Windows installation nightmare

[Skinleech]

Hi folks,

I'm currently rebuilding a PC with a corrupt Vista install, replacing the current OS hard drive with a new one. However, the BIOS on the board is somewhat problematic in that I can't make any changes to the default settings - any change results in the PC not booting and the CMOS needing to be cleared.

Trying to fresh install/upgrade to Win7 from within Vista always fails as the Vista installer either can't see the C drive (malware? Various virus scanner say not), or if I try to install to another HDD in the system an error message about not finding or being able to create a system partition is returned.

So, I can't do a fresh install from Vista, and I can't change the BIOS settings to boot from the optical drive or a USB stick.

I've swapped out the BIOS chip and the issue remains with a new BIOS chip so I can't tell whether it's an issue with the BIOS revsion on the board itself.

The PC is an E8400, 6gb PC-6400 DDR, Abit AB9 QuadGT BIOS rev 17 (the latest).

Any ideas on how to get Win7 on this machine? Could I start the install (i.e. the unpacking files section) on a different PC, and at the first reboot power off and put the drive into the PC that requires the install? I tried an HDD with a fresh install on it and it won't boot so I'm not convicned that'll work.

Thanks!

[NightshadowUK]

By swapped out the BIOS chip, do you mean the lil 3v battery?

[Akira]

Crikey, no wonder you called the thread installation nightmare!

Given Vista's inability to pick up a drive and the BIOS probs you've been having I was wondering if you could check the mobo's onboard SATA interface(s) for errors?

Some sort of bootable diags CD may be able to do this?

[Skinleech]

By swapped out the BIOS chip, do you mean the lil 3v battery?

No, I mean the actual BIOS chip like these:

http://bios-repair.co.uk/ref/Abit.html

I've swapped the battery too, no joy on the BIOS settings.

Crikey, no wonder you called the thread installation nightmare!

Given Vista's inability to pick up a drive and the BIOS probs you've been having I was wondering if you could check the mobo's onboard SATA interface(s) for errors?

Some sort of bootable diags CD may be able to do this?

I wouldn't have been able to boot the CD anyway, as I can't choose the drive in the boot menu - the BIOS is set to floopy, HDD then optical by default!

No longer an issue though, I got it working. I just removed all the SATA cables from the HDDs in the PC then put a Windows 7 USB stick I'd previously made into the PC. The BIOS defaulted to boot from the USB stick, and I was then able to plug an HDD back in.

I got the same error message about not being able to create a system partition, so I used DISKPART to clean the drive & start from scratch. Currently typing this on the PC whilst miving data to a new 1TB drive.

Cheers!

[Akira]

Glad you're all sorted

[Skinleech]

Thanks, me too!

New 1TB drive installed, and 2x500Gbs worth of assorted data transferred over and both drives cleaned with Diskpart. The data on a 300gb drive has been moved to one of the 500GB drives, and the final steps will be to diskpart clean the 300gb drive then use that as the OS drive (Win7 is currently on a 20gb lappy drive), so a proper re-install will be required soon so will need to repeat the same steps - at least I know what do in the future.