hour and still barely 10%! Did a quick format earlier, no change when trying to install.

[Lankyman]

Win 7 has had difficulty upgrading since win 10 arrived.

Here is my recipe

Do fresh install ( 64 bit if possible)

Download Internet explorer 11 ( filehippo ) and install. A number of updates are installed automatically with this.

Follow instructions for new installation

http://plugable.com/2016/06/08/windows-7-wont-update-what-to-do/

http://filehippo.com/download_internet_explorer_windows_7/

Install browser of choice

This worked for me.

I've been following this thread and another similar one with much interest until the last few posts between Mike and Chris. You are both obviously far more knowledgeable and competent than I will ever be when it comes to computers. However my problem is the one that Railwaygun offers a solution for and I think the common link is that Microsoft have stuffed all of us who are quite happy to continue with Windows 7 and do not want Windows 10 at any price. I have previously commented on what an attempted update to Win10 did to my PC last year and the lengths I had to go to rectify that situation. I will not go over old ground. The lesson I learnt then was that we would not allow Win10 on my wife's PC and even had to call Microsoft for assistance when it attempted to install all by itself. Fortunately it was stopped in time and the Microsoft representative promised that it would never happen again.

After the free period ended we became very smug in the knowledge that MS would never attempt to install it automatically as they would now want to be paid for it. However, about a month ago I was checking my wife's PC and discovered that there had not been a Windows Update since early July. I check the settings and it was set to do this automatically. I tried a manual check but it just sat for hours "checking" but never doing anything. I then realised that every time I opened the update there was a message that Win10 had been reserved and was waiting to be installed. I kept trying to ignore this but it kept coming back. I searched for ages for a solution and eventually came across a propgramme which would remove all traces of Win 10 and then track any suspicious activity in the future. This successfully removed the message and some other traces of Win 10. However I could not get Windows Update to start. Railwaygun's post filled me with hope coupled with some other advice from a forum in the MS website.

Thanks to Railwaygun's advice in particular I have today resolved the issue. We had SP1 installed so I didn't want to try messing with that. I did try to download IE11, even thought she had been using Chrome for a long time, but I was told that the one already installed was more up to date. So I then decided to download the individual updates one by one. The first three all seemed to be part of a standalone update installer. Once these were installed Update suddenly sprung back into life and found a stack of updates. So far it has done that three times this afternoon and now seems to be very update.

Once again this forum this forum has come up trumps and restored my sanity. Many thanks to all who have contributed and particularly to Railwaygun. I'm sorry I cannot offer any assistance to you, Mike, as your problem seems much more serious but don't give up, there must be an answer out there somewhere. Thanks for starting this thread anyway which eventualy sorted out my problem. The sad thing is that MS will always have the upper hand as computers don't last for ever and sooner or later we will have to invest in a new one with Win10 on it (unless we change to another product.)

Ron

[Railwaygun]

Glad to be of service

NIckR