Laptop: Dell Inspiron 17RSE 7720 | 3rdGEn i7 3610QM CPU | DDR3 2x4GB RAM 1600MHz | nVidia 3DVision Enabled 17-inch screen running on 2GB GDDR5 nVidia 650M GT (3D enabled with NO optimus)
SATA Mode: AHCI
Hard Disks:
1. 32GB mSATA boot drive (Only windows core files and programs installed on it)
2. 1TB Toshiba 5400rpm (for Programs and Games)
3. 1TB Toshiba 5400rpm (for Movies, songs etc)
This laptop had Windows 7 installed in it with Intel Rapid Storage technology enabled. Few months ago, I changed the SATA mode to AHCI and installed windows 7 on 32GB mSATA drive. I kept the C drive only for windows and didn't install anything else on it. I created an MKLINK for some folders such as Common Files/Adobe and Appdata/Adobe so that heavy applications won't eat space on the little drive.
It was working fine for about 4-5 months, till one day the Windows 7 simply failed to boot. It was stuck on the Starting Windows screen forever. I searched on the sevenforums website and tried a lot of things such as cleaning the RAM, disabling startup programs and services etc. But it didn't help. neither did sfc /scannow nor windows repair using installation disc.
I could boot in safe mode but not normal mode.
So, I decided to reinstall Win7 from DVD that came with dell.
But the installation was stuck at final step of install after first reboot.
Again i tried several tricks described in forums, like checking for Legacy Boot in BIOS, making sure SATA is in AHCI, unplugging all USB drives as well as other two Hard Drives, and running laptop on single RAM chip. Nothing helped.
I even tried installing Win7 from USB stick, but results were same.
Then I decided to try Win8 Pro. I created a bootable USB from ISO and tried installing Win8. But again, after the first reboot, it was stuck at Getting Devices Ready (5%, sometimes at 2%, sometimes even before the Getting Devices Ready msg appeared)
Here is what I have already tried:
And here is what I already tried during windows 7 install:
I checked that everything shows up fine in BIOS. HDDs, ODD, RAM, CPU etc. and they do.
I also ran Dell Pre-Boot Diagnostics to check for any hardware malfunction. But everything works just fine.
Is there anything i have not tried?
I think that the problem which caused the boot failure of my Windows 7 in first place is the same one causing installation failures of other OSes too.
But what it is, I do not know
SATA Mode: AHCI
Hard Disks:
1. 32GB mSATA boot drive (Only windows core files and programs installed on it)
2. 1TB Toshiba 5400rpm (for Programs and Games)
3. 1TB Toshiba 5400rpm (for Movies, songs etc)
This laptop had Windows 7 installed in it with Intel Rapid Storage technology enabled. Few months ago, I changed the SATA mode to AHCI and installed windows 7 on 32GB mSATA drive. I kept the C drive only for windows and didn't install anything else on it. I created an MKLINK for some folders such as Common Files/Adobe and Appdata/Adobe so that heavy applications won't eat space on the little drive.
It was working fine for about 4-5 months, till one day the Windows 7 simply failed to boot. It was stuck on the Starting Windows screen forever. I searched on the sevenforums website and tried a lot of things such as cleaning the RAM, disabling startup programs and services etc. But it didn't help. neither did sfc /scannow nor windows repair using installation disc.
I could boot in safe mode but not normal mode.
So, I decided to reinstall Win7 from DVD that came with dell.
But the installation was stuck at final step of install after first reboot.
Again i tried several tricks described in forums, like checking for Legacy Boot in BIOS, making sure SATA is in AHCI, unplugging all USB drives as well as other two Hard Drives, and running laptop on single RAM chip. Nothing helped.
I even tried installing Win7 from USB stick, but results were same.
Then I decided to try Win8 Pro. I created a bootable USB from ISO and tried installing Win8. But again, after the first reboot, it was stuck at Getting Devices Ready (5%, sometimes at 2%, sometimes even before the Getting Devices Ready msg appeared)
Here is what I have already tried:
- Booting from DVD/USB both
- Cleaning the SSD for install (using Diskpart before beginning the install)
- Unplugging all USB devices (removing bootable USB / DVD at first reboot as well during the 10-second timer before auto-restart)
- Removing both HDDs, keeping only mSATA SSD inside to install (Sometimes, I had to put in primary HDD coz removing both HDD resulted in failure of detection of any Hard Disks)
- Keeping only one RAM chip inside
- Updating BIOS by downloading from Dell website and flashing with bootable FreeDos USB
- Trying both AHCI and ATA modes of SATA operation (choosing Intel RST mode was unusable coz in that mode, no drives were detected and it asked to Load Drivers. I even tried downloading SATA drivers, firmware drivers etc from Dell and Toshiba sites but they didnt work)
- Trying both Legacy and UEFI boot modes
- Cleaning RAM chips and putting them back in
- Installing windows on one of the HDD instead of SSD
- Simply waiting for 8 hours straight
And here is what I already tried during windows 7 install:
- Disabling all unknown and yellow-icon devices by booting in safe mode at first reboot.
- Uninstalling all unknown and yellow-icon devices at first reboot
- opening explorer.exe using cmd window when installation was stuck at final step. Doing so caused in occurrence of a box displaying some actions such updating destop or somethin, which disappeared after sometime. but results were same again.
- Waiting for 10 hours. Doing so got me past the final step of install and windows rebooted for second time. But it was again stuck at "preparing computer for first use"
I checked that everything shows up fine in BIOS. HDDs, ODD, RAM, CPU etc. and they do.
I also ran Dell Pre-Boot Diagnostics to check for any hardware malfunction. But everything works just fine.
Is there anything i have not tried?
I think that the problem which caused the boot failure of my Windows 7 in first place is the same one causing installation failures of other OSes too.
But what it is, I do not know
My Computer
System One
-
- OS
- Windows 8
- Computer type
- Laptop
- System Manufacturer/Model
- Dell Inspiron 7720 17R SE
- CPU
- 3rd Gen Intel Core i7 3610QM
- Motherboard
- Dell
- Memory
- DDR3 8GB (2x4 GB)
- Graphics Card(s)
- nVidia 3D enabled (without optimus) 650M GT | 2GB GDDR5
- Monitor(s) Displays
- 17-inch 120Hz LCD 3D display
- Screen Resolution
- 1920x1080
- Hard Drives
- 2x 1TB 5400rpm Toshiba HDD (without RAID array)
1 Samsung mSATA SSD 32GB