Stuck on "Setup is preparing your computer for first use"

[PROPATECH]

Hi to all,

Having a huge problem installing Windows 7 on to Lenovo G550. The install goes perfectly until it reboots and and the "Setup is preparing your computer for first use" screen comes up. It does nothing after that it just hangs there and will not boot to welcome screen.

I have tried different versions of Windows 7, all with the same outcome. I have tried booting with MSDART and stopping various services and I have also tried to boot into safemode and waiting for error "setup cannot continue in safemode" then pressing Shift + F10 to open a command prompt getting into device manager and uninstalling problem devices and display adapters to restart with generic driver, all to no avail.

Any help would be greatly appreciated...

 

[anonymous Mac Tech]

A little background info on the machine as in what was the machine brought into you for?

Also, have you done anything to rule out this isn't the result of a hardware problem?

 

[Cambridge PC Support]

Have you tested the memory & hdd?

 

[contrive]

Hi to all,

Having a huge problem installing Windows 7 on to Lenovo G550. The install goes perfectly until it reboots and and the "Setup is preparing your computer for first use" screen comes up. It does nothing after that it just hangs there and will not boot to welcome screen.

I have tried different versions of Windows 7, all with the same outcome. I have tried booting with MSDART and stopping various services and I have also tried to boot into safemode and waiting for error "setup cannot continue in safemode" then pressing Shift + F10 to open a command prompt getting into device manager and uninstalling problem devices and display adapters to restart with generic driver, all to no avail.

Any help would be greatly appreciated...

This system came with Win Vista HP x64 so i'd assume this is an upgrade. Also, assuming you've done the proper hardware checks (especially hdd & memory), this seems like a bios misconfig.

I'd start by changing/disabling any non-standard hdd settings in bios one by one, starting with ACHI, and start the install over fresh again each time. These ibm/lenovos are get very mad when you replace their factory hdd for some reason. I recall one time on an older ibm that i had to bypass factory hdd check in bios; one of the silliest setting I've ever seen.

Otherwise, more info is needed. What replacement hdd are you using: ssd? new/used? how long did you wait before you decided its stuck? does it have a hdd led - is it active? any other info pertaining?

 

[PROPATECH]

Hi Guys,

Sorry for the late reply. The system initially came in for general problems such as very slow and unable to open some programs. I then did my usual clean up of the laptop and no difference. I then started my hardware checks, all good except HDD, I did a a chkdsk which stalled at stage 4 three times. I then ran seatools for DOS twice, both times failed on short and long tests. I then ran WD diagnostics tool twice and failed both times. I then replaced the HDD with the exact model of original HDD (WD2500BEVT 250 gig, used but passed all tests) and thats where it all started.

Contrive this laptop came with Win 7 HP. It has Win 7 sticker on top and Microsoft Win 7 HP product key underneath. I tried your suggestions with no luck. I tried changing ACHI to IDE in BIOS (only HDD option available) but got a 7B BSOD.

 

[Rob_NNCC]

how long did you wait before you decided its stuck? does it have a hdd led - is it active? any other info pertaining?

do you have another HDD to test. You say this is a used HDD.

 

[contrive]

try....

do you have another HDD to test. You say this is a used HDD.

I agree. If its used, I'd check it also. I have a bench rig loaded with tools specifically for hot swap hdd diag/repair, offline virus removal & other offline repairs. But if you don't have a setup like that, (highly recommend you make one from scrap if you have to) just try to slave it on some existing system. Even if its via some sort of USB adapter. Then you can run light tests such as SMART, quick scan and chkdsk if you haven't already.

If all is well have a look at the partitions. (AOMEI Partition assistant is free and full of goodies) Win 7 should have a system partition of 100Mb for system, set to active and very slightly used. Then the remaining space should be taken up by the OS partition.

If that is all there, explorer into the OS partition and verify the standard folders are there. (windows, users, program files, etc...) IT should be roughly 10-12 GB for a fresh install.

If else {post results}

 

[Justdropthem]

I would advise you to test with another hard drive since you said the replacement hard drive you put was a fairly used one. Because hard drive with bad sector can present this kind of symptom. This has happened to me a few weeks ago: an acer laptop will always display "trying to recover your system to an earlier settings" and the recovery will say "can not recover" at the end of recovery process. I backed up user`s files and tried to reload fresh windowrs 7 on it. But the system would never boot to desktop after the final stage of windows 7 installation but until I installed a replacement hard drive.

 

[ShinyTech]

Yea test the hard drive, also put BIOS setting as compatibility mode not AHCI, i ran into this alot. Alot of times when you swap a factory hard drive and have it set to AHCI the computer wont boot even on a fresh install.

 

[PCX]

Hi Guys,

Sorry for the late reply. The system initially came in for general problems such as very slow and unable to open some programs. I then did my usual clean up of the laptop and no difference. I then started my hardware checks, all good except HDD, I did a a chkdsk which stalled at stage 4 three times. I then ran seatools for DOS twice, both times failed on short and long tests. I then ran WD diagnostics tool twice and failed both times. I then replaced the HDD with the exact model of original HDD (WD2500BEVT 250 gig, used but passed all tests) and thats where it all started.

Contrive this laptop came with Win 7 HP. It has Win 7 sticker on top and Microsoft Win 7 HP product key underneath. I tried your suggestions with no luck. I tried changing ACHI to IDE in BIOS (only HDD option available) but got a 7B BSOD.

Hopefully this will be a good learning experience for you.

Always run a diagnostic on the hard drive and memory first before doing any software troubleshooting. Looking at the symptoms you described I would think of 4 main causes:

Bad hard drive
Viruses
May just need a tune-up
Corrupted file system (which I would fix during a tune-up)
could even be a memory issue

What do all these things have in common? Software issues can be caused by hardware failure. This means that a slow computer or a corrupted file system can be the result of bad memory or a bad hard drive. Failing hardware can even be mistaken for a Viruses. When you are troubleshooting software issues on a failing hardware, especially hard drives, all you are doing is wasting your time and making things worse. The more you keep using that hard drive, the more likely it will completely fail before you can even salvage any of the data.

Even if you can fix the problem without testing the hard drive, you are taking a chance that the hard drive or memory could still be failing. Anyways, I always suggest running a full diagnostic before every repair, but if you are onsite, you should in the very least do a short test on the hard drive and check for bad sectors. You should also learn as quickly as possible what these symptoms could mean. In this particular case, I would have immediately guessed that the hard drive is failing. Even if I thought it was only a slight chance, I would not have neglected the hard drive diagnostic, only to find out later on down the road that I was wrong.

One thing that StoneCat usually suggests (and I like this idea for his business model) is that if you even think the hard drive is failing (which means you need to learn the symptoms) replace the hard drive. Now this is not really practical in a shop setting or even for a lot of onsite jobs, but if you are dealing mostly with businesses and or servers, this maybe be the best course of action.

 

[ShinyTech]

Yea if a computer is acting really strage the first thing you should do is run drive fitness test and then memtest, both free programs that can be ran outside of windows and dont take more then a couple hours. If these both pass chances are the hardware is fine. Ive seen very few CPU or motherboards go bad and the computer still boots. Even just testing the hard drive first would be good.