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Help with reinstalling Windows 7 needed!
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Jim Pooley
Swiss Army Spoons
#1 - 2012-12-29 13:48:18 UTC
Well, I have searched fruitlessly over the internet and cannot find a solution. So now, I am hoping the geeks in the good old Eve community might help!

I wil try to explain as best I can.


My SSD is full of all sorts of crap, it is only 64gb, but I like it as it is great to boot from. However, I want to reinstall windows on it to freshen things up.

I start the pc up with my official Win 7 (home premium) cd, and go to the boot menu. When I press enter to boot from dvd as prompted, I get the following:


Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause. To fix the problem:


1 - Insert your windows installation disc and restart your computer.
2 - Choose your language settings, and then click "Next."
3 - Click "Repair your computer"

If you do not have this disc, contact your system administrator or computer manufacturer for assistance.

status 0xc000000f

info: The boot selection failed because a required device is inaccesible.



What I have tried so far:

Created a repair disc, it did nothing.

I do have the windows disc, and it is a proper official one, no copies here.

So, er, welp?
Krixtal Icefluxor
INLAND EMPIRE Galactic
#2 - 2012-12-29 13:59:45 UTC
Jim Pooley wrote:
Well, I have searched fruitlessly over the internet and cannot find a solution. So now, I am hoping the geeks in the good old Eve community might help!

I wil try to explain as best I can.


My SSD is full of all sorts of crap, it is only 64gb, but I like it as it is great to boot from. However, I want to reinstall windows on it to freshen things up.

I start the pc up with my official Win 7 (home premium) cd, and go to the boot menu. When I press enter to boot from dvd as prompted, I get the following:


Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause. To fix the problem:


1 - Insert your windows installation disc and restart your computer.
2 - Choose your language settings, and then click "Next."
3 - Click "Repair your computer"

If you do not have this disc, contact your system administrator or computer manufacturer for assistance.

status 0xc000000f

info: The boot selection failed because a required device is inaccesible.



What I have tried so far:

Created a repair disc, it did nothing.

I do have the windows disc, and it is a proper official one, no copies here.

So, er, welp?



The only thing I was able to find was a suggestion to disable the SATA from BIOS.

Hope that helps, if not good luck.

Most of the 'help' I was able to find about this is quite convoluted and very very specific to brand equipment and all that. You may need a MB Firmware upgrade as well, for example.

"He has mounted his hind-legs, and blown crass vapidities through the bowel of his neck."  - Ambrose Bierce on Oscar Wilde's Lecture in San Francisco 1882
Alpheias
Tactical Farmers.
Pandemic Horde
#3 - 2012-12-29 14:07:27 UTC
Ask a friend if you could format your SSD, using their computer. Problem should be solved thereafter.

Agent of Chaos, Sower of Discord.

Don't talk to me unless you are IQ verified and certified with three references from non-family members. Please have your certificate of authenticity on hand.
defiler
Mad Hermit
Wayward Alliance
#4 - 2012-12-29 16:44:44 UTC
Alpheias wrote:
Ask a friend if you could format your SSD, using their computer. Problem should be solved thereafter.
This. Though it would probably be simpler for you to do it yourself with a tool like GParted.

I'd also recommend removing all other drives before you begin reinstalling. Don't just disable them in BIOS, but yank out the SATA cable, since Windows has a habit of reactivating disabled drives. It's been a while since I installed W7, but as I recall it puts the bootloader etc on the very first drive it detects which is not necessarily the drive you'll install to. Now your system depends on having both drives, and undoing it without another reinstall is a bit of a hassle.

With just one drive connected that can't happen, and you'll never stand there scratching your head wondering "I unplugged my storage drive and now WIndows won't start. WTF?"

Truly, you have a dizzying intellect.
Alpheias
Tactical Farmers.
Pandemic Horde
#5 - 2012-12-29 17:07:18 UTC
defiler wrote:
Alpheias wrote:
Ask a friend if you could format your SSD, using their computer. Problem should be solved thereafter.
This. Though it would probably be simpler for you to do it yourself with a tool like GParted.

