Windows 7 won't install and freezes. What to do if your Windows installation freezes: five tips. Problems with working memory

Have you ever noticed that sometimes Windows 7 takes a very long time to install on your computer? In this case, the computer often practically freezes at the stage when the blue window appears, and the installation with the process of copying files is delayed to such an extent that many users do not have the patience to wait for the process to start. What advice would you give to users facing this problem? Based on the opinions of the vast majority of experts, we will try to figure out what is the reason for this behavior of the system, and consider what actions can be taken to eliminate problems that arise, which can be classified as the most common cases.

Why Windows 7 takes a long time to install: possible reasons

As for the possible causes of such problems, the following are usually mentioned:

malfunction of the media used for installation;
incorrectly written distributions;
incorrect settings and outdated firmware of primary input/output systems;
errors or damage to the hard drive;
problems with RAM;
problems with other equipment.

Windows 7 takes a long time to install from a flash drive or optical disk: media problems

So, let's start looking at methods for eliminating such problems with the simplest ones. Naturally, it happens that Windows 7 takes a long time to install on a computer only because the media on which the installation distribution is recorded has software or physical damage.

For example, if there are scratches on an optical disc, the installation of the system freezes at one “wonderful” moment, as evidenced by constant attempts to spin up the disc, but at the same time it is not possible to move from one track to another. After such fruitless attempts, one can often observe complete calm, in which there is no reaction from the host at all. What can be done in such a situation? Just burn the distribution onto a new disc and repeat the installation.

In the case of flash drives, the situation looks almost similar, only the media itself is initially recommended to be checked for functionality, and if malfunctions in the functioning of the controllers are identified, install the factory firmware or perform low-level formatting. For this, the LLFT program is best suited, which is the most radical solution when all else fails.

Incorrectly written distribution

Another reason that Windows 7 takes a very long time to install, as is probably already clear, may be that the distribution was written incorrectly, or you are using some kind of unofficial assembly.

To eliminate such troubles, it is best to download a known working distribution (for example, from the official or partner Microsoft website), and it is recommended to write it to a flash drive using automated applications like Rufus. Such programs independently offer to perform certain operations, based on which distribution or media is used in each specific case.

Primary BIOS settings

Almost all experts and users who have encountered similar situations cite incorrectly configured settings of the primary BIOS or UEFI input/output systems as the main reason that Windows 7 takes a long time to install.

The very first and most important thing that you immediately need to pay attention to is to set the AHCI mode instead of IDE in the SATA controller settings. However, this approach may not produce results if you have several hard drives connected to your computer. In this case, try using RAID mode for all disks (combining disks into one RAID array).

Another rather counterintuitive troubleshooting solution, oddly enough, is to disable the floppy drives.

It is not known why this happens, but for some unclear reason, several of them may be detected in the BIOS, although in fact they are not installed.

Hard drive problems

But you can often encounter situations where Windows 7 takes a long time to install, even if the problems described above are not observed. What is the reason? Apparently, file copying cannot start due to a broken hard drive. In some ways, this is similar to the situation with an optical disc. It may very well be that the hard drive simply began to crumble. In this case, we can advise you to immediately check the disk using specialized programs on the basis of which you can create bootable media, or perform similar actions using the command line and the CHKDSK disk check tool, which is available in the distribution kit (in this case, at startup System Restore is selected).

Problems with working memory

Finally, sometimes the problem with Windows 7 taking a long time to install may be RAM problems.

You can, of course, perform memory diagnostics using the command line, but the most effective tool is best to use utilities of the Memtest86/86+ class, which can also be written to removable media, booted from it, setting the device first in boot priority in the BIOS, and then carry out full testing. If problems are identified, faulty strips will have to be replaced.

Is it worth flashing the BIOS?

It’s not often, of course, that problems with the firmware of primary systems becoming outdated can be encountered. But in most cases, this situation has only an indirect relation to the fact that Windows 7 takes a long time to install. However, if you have the necessary knowledge and skills, you can download the updated firmware from the official resource of the BIOS manufacturer or the developer of its software shell, and then perform the installation directly through the primary system, having previously written the firmware to a USB flash drive (keep in mind that when saving to a hard drive, it not only will it not be established, but it will also not be determined).

