How to debug a Windows 7 Install?

Question

I am trying to do a fresh install of Windows-7 RTM. The machine keeps locking up at the same point of the install.. .

• Finishes Copying Files
• Finishes Expanding Files
• Finishes Installing Features, etc.
• Freezes at "Completing Installation"

Is there any way I can debug the install to figure out why its dying?

Installing to a newly formatted 1 TB WD-Caviar Black drive. 4 GB, Quadcore AMD 9850 Black edition.

Answer 1

It could be as simple as fault on the disc you have burnt for installation.

1. Re-burn the disc.
2. Attempt to create from the same disc on a Virtual Machine (preferably on a different machine to the one you're attempting to install on).

Or it could be a fault in your copy of the RTM disc.

1. Obtain a RTM disc checksum online, and perform a hash/crc check on the disc, compare the values.
2. Download the RTM disc again.

It could be faulty RAM on the computer, I've had this issue on an older machine trying to install windows, it doesn't always result in a blue screen error. You can debug faulty RAM and its impact on the install by just removing one of your RAM chips and attempting the install again, swap chip out and repeat if error occurs (assuming your 4GB RAM is 2 chips).

Answer 2

Did this machine work well with XP / Vista or whatever OS you used before, or is it new?

If it worked with existing hardware, Go to this Technet article which will tell you where all the logs are created on Windows 7 setup

If this is a new pc, the first thing I would do is to Check your ram. If that passes, unplug all and any devices you can and re try setup.