I'd also recommend removing all other drives before you begin reinstalling. Don't just disable them in BIOS, but yank out the SATA cable, since Windows has a habit of reactivating disabled drives. It's been a while since I installed W7, but as I recall it puts the bootloader etc on the very first drive it detects which is not necessarily the drive you'll install to. Now your system depends on having both drives, and undoing it without another reinstall is a bit of a hassle.

With just one drive connected that can't happen, and you'll never stand there scratching your head wondering "I unplugged my storage drive and now WIndows won't start. WTF?"


After you have installed Windows, you should consider moving your user directory (my documents being a prime example) onto a mechanical drive.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1133897/windows-7-ssd-tweaking-guide is a good place to start. But as always, if something seems dodgy to you then simply leave it be.

Agent of Chaos, Sower of Discord.

Don't talk to me unless you are IQ verified and certified with three references from non-family members. Please have your certificate of authenticity on hand.
Miraquin Nix Alduin
#6 - 2012-12-29 17:29:56 UTC
Could it be that your SATA mode is not set AHCI ?
Worked for me, don't know if its somehow HW dependent...

wake me up when we're there...
Blue Binary
Polychoron
#7 - 2012-12-29 18:06:02 UTC
Are all external USB drives unplugged?

Have you checked the BIOS to see if the drive has been detected?

If it is recognised then possibilities include...

  • Your Windows DVD doesn't have the correct driver for your SATA chipset. What model of motherboard do you have?

  • Krixtal Icefluxor already suggested disabling SATA. I would expand on that statement and try changing it in the BIOS in each case to either AHCI, RAID and then IDE to see if it boots.

  • Your SDD partition could be corrupted. Defiler has already suggested GParted. Again I would expand on that statement and use a secure erase on the drive to reset to it's factory state. A guide on how to do this is here.
Jim Pooley
Swiss Army Spoons
#8 - 2012-12-29 19:26:53 UTC
Thank you so far for some very good responses. I will try to respond accordingly and update.

Blue: All USB drives are indeed unplugged. The BIOS does recognise the drives too. Regarding the windows dvd having the right driver, it is the same set of equipment I successfully installed 12 months ago so it shouldn't really make a difference?

Miraquin: I have absolutely no idea what setting SATA mode to AHCI means!

Alpheias: Some terrific ideas, thankyou so much for those guides. Especially setting the user directory to a seperate drive.

defiler: You are quite correct regarding physically removing the drives sata cable. Doin this I think I have found the offending drive causing the issue. Regarding "GParted" I will look into its use.



I will continue to work on this and thank you for your ideas and support. I knew I could depend on the Eve crowd!
defiler
Mad Hermit
Wayward Alliance
#9 - 2012-12-29 19:41:47 UTC
Good to hear you're making progress Jim.

Regarding GParted, maybe I should've mentioned this in my original post, but it should be enough to just delete all partitions on the SSD and let Windows create new ones as it sees fit.

It's a very useful tool to have, or at least know about when things go south. Personally I don't really trust Windows to modify partitions, and for everything except creating one partition on a brand new drive, I use GParted.


Blue Binary recommended a secure erase, but I don't know if that'd be necessary. Don't think Windows is "clever" enough to look at stuff like that, but if the drive itself is acting up I guess it couldn't hurt. (unless that reset messes with wear-levelling, but even then it shouldn't matter. SSDs are pretty reliable these days)

Truly, you have a dizzying intellect.
Caleidascope
Republic Military School
Minmatar Republic
#10 - 2012-12-30 00:46:38 UTC
I would definitely disable RAID of any kind, if you have it. I would set you SATA SSD as a regular hd, like Miraquin said.

Next I would set DVD drive as a first boot drive. And try to boot up from the Win7 DVD.

If the two steps above don't work for you, then yeah, you will need to jump through more hoops. The easiest thing to do at this point is to format the SSD on someone else's computer, kinda brute force approach, but quick and simple.

Life is short and dinner time is chancy

Eat dessert first!