Installing Win 7 in a really nice Dell Rig

[simpatico]

The Rig in question is a Dell Precision 390 workstation Intel core 2 duo, 2 Gegs of memory, a 180 Gegs Sata drive,
the graphic is ATI FireGL pci express 250 MB, I'm currently running WXP PRO. I've also imaged the system on a separate partition.

The Rig originally was shipped with Win Vista.
But I quickly formatted the drive and installed Win Xp Pro.

Now I've been trying to clean install Win 7 ultimate,
but it doesn't seem to be able to continue and finish the install.

Here is what's happening,
of course I first formatted the partition,
where Win XP pro was,
then inserted the Win 7 DVD and rebooted.
Now Win 7 is displaying the start screen I click Install, after agreeing with M$ I choose the clean install option, and the partition where it must be installed.

The next screen Win 7 is decompressing the system files,
when a 100% is finished the Rig reboot as expected,
the next screen is the Press any key to continue....I do nothing,
and that screen stays there forever.and it doesn't not finish the installation of Win 7,
I've waited up to 10 min, than I finally gave up.I was thinking that maybe is a Sata driver thing, but for some reason I'm incline to dismiss this possible issue,cause it couldn't be that M$ is so stupid of not including sata or raid drivers for such a modern system.

What do you guys think is happening here!

[SpywareDr]

Originally Posted by simpatico

the next screen is the Press any key to continue....I do nothing,

Did you try pressing any key to continue?

[simpatico]

With respect!
but come on are you jocking? you know that if you press any key the process will restart all over again from scratch in 99.9% of the time.
why are you asking this question?
and to your "question" Yes I did, and it does just what I've said.
In the recent past I've installed WXP about 600 or more times on all kind or Rigs and I never had unresolvable problems.
Installed Win Vista about 60 or more times on laptops and desktops.
I've installed win 7 about 20 or so times on other peoples newer laptop and desktops with all the correct drivers witch I've about 300 to 400.000 drivers and still collecting....
I've been a member at virtual dr for the past 7 years.
This forum site in my opinion is probably one of the best, if not the best!
now that we're acquainted a bit....
do you have any suggestion if so, please let us know how this issue can be fixed, just to let you know,
the win 7 disc is good, I've tested it in a different Rig.
Thx a million!

[Steve R Jones]

From reading your first post, no one here would have ever guessed what your experience level is or isn't

I too would have pressed any key...

Trying a different dvd and or dvd drive would be something to consider.

[simpatico]

this is the first thing I did,
this rig have 2 optical drives,
one is dvd r it's a almost new Lite On.
the other is couple year old plextor dvd rw,and both behaved the same way.
and by the way,
why would you have pressed a key,
what would you have hoped to accomplish by doing so!
I'm just curious in my experience the screen if you press a key in the press any key screen. all it does is restart the process of installing windows.

[SpywareDr]

Originally Posted by simpatico

With respect!
but come on are you jocking? you know that if you press any key the process will restart all over again from scratch in 99.9% of the time.
why are you asking this question?

Exactly how a system responds when you press any key depends on the boot order settings in the CMOS/BIOS Setup.

If the system is setup to boot from the CD/DVD drive before the hard drive, and there is a bootable CD/DVD disc in the drive, the system should always attempt to boot from the CD/DVD drive before it tries to boot from the hard drive.

So, if the installation routine on the CD/DVD is starting over again when you press any key, simply remove the CD/DVD disc before pressing any key. The system should then attempt to boot from the hard drive instead of the CD/DVD disc.

You could also go into the CMOS/BIOS Setup (after pressing any key for it to reboot) and change the boot order to 1) Hard Drive, 2) CD/DVD drive, and then leave the CD/DVD disc in the drive. The system should then attempt to boot from the CD/DVD drive only if it cannot boot from the hard drive.

[Steve R Jones]

Originally Posted by simpatico

and by the way,
why would you have pressed a key,
what would you have hoped to accomplish by doing so!

I would have pressed any key to avoid moments like:

"the next screen is the Press any key to continue....I do nothing,
and that screen stays there forever.and it doesn't not finish the installation of Win 7, I've waited up to 10 min, than I finally gave up."

You would have nothing to lose by pressing any key

[simpatico]

SPYWAREDr
I already done that before posting this issue.
but when I removed the disc and pressed any key it does reboot alright but nothing happens, just a black screen. After the reboot (=Dell fast boot)
That idea is not so good, and here is why!
I've loaded win xp the same CMOS setup with no problem,
and furthermore in a normal clean install, after pressing any key the cd\dvd rom commence installing the setup files etc etc.
Then when all the necessary windows files are loaded windows will reboot (it will tell you so)
Now the press any key screen appear again ,
but now one must do nothing and just wait!
A few second later the system will reboot by default.
now the hdd see that it has a operating system to load, to the hard drive, the win video driver and most of the files necessary that tell it to continue loading,
now windows start loading hardware drivers,system file etc,etc. I know that you know all this,
I'm saying this just to make my point.
I understand what you are saying, that is to change the CMOS Setup after the win 7 files are loaded so to force the hdd to boot first and then presumably if it does, the set up will continue loading windows.
At a first glance your suggestion doesn't seem to hold water,
but I'll give it a try just to see if it works following your logic.

The CMOS setup is as follows:
first boot device is cd\dvd rom,
second is hdd 0.
there are others,
the two that concern us are this two.

[simpatico]

Oh Man!
Steve R Jones I know that you know better than what you're saying, at least I think so...But.. OK I'll try to stay objective here,
the reason I waited 10 min for windows to start loading is that not all Rigs behave the same in some cases the drive wake up a bit late and start loading.
but one thing I can tell you for sure that is that pressing any key as you say you would do. that will do nothing constructive regarding the continuance of loading windows, other that waste time (in most cases) I think what you're talking about is Hope.

[Train]

What I get after press that any key, would possibly tell whether I had dirty lasers in the CD/DVD devices, which a lens cleaner cd will take care of, finger print of the OS disk, a bad controller, or maybe a hdd that needs replaced. Or a combination of all of them.

[SuperSparks]

I ran into this problem with a Vista beta. I solved it by reflashing the BIOS with the latest version, so it might be an idea to check for updates.

[simpatico]

Thx to SuperSparks, Train, Steve R Jones, SpywareDr, for your comments and suggestions but one thing is for sure I'm not going to refresh the BIOS altho BIOS updates utility came a long way since the days of w98 I don't want to chance it for the pleasure of installing win 7 after all this Rig came originally with Vista and Win 7 is just a tweaked Vista and it I should be able to install it.
I'll try some thing a bit different and of course I'll let you know all about it.
Thx again!