Win 7 Installation Nightmares

[severus]

I am having nothing short of a complete nightmare attempting to install Windows 7 on my "third machine" (I run XP on my other two). Originally I had purchased the Win 7 student upgrade for $30 because I am a student! I chose the 64 bit version because I wanted to maximize the use of the computer (specs include e4300, gts250, 2gb ram). The system had Windows XP on it, when I tried to install 7 cleanly from the upgrade all I got were errors of various sorts, I'm assuming the ISO I burned had some missing files, so I burned and reburned and downloaded and redownloaded the file several times to no avail. It got to the point where I attempted to update the bios on my 965p-ds3 and actually screwed up, so I went out and bought a P5Q-SE2. I found out that my school offers Win 7 Pro for free to all students so I downloaded that today and burned it to a disc. Now I'm getting another error stating that "a required cd dvd drive device driver is missing...." I have no idea what is going on! I'm not trying to knock Windows 7, but I certainly did not have this trouble installing XP on that system. I"d really like some advice as to what to do because firstly I payed $30 for the original Win 7 copy, and secondly I blew a motherboard attempting to install this OS.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

For other readers the only relevant sentence here is this one

Now I'm getting another error stating that "a required cd dvd drive device driver is missing...."

Can you tell us when you're getting this error during the install process?

 

[severus]

The error pops up immediately after I click the install Windows 7 now! button

 

[VirtualLarry]

Have you tried downloading the ISO file from http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=306860&highlight=upgrade+matrix , and burning it to a DVD, and booting off of it, and then putting in your key? I think that would go more smoothly for you.

 

[Fox5]

You might need sata drivers for your motherboard, perhaps?

My friend has the same motherboard and had issues with windows 7 install. Heck, I have the same motherboard, and it's quite a bit of trouble, it's only real redeeming value was being a cheap but decent motherboard when the core 2's came out. (well, its faults are more a fault of the chipset, but they're quite annoying)

 

[notposting]

I had that Cd error trying Vista and maybe the Win7 Beta or RC using an external drive via USB (and I think even plugged in to IDE??)

If you have another brand drive, try that.

 

[severus]

I don't think it could be an SATA error because I'm using IDE for both my hard disk and dvd burner

 

[Binky]

Try another DVD drive and cable. It sounds like a hardware issue and the DVD is an easy place to start.

 

[severus]

news update: went out and bought a new sata hard drive and dvd burner and still no dice on the installation. I've even gone as far as to make a bootable USB drive from my dads Vista laptop and it still won't work. At least with the USB I get a bootmgr is missing message, but I'm scratching my head because I'm not sure what that message is in relation too.

 

[tcsenter]

Configuration problem, missing RAID drivers, bad drive cables, or incorrectly burned DVD.

 

[Cattykit]

Most of Windows installation errors are caused by RAM issues. Try running memtest programs or installing Windows with only 1 stick of RAM each time. Oh and you could try boot from HDD method.

 

[Genx87]

Do you have a USB memory stick attached to the system when trying to install?

 

[severus]

I finally got it to work! I ended up redownloading the iso from my schools website then putting it on my old athlon xp machine which burned the disc flawlessly.

 

[TJCS]

I never thought the internet downloads could be this hectic. I just helped a friend install her Digital River W7 and it was smooth sailing all the way even in AHCI mode(no driver preload needed). Congratulations that you finally fixed the issue, the journey to your answer sounded painful.

 

[Modelworks]

In the future you should start doing SHA1 checks on anything like an OS disc that you burn. It is the only way to guarantee it burned correctly.

The CRC values are usually posted with the iso you donwload.
File Name: en_windows_7_professional_x64_dvd_x15-65805.iso
SHA1: 50127304441A793EE51B3F501289F6599A559E9F
ISO/CRC: 502C42C1


windows program to do checking
http://corz.org/windows/software/checksum/