Windows 7 not even installing =/

JoeH

JoeH

JoeH

Associate
Joined
31 May 2009
Posts
45
Location
Surrey, England
Hey all

Just wanna say thanks for reading this, it's a problem that is annoying me lately and with my busy schedule it's taken me a week to get to where I am now (which isn't even that far)

So I'm installing Windows 7 RC on my sisters new 160GB IDE hard drive as her old hard drive is only 40GB and running a pirated Windows XP, she needs the new space and security. Long story short, installing like any other OS no problem, but during some point in the installation, an error message comes up with something like "Windows cannot find the file needed for installation. Please insert the file and restart the installation." Now I just leave the installation running as it takes some time on her old system so I'm not sure exactly what stage it cocks up on.

The copy of W7 RC was downloaded the moment the RC was released, but I only recently managed to get some blank DVDs to burn it on. So with this message coming up twice, I thought it must be the DVD. So today I've spent the whole day downloading RC again as a clean copy. That done I then burnt it onto another blank DVD (they're not cheap, Curry's sell 10 for £7! (Yes I should try the internet in future)) and the installation ran but after leaving it and coming back, it still comes up with the same error message!

I really have no idea what the problem can be. I tried Windows repair, it said the boot manager was missing or corrupt so it fixed that, on next boot it said not only were the registries corrupt but so was the boot manager that was supposedly fixed. This happened the same time for 3 times afterwards in Windows repair.

Thanks for your help in advance guys. Fortunately my sister isn't as needy when it comes to computers but still it is an urgent issue in this house :)
 
It was burning at 11x the first time and at default (?) speed the next. You recommend I try 1x then?
 
It's worth a shot mate. As a lot of the files are tiny, sometimes files are missed or corrupted when burning at higher speeds

EDIT: Or as above
 
Hmm. I got the memory card on my Sony Ericsson C902, if I put it in there as mass storage, will that work? I'll give that a shot. Saves using up tons of overpriced DVDs.
 
Well as I expected, my command prompt can't even detect my 8GB memory card when I type in "list disk" after "diskpart".

Very frustrating.
 
on your main pc

install virtualbox and setup a simple pc..

1gb ram
30gb ram

install from the dvd drive first, if this fails, install from the ISO.

it's likely that either your sister's DVD drive or your DVD is buggered
 
Well I used my phone memory card as the boot file and it worked fine from there! Got it all up and running. Thanks for the help :)

I doubt the drive has cocked up, but I will keep it in mind should it cause any problems later. As for the DVDs, they're sony branded, so when I burn DVDs on them and they don't work, I'll know what the problem is ;)

Thanks again
 
Sounds like the same problem my mate had.

He made two copies of Win7 one he gave to me and I it installed without any problems.

His copy refused to work on either of his DVD's he then borrowed my copy and again it failed to install.

He then Bought a new DVD and both discs still fail to install Win7.

I also downloaded and burnt a DVD which also failed to install on his PC.

He gave up and bought Vista and it installed without a problem.
 
Don't waste any more media! :p



Just install from flash, or directly from the 160GB hard drive. All you have to do is:

1. Check the MD5 / SHA1 hash for the ISO, to rule out a corrupt download.

2. Format the drive to NTFS.

3. Copy the Vista / 7 boot sector to the drive.

4. XCOPY the ISO contents to the drive.

5. Boot.

6. Profit.
 
On a side note one of the well known supermarkets sells their own branded media cheap e.g. 25 DVD-R's for £4.97

I reluctantly bought them at first preferring to go for big branded ones but I've not had any problems with them.
 
I need more info.

is this the only drive in PC, is it set as master on the jumper on this new IDE drive, what is the spec of this PC.

plus you should format the new drive
 
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