Hi, I've been trying to install win7 on a completely blank hard drive and every time the files load and it tries to run the program, I get a BSOD.
[IMG]https://www.dropbox.com/s/hgo4nvkc53m852z/Photo%20Dec%2003%2C%2010%2051%2006%20PM.jpg[/IMG]
My computer is capable of 64 bit(I know this because it ran a 64 bit windows when I got it, and I'm running 64 bit Linux on it atm), and for a simple dell Inspiron, I'm not sure why I'm getting these errors. I unfortunately can't provide a mini dump because that drive doesn't have any shred of windows on it, but I can provide some specs.
It's a dell Inspiron with 7.8Gb ram, an AMD athelon II processor x4, unknown graphics (using the onboard for right now, still BSODs anyways), and a 959GB hard drive.
Any ideas on what might be causing this? I've tried removing some ram and a whole slew of other googled suggestions, to no such luck. It's not a corrupt iso(we got 2 different isos and put them on a flash drive and a CD), and it's not the hard drive either (we removed that too and tried booting, same thing). And before you ask, yes. The isos are legal. My brother takes an IT course at his uni and downloaded them from the college site itself for about 60 bucks.
There are a few possible causes of this:
1) Microsoft has always been [I]terrible[/I] with disk subsystems, mainly the part that deals with partitions and reading them. Windows 2000 on up to Windows 8 are all known to regurgitate on themselves and die when trying to detect partitions on the disk that aren't FAT/NTFS, or haven't been formatted properly or are corrupt. The disk subsystem will start reading some part of the drive and just crash just because. It doesn't always happen, but it happens more than enough to be really annoying.
Solution to this is use Linux or something like Mini Tool partition Wizard to do a full format of the drive (not a quick format) and you probably want to zero it also (fill the drive with zeroes) to ensure Windows doesn't have an excuse to BSOD.
2) Windows Installer is known to BSOD on some specific systems because of missing disk controller drivers or more importantly chipset drivers. This is why OEM prebuilds have special Windows reinstall discs, because they among other things, slipstream the required drivers into the installer.
If you don't have the OEM provided Windows reinstall CD, you're going to have to make your own slipstreamed disc. This tool can be used for doing such things, but you need to know what you're doing:
[url]http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/145343-slipstream-windows-7-sp1-into-installation-dvd-iso-file.html[/url]
3) Bad RAM. Try running Memtest86+ ([url]www.memtest.org[/url]) for several hours. To be totally sure you don't have bad RAM, I'd run it for at least 12/24 hours.
Alright, i've had a chat with my IT brother and he's informed me that "for the last time, yes I did zero your hard drive, and no, your chipset is PNP likely, so that's not a likely cause.".
This really lowers it down to bad ram somehow, so I guess I'll run memtest. Trying to run the memtest autoinstaller on linux isn't working, so I guess I'll have to borrow my brother's computer again. Though, I do have a question. my brother has a computer that's already got 64 bit capable drives on it and runs the windows installer fine. Is it possible, then, to kind of piggy-back on his computer and format my own, then just plug it in and enjoy? We tried that earlier and it wound up installing windows across 2 separate partitions on separate drives. He doesn't know what caused it, but it did fuck up his bios. is it really possible to kind of ghetto-install it like that, if, say, we disconnected his existing drives and only had mine on there?
[QUOTE=xxfalconxx;43065077]Alright, i've had a chat with my IT brother and he's informed me that "for the last time, yes I did zero your hard drive, and no, your chipset is PNP likely,[/QUOTE]
If he said that, his "IT" qualifications are invalid. "PnP" is Plug and Play (or Plug and Pray as I like to call it.) A device that is "PnP" ready means that the device automatically configures the interrupts, memory regions, I/O and other low level settings required for the device to work. It does not mean that the OS automatically has the correct driver for the device, if it has one at all.
Many parts of motherboard chipsets are also not PnP ready, and require a driver for them to be known to the OS.
[QUOTE=xxfalconxx;43065077]Though, I do have a question. my brother has a computer that's already got 64 bit capable drives on it and runs the windows installer fine. Is it possible, then, to kind of piggy-back on his computer and format my own, then just plug it in and enjoy?[/QUOTE]
Format the drive in another computer? Yes, this is possible.
Install windows on his computer and transfer it? Not possible.
[QUOTE=xxfalconxx;43065077]We tried that earlier and it wound up installing windows across 2 separate partitions on separate drives. He doesn't know what caused it, but it did fuck up his bios. is it really possible to kind of ghetto-install it like that, if, say, we disconnected his existing drives and only had mine on there?[/QUOTE]
I'm guessing he thought it was a great idea to leave the original drives in his machine while he tried to install Windows on your hard drive. You don't do this because no matter what drive you install Windows on, Windows [U]always[/U] installs the bootloader on the first listed drive in the BIOS, even when it's not the drive you're installing Windows on.
So when you removed your hard drive, it effectively hosed his Windows install because the boot loader is now pointing to your non-existent hard drive and can't boot properly. It didn't break the BIOS, it's just a bad bootloader configuration. This can be fixed by running the Windows installation CD and doing a recovery with the original drive configuration (ie. without yours.)
This is very informative, unlike the 12 other IT help sources I went to. So alright, how do I find out what kind of drivers I might need then? I tried running sys info on Ubuntu but it didn't really show me any information related to the chipset or anything like that. Just basic overview stuff.
Also you are very helpful
[B]edit:[/B]
My brother would like to know if it's my own physical hard drive in his compy getting the win7, why wouldn't it work? It seems like the kind of thing that would work.
[QUOTE=xxfalconxx;43067105]This is very informative, unlike the 12 other IT help sources I went to. So alright, how do I find out what kind of drivers I might need then? I tried running sys info on Ubuntu but it didn't really show me any information related to the chipset or anything like that. Just basic overview stuff.[/QUOTE]
You have a dell, go to the Dell website and use the model lookup in the driver section to get drivers. You'll still have to make a custom Windows 7 disc for the chipset/disk controller drivers though.
[QUOTE=xxfalconxx;43067105]My brother would like to know if it's my own physical hard drive in his compy getting the win7, why wouldn't it work? It seems like the kind of thing that would work.[/QUOTE]
Because like I explained above. That is unless, your drive is the only drive in the system, that's a different problem.
When you install Windows, it configures the hardware abstraction layer and drivers specifically for that machine. When you uproot it and toss it in a different machine it has a bad HAL configuration and none of the drivers for that machine, resulting in the Windows install being trashed and usually BSODing.
[QUOTE=GiGaBiTe;43072173]When you install Windows, it configures the hardware abstraction layer and drivers specifically for that machine. When you uproot it and toss it in a different machine it has a bad HAL configuration and none of the drivers for that machine, resulting in the Windows install being trashed and usually BSODing.[/QUOTE]
Doesn't sysprep solve this?
[url]http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/135077-windows-7-installation-transfer-new-computer.html[/url]
[editline]asdf[/editline]
Oh you probably wouldn't be able to get the drivers over with it, but it's worth a shot if you're unwilling to packrat drivers into the actual windows installer.
Okay so you guys are going laugh at me for this but my brother reinstalled Windows 64-bit on my drive and then, after using sysprep to transfer it over from his rig to mine... it still wasn't working. so my dad insists: "try using the system restore disks you made when you first got the rig!". I did. and it worked.
I feel so stupid right now. Thank you both for your help anyways!
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