Switching to Haswell, Can't install Windows 7

[maniac5999]

So, I bought an i5 4670K, MSi Z87-G41, and 16gb of Crucial DDR3 at Microcenter Monday, and replaced the old Phenom 2 board in my main rig, but I can't seem to get Win7 home premium x64 (OEM) to install. I pulled out my data drive, the 7850, and my wireless card, so all I have attached now are the DVD drive and my (known good--was working when I took out the Phenom board) OCZ Vertex 3. I've reformatted the drive, and it seems to partition correctly with the 100MB system partition, and then windows seems to install correctly, until it hits the point of the first reboot, at which point it either freezes at the "windows is starting screen" "before the windows animation appears" or goes back into the windows install disk screen as if I'd never begun installing windows. Has anyone had this happen before? I'm at my wits end. I've even tried pulling out my USB mouse and keyboard once the install started, because someone said that let them install windows.

 

[SimMike2]

I've had trouble installing Windows 7 to SSD drives and newer mainboards with UEFI BIOS. Wasn't able to figure it out. I ended up installing it to a regular hard drive and using Acronis 2013 to image it to the SSD. Sorry to not be helpful, but maybe someone else can chime in with the fix.

 

[LagunaX]

I've seem to come across this b4 but forgot what I did.
Part of it is Win x64 and part is UEFI I think.
Might have something to do with whether it is set in the bios to sata ACHI mode or regular IDE mode.

 

[Steltek]

Does the motherboard have secure boot enabled in the UEFI BIOS? If so, have you disabled it?

 

[stlcardinals]

Are you installing from DVD or a USB flash drive?

I've ran into problems installing 7 from a USB 3.0 port.

 

[Matt1970]

There may be something in that bios that Windows 7 doesn't like. Try disabling secure boot or you may need to try BIOS emulation (commonly labeled Compatibility Support Module) or a known issue with that bios with an eupdate available. It could also be a hard drive failing with an intermittent issue. You can try booting to the repair console and do a startup repair or run chkdsk on the drive.

 

[vailr]

Using the Windows 7 bootable DVD, try deleting all existing partitions, then re-create a new partition, then format the new partition using the default settings.

 

[maniac5999]

There may be something in that bios that Windows 7 doesn't like. Try disabling secure boot or you may need to try BIOS emulation (commonly labeled Compatibility Support Module) or a known issue with that bios with an eupdate available. It could also be a hard drive failing with an intermittent issue. You can try booting to the repair console and do a startup repair or run chkdsk on the drive.

I've got legacy support enabled, I've switched the drives to IDE mode, I've stripped out all the peripherals, and yes, I've reformatted the drive with the windows disk each time I try, It's still erroring out every time I try, but it did make it into the "windows failed to boot, please select try again or safe mode" screen once. I'm about to give up. I was planning on leaving win7 on this machine and trying Ubuntu when I use the old parts to build a HTPC, but I stopped by Microcenter this morning and bought a copy of win8. I'm going to try one more time with win7 when I get home. If that doesn't work, I guess I'm going to start learning the win8 UI. :'(

 

[SilentRunning]

If it is going back to the install screen then that means your optical drive is before your ssd drive in boot priority.

 

[Berryracer]

1) Disable Secure Boot
2) Disable UEFI
3) Set data mode to AHCI
4) Try replacing your Windows 7 Disc with another one if the above fail

 

[maniac5999]

This is annoying as hell. My last two tries with win7 the partition failed to create. Now with win8 if I don't enable the special 'win8 compatability mode' when it boots from disk im told 'BOOTMGR is missing' and have to restart. When I enable win 8 support, I get a device mapping table and the prompt "press ESC in X seconds to skip startup.nsh , any other key to continue' and no matter what I do, I'm left at the prompt 'shell>' and have no idea how to proceed

 

[Berryracer]

ok, try this

1) Download the Parted Magic ISO

2) Burn the ISO to a CD

3) ensure UEFI is DISABLED in BIOS

4) ensure Secure boot is disabled in BIOS

5) boot from the Parted Magic CD

6) Delete all your partitions completely

7) Right click on the unallocated space and choose the options which means something like delete all partition information table

8) Create your partitions, C: and D: (no need for that useless 100 MB partition that Windows creates, I never EVER had it, it is only used for n00bies who might delete their boot files accidentally so Windows can recover them from that 100 MB system partition which in most cases fails anyway)

9) try to install now

 

[Aikouka]

Are you installing from DVD or a USB flash drive?

I've ran into problems installing 7 from a USB 3.0 port.

I thought it might be nice for anyone's reference to expand upon this from my own personal experience. Windows 7's install does not have USB 3.0 drivers in it. If you want to install from a thumb drive, you need to make sure the device has legacy USB support (i.e. USB 2.0) and that it's enabled. It's also possible to modify the Windows 7 installer to add USB 3.0 support, and it's really not that hard to do. I did it with my ASUS Zenbook (doesn't have any USB 2.0 ports) before someone alerted me to the USB legacy mode.