What else could it be?

Above were only the most basic problems and methods for correcting them. However, on the Internet you can also find posts from users whose system has been installed for a very long time, but none of the above situations occur. What is the reason for this?

Quite often, it is recommended to check the graphics adapter to correct possible failures.

If there are two of them (integrated and discrete), it is better to switch to the basic one (the one built into the motherboard) during the installation of the system.

Sometimes problems are detected in the operation of network adapters when the process of downloading and installing updates freezes. In this case, you should check your Internet connection, as well as the network card itself.

Some users in their experiments go almost to the point of ridiculousness, recommending that you first install the XP version, and then install “seven” from under it. The solution looks clearly irrational, although there is some sense in it (especially when it is impossible to revive the installation process by any means).

Epilogue

To sum it up and relying on the recommendations of experts, we can say with confidence that in most cases changing the operating mode of the SATA controller and completely disabling the use of floppy disk drives in primary systems helps. If such actions do not produce any tangible effect, you will have to try all other methods. It is quite possible that after applying some of the presented solutions, the installation will take place without any problems.

Hello dear readers.

Sooner or later, all users of computers with Microsoft operating systems are faced with a situation where they need to change the environment they are using. In this case, the reasons can be very different. Previously, I already told you exactly how you need to install a new OS on your device. But what should you do if the Windows 7 installation starts, freezes on your laptop, and then nothing happens? As always, there can be many reasons. Further in the article I will try to analyze the most popular of them.

The above problem manifests itself in various ways:

Causes( )

Despite the fact that the process stops at different moments, the reasons are the same:

Problems with the hard drive, RAM, power supply.

Insufficient contact with the motherboard.

The reader or USB port is shorted.

Incorrect BIOS setting.

Error while writing image.

Damage to the storage medium.

Well, as you can see, there are many reasons for the problem. Conventionally, they are divided into external and internal. Based on this, the solution to the disease will be different.

Waiting for a response( )

We will consider all possible solutions to the problem. So, if suddenly the OS installation process on your Asus laptop or any other one suddenly stops, don’t worry right away. You may just need to wait 10 or 15 minutes. It is likely that after this everything will continue without any disruptions.

Official sources do not say why exactly this is happening.

It is worth noting, however, that in most cases this is observed on devices that use Gigabyte motherboards and processors from AMD. Apparently, during their interaction, small glitches occur that lead to such consequences.

Distribution( )

What to do if the previous option did not help, and your HP or other laptop still freezes? It's worth trying a new portable memory with a Windows distribution. In addition, you can test an existing removable device on a computer different from yours. If everything happens again, the disease is directly related to memory. Otherwise - with a computer.

It is worth noting that in the latter option, a separate component of the device, with the help of which reading occurs, may not function correctly. Therefore, to exclude possible options, it is worth conducting a test using just another disk or flash drive.

BIOS( )

On many computers and laptops, regardless of the manufacturer, be it Samsung or any other, problems with starting the installation process can be associated with two important parameters that are set in the BIOS area:

And for proper operation, you need to specify the appropriate parameters for each. To do this, we perform several movements:

Now it’s worth returning to the installation process again.

Checking your computer( )

If the methods described above did not help solve the problem, one of the next steps is to check your Lenovo computer or laptop (any other manufacturer) for mechanical damage. From the outside, everything looks the same as it was before - you just need to unscrew the system unit. In this case, you need to try a little more with a laptop.

After opening, we check for the presence of a burning smell, drips, and dark spots. At the same time, it’s worth inspecting everything you can, including the power supply, hard drive, RAM connectors, etc.

As a result, if a problem area is found, it simply needs to be replaced.

Testing RAM and hard drive( )

If the inspection does not lead to anything, it is worth testing important system components. So, to check RAM, MemTest is considered the most popular program today.

