Problems installing windows 7 to new build. Randomly stops for long periods.

[resnic]

Im building a new pc and installing windows 7 professional 64bit full version on a blank HD.

Im not sure how to explain this since I haven't seen it before. Whats going on is during the install at any random point its like things suddenly jam up and it takes forever to move past a point. Like when windows says "setup is starting" during the install the icon isn't frozen and I can move the mouse but it just sits there for a half hour before it moves on to the license agreement, or when I got done with the install once it was finalizing installation and the screen went black for 10 minutes before it proceeded, I got everything installed once and had the pc running fine for about 45 minutes but then when I rebooted after doing windows update it took me to recovery setup.

The pc never crashes, no glitches I can see, reboots or freezes on me. It just randomly decides to take forever to do something.

Im using...

Gigabyte ga-z77x-ud3h motherboard.
Intel 3.4 i5 3570k cpu.
2 8gb sticks of corsair 1333 ram
Geforce 670 video card
asus xonar dx sound card
650watt corsair psu
1tb western digital black series hard drive with 64mb of cache
Samsung dvdrom


I have....
Checked to make sure I have the newest bios.
I tried different sata cables.
I tried reseating and replugging everything in
I made sure the bios was at its default settings
Im not overclocking anything.
I tried some ram out of a pc that has been running trouble free for a year

 

[Bubbaleone]

Since this is a new build; you would be better off starting with a completely clean installation instead of trying to fix a botched installation. The best way to do that is when you boot the installation disk, instead of installing Windows, select the repair tools option. Open the command prompt and type the following commands, pressing Enter after each line:

diskpart
(starts the diskpart tool)

list disk
(This will give you a list of disk numbers to select from)

select disk #
(replace # with the number of your HDD)

clean
(this leaves the disk in an unallocated state and completes quickly)

Exit diskpart, close the command prompt, then reboot. When you get back to the Windows installation screen select the Advanced options, manually select your drive, then start the installation and the Windows installer will automatically partition and format the disk prior to copying files.


.

 

[paul878]

Sound like you might have bad sector on the hard drive, check the disk.

 

[resnic]

Well Id deleted the partition and formatted it manually a bunch of times during the install but I will try it again your way.

---------------------

How do I check to see if it has a bad sector?

Ive never had a bad HD before.

 

[Bubbaleone]

Well Id deleted the partition and formatted it manually a bunch of times during the install but I will try it again your way.

---------------------

How do I check to see if it has a bad sector?

Ive never had a bad HD before.

That's the problem; manually creating and formatting a partition prior to installing the OS is the guaranteed method for a screwed up installation of Windows 7. Use the method I outlined to clean the drive, let the installer take care of partitioning and formatting, and the installation will go perfectly.

 

[resnic]

Well I did as you said and so far it seems to be going fine. Its much faster for the install than before and more like it should be.

Its still installing but if all goes well Im going to let it run over night and see if I still have issues in the morning. If I do Ill post back.

I guess I was wrong, I thought when you deleted a partition and formatted the drive either by letting the installer do it, or doing it manually you still got the exact same effect. Id done it this way multiple times and never had an issue before.

 

[resnic]

Well I got windows installed.

I ran checkdisk afterwards and it said it replaced one bad cluster, then its been hung up for about 10 minutes right at the end. The HD light blinks on for one second, then off for one second, then back on, over and over again during the file data part 4 of 5.

Does my HD have a physical problem and need to get it replaced?

 

[Bubbaleone]

Is your 1 TB WD Black new or used? If it's new, you had better RMA it right now. Chkdsk finding a bad sector on a new drive is not a good sign of anything but more bad sectors to come. I've had just the data verification phase run for as long as 45 minutes on large capacity drives, and then another 45 minutes for free-space verification if there's any problems with the bitmap.


.

 

[resnic]

Its new. I got it from newegg just a couple days ago so returning it and getting a new one wont be an issue.

Thanks for the help though.