Freezes During OS Installation

[LutherVespers]

After running Windows XP for far too many years, I decided to upgrade to Windows 7.

I built my PC around 5 years ago:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2 667MHz RAM
Western Digital Caviar 320GB HD
OC GameXStream 600W Power Supply
DFI Infinity 975X LGA 775 ATX Intel Motherboard
Sapphire Radeon X1900XT 256MB PCI-E x16 Graphics Card

I recently purchased a Western Digital 1TB hard drive to install my new operating system on.
I've attempted to install this two different ways:

1. I boot my XP system, with the Windows 7 install disk in the drive. I run the setup.exe file and it walks me through some steps, before restarting my computer and booting from the DVD itself.

2. I change my BIOS options to boot from the optical drive, and begin my installation from there.

Using either method, part way through the installation, my computer freezes (mouse will not move, animated circle stops spinning, etc). I remembered having a similar problem last year, when I attempted to install Ubuntu on one of my hard drive's partitions. I gave that up ages ago, but I was experiencing the exact same problem - a frozen screen midway through the installation.

I have no idea how to tackle this beast. I've tried the installation with only 1 stick of RAM (a common suggestion for various similar questions). I've ruled out the hard drive as the problem, as I've experienced this issue on both of my hard drives.

If anyone has any suggestions or has experienced a similar problem, let me know. Anything helps. Thank you.

[flagstar]

Two things that I think is at fault for that kind of freezing is either your motherboard and your graphic card or other PCI card on your computer.

And did you try with other CD/DVD drives just to confirm that your DVD drive is at fault?

i am using windows7 by 2gb ram and dual core 2.20, never face any problem

regards BDWILD

If you don't have any solution and just to post some useless links, please refrain from posting here. We consider it as spam so please don't do that again.

[mjdodd]

This may be well off beam but I have had a problem of installation of a different sort with WD hard disks. If you use ubuntu and windows be aware that the large WD hard disk actually ha

[mjdodd]

sorry to continue actually has the Disk operating system in HARDWARE and not software on the disk. In my case it messed up with ubuntu and then windows because the HD is not a virgin disk. ie it (in my case) would only accept one type of formatting and since I had tried the linux one it messed up. my solution had to be to take the HD and exchange it for a different make that could be fully formatted from a 'virgin' clean disk.
M

[LutherVespers]

Hey there.

My motherboard has no onboard graphics card, so there's no default option for that... However, I do have a lower-end graphics card lying around somewhere. I'll try plugging that one in and giving it a shot.

If I can find another DVD drive, I'll try that too, to solve my problem, or at least rule it out as a factor.

I don't think I was clear when I explained the Ubuntu thing. The hard drive I have Windows XP installed on is the 320 GB Western Digital. About a year ago, I created a partition of 30-40GB and attempted to install Ubuntu on the partition. The installation froze halfway through numerous times when I booted from the disk.

I attempted to install Windows 7 on the 1TB Western Digital hard drive. It actually had a previous installation of Windows 7 on it, from the computer I salvaged it from. Should I try formatting this disk within the Windows XP environment before running the installation?

Also, I read something on another website about a freeze like this signifying my processor overheating... I've actually had a problem with that before. I was an idiot, and one of the clips was not fastened, so every now and then, my motherboard would beep and the computer would shut off... I fixed that. However, during these freezes, the motherboard does not beep. What's the best way to check my processor's temperature, and what's a good range for it to be in?

Thanks a lot for the suggestions. I'll let you know if I get any further.

[phoenix_2000]

if you want to check your cpu heat during the windows install, you'll probably need some sort of hardware to read out the sensors, but if you want to check it out in windows, use speedfan, and try doing something system-intensive.

You could also use prime95 to stress-test your processor, see if it's defective (very possible if heating was a problem: it might have damaged your processor).

Don't be suprised if the temprature rises above 80-90 degrees, i have that all the time.

If it's too high, see if the bios has some settings related to fan speed, or maybe you could down-clock your processor temporarily

[flagstar]

Normal temperature for processor would be around 38 to 65 degree for optimal performance. If it was above that, then very likely overheat is your problem and your processor probably screwed but don't rule out other factor just yet.

Temperature check can also be done in BIOS (some CPU has temperature monitor in BIOS).

For some reason, I don't think overheat causing OS's installation to freeze, it would automatically shut the computer down.

[phoenix_2000]

not necessarily, i once had a graphics card that overheated, and it simply caused my system to hang everytime (even in idle)
still, as unlikely as it is, worth checking either way.

[dimsums]

Most likely causes could be your XP installation has hidden corrupted entries or bad drivers, this can cause the upgrade to freeze, next are the drivers, again, if there are some hiccups during the upgrade due to drivers issues, it will hang, lastly, a direct upgrade from XP to Windows 7 can be a hit or miss, too many factors between the two OS can hang, I normally advice to upgrade to Vista first and then Windows 7.

[paul_0510]

u cannot upgrade the xp to windows 7 all u have to do is to install it the windows 7 by removing xp-- create a partion on the harddrive.. and install the windows 7 there .. it will take a while because u have a huge size of hard drive all you have to do is w8t ==)) u can fix that problem just relax

[benmar]

first 1 TB HDD is a huge size, why you can try to make your 1 TB hdd into slave and pick only HDD which is very small size like 160GB as your primary HDD so that when you go to clean install, it takes only 30 to 40 minutes to finish, while the 1TB HDD is very2x huge size, so problem will takes in their like freeze or even hang up...

[hotmatrixx]

The answer is simple. i know this thread is getting old, but I am answering it for the benefit of all who may need this in the future.

It is one of 3 things.
1. a custom install disk that is corrupted.
2. a damaged DVD.
3. a faulty DVD reader.

That is all there is to it.