Despite the fact that Microsoft has released and successfully promoted new versions of the Windows operating system, Windows 7 Ultimate can be considered the most successful and popular among users. Therefore, all problems associated with the installation of the system remain very relevant.
It happens that Windows 7 does not install or the computer freezes during the installation of Windows 7

Reasons for long Windows boot times and freezes

If Windows 7 installation takes a long time or the initial installation window does not appear, then in most cases it makes sense to change individual BIOS settings. This self-powered solid-state storage device is a set of microprograms. Very often, when the computer freezes when loading Windows 7, this is due precisely to the incorrect operation of the BIOS.

It often happens that the boot window appears 5-10 minutes after the device accesses the boot disk. There are hardware methods that can significantly speed up the loading process.

Windows 7 takes a long time to load for various reasons, but you need to start with the BIOS. If you have Windows 7, then there are many reasons why your computer boots slowly. To speed up your personal device, you can do the following:

Hard drive defragmentation
Defragmentation and cleaning of the registry
Removing unnecessary programs
Optimizing the startup list

Changing BIOS settings

Depending on the motherboard and chipset, entering the Basic system is accomplished by repeatedly pressing a certain key immediately after turning on the device. The most commonly used keys or combinations thereof:

Delete
F1, F2, F3, F10, F11
Ctrl+Alt+Esc
Ctrl+Alt+Ins
Ctrl+Alt+Del

In modern computers, external drives are connected via the SATA serial interface (SerialATA). This standard supports the command queuing function and provides for hot plugging of devices. To use all the features of this interface, you must enable AHCI mode. When working with Windows 7, before enabling this mode in the BIOS, you need to activate the AHCI driver by changing the registry setting. Log in to the following address: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\msahci and change the value of the “start” parameter from 3 or 4 to 0. Then you need to enter the BIOS to perform further actions there.

Fig.1. If you entered the BIOS successfully, the following picture appears on the screen

By moving the arrows, you need to open the “INTEGRATEDPERIPHERALS” window. This window contains settings for the SATA controller with the ability to change them. The first line indicates that the controller is enabled, this is indicated by the value “Enabled”.

Fig.2. In the next line, the value “NativeIDE” must be replaced with AHCI

In some cases, if the disk is not detected, you can try setting the value to RAID (group connection). Then you should disable the floppy drive, which has not been used for a long time and is not part of the peripheral equipment of modern personal devices. This line looks like this: DriveAFloppy 3 modeSupport 1.44M 3.5". Next, in parentheses, you need to set the “none” parameter, indicating to the system that this device is missing.

Fig.3. The result is the following

The device is missing and in addition it is turned off. Pressing the F10 key saves the new settings. Now you need to go to the line “Save&ExitSetup”, which means “Save changes and exit”. After you restart your computer, the new settings will be installed. All of the above operations should be performed if your computer with Windows 7 freezes or your laptop freezes when installing Windows 7.

If Windows does not install, the reason may be that the device is infected with viruses. Some software downloaded from the Internet can be very slow, so when you plan to reinstall the operating system on Windows 7, it is recommended to scan the device using antivirus utilities before starting the process. The new OS must be installed on a computer that is completely cleaned of various “dirt.”

Other options for what to do if Windows 7 installation freezes

Users often complain: “I can’t.” The fact is that many people try to download a program from the Internet, and this is a very unreliable business due to the large number of viruses on sites with free software. Therefore, it is best to use licensed software on optical discs, or, as a last resort, a good pirated copy with an activator. During operation, various situations may arise related to a decrease in the speed of the device or freezing when performing certain operations.

If the installation of Windows 7 updates is stuck, you can wait a while and if after a while the installation of updates does not continue, then turn off the power and restart the computer.

There is a situation when Windows 7 cannot be installed from a flash drive. The majority of installation failures from a solid-state drive are due to incorrect BIOS settings. Elimination of the reasons indicated above is disabling the floppy disk and setting the AHCI mode. Sometimes a program cannot be read because it was written incorrectly. To properly format and burn a disk image to a flash drive, you can use the very convenient UltraISO utility, which supports over 30 formats.

In some cases, Windows 7 froze at 0% when unpacking files. There can be two main reasons:

Overclocking the CPU with hardware
Many bad sectors on the hard drive

In general, when you change the frequency to overclock the processor, many software products stop installing correctly, but after returning the settings to their original state, proper operation is restored. An old hard drive can also cause freezes when installing an operating system. You need to check the hard drive using the Victoria program and, if necessary, replace it with a new drive.

WATCH THE VIDEO

Now you know what to do if your Windows 7 installation freezes.

At work I often have to do Windows installation. And sometimes you run into a problem very long installation when you have to wait 10-20 minutes for the disk management menu to appear, or the message “ start of installation"After which the process freezes altogether.

Windows 7 says Starting installation...

For any computer technician, time is money; having completed one request in 1.5 hours, you can move on and complete the next one, and when such an unforeseen situation happens that you have to wait a long time already at the initial stage, your mood drops and you spend half a day fussing with one unfortunate computer.

Reasons why Windows 7 takes a long time to install

As it turned out, there can be 2 reasons:

First- switch the operating mode of the hard drive controller in the BIOS from Native IDE to SATA - after all, Windows 7 is a modern operating system that by default supports disk operation in AHCI mode (and it will work faster)

Second— Disable Floppy drive initialization (3.5 drive). No one has been installing 3.5 drives in system units for 10 years; they have long been supplanted by DVD-RW burners and USB flash drives.

disconnect the floppy drive

After I do these operations, the installation of Windows 7 goes much faster. If these tips helped you, don’t forget to thank the author and share the article on your social network. Thank you!

Windows is a mature operating system and usually installs without any surprises, but sometimes the installation process freezes. Below are five ways to solve this problem that are relevant for.

1. Be patient

The advice is banal, but useful: if the installation freezes, do not rush to worry. Recently, I have had to deal more than once with the fact that on completely new computers the installation program stops after reaching . In all cases, the installation resumed by itself - sometimes after 10 minutes, sometimes after 45.

I have not yet been able to find any official explanation from Microsoft about the reasons for this freeze. But according to my observations, this most often happens when installing Windows on computers with Gigabyte motherboards and AMD processors.

The desktop screensaver isn't the only stumbling block for Windows Setup. Sometimes it freezes before displaying a screen asking you to select a hard drive to install the operating system on. True, in this case the installation process resumes much faster.

2. Disable the floppy controller

Although floppy disks have long since fallen into disuse, some manufacturers still provide floppy disk controllers on their motherboards. Sometimes Windows cannot be installed until you disable the floppy disk controller in the BIOS settings.

I recently had to deal with Windows Setup freezing for a long time on one of my computers. After disabling the floppy controller, the installation went much faster and without delays. Unfortunately, this is not a one-size-fits-all recipe because sometimes the Windows installation freezes even if there is no floppy controller on the motherboard.

3. Check the voltage of the memory modules

If Windows Setup freezes intermittently, it may be due to a memory problem. There are many ways to diagnose problems of this kind, and I will list some of them below, but I would like to mention one method in particular, since it is often overlooked.

Most motherboards provide for the use of memory modules with a voltage of 1.5 V. If the voltage is higher (even if only slightly), the system periodically freezes. However, this does not mean that such memory cannot be used: some motherboards allow you to adjust the RAM voltage.

4. Try removing or replacing memory modules

As mentioned above, most often Windows installation freezes due to RAM problems. In this case, try removing all memory modules except one and see if the freezing stops. If this does not help, replace the remaining module with another tested one to eliminate the possibility of defective memory. If this does not solve the problem, check the documentation for the motherboard: the memory may be operating at an unsupported frequency. Even if a module can be installed in a motherboard slot, it is not a fact that it will work.

At the same time, check other RAM requirements. Some motherboards only support certain brands of modules.

5. Try using an IDE or USB DVD drive

Finally, another reason for Windows installation to freeze can be a SATA DVD drive. This does not mean that such drives cannot be used, but the problem is that many motherboards have four to six SATA ports designed for creating RAID arrays. If you connect a DVD drive to one of these ports and try to create a RAID array with fewer hard drives than the system board provides, your Windows installation may freeze. In this case, it is preferable to use a DVD drive with an IDE or USB interface.