0xc00000f7 Boot Mgr. error upgrading from 32 to 64 bit win. 7

[AlexStJ]

Hey I'm not really sure if ti's a software hardware or ox causing the issue so I posted here.  I have a GA-p35-DS3L rev. 2.0 gigabyte motherboard with an intel E8400 core 2 duo processor and have windows 7 Home Premium 32 installed.  I'm having trouble upgrading to win 7 64 with a full version.

When I try to boot up the win 7 64 disc I get the normal boot from disc prompt and after pressing a key it will go to loading files.  After the bar has completely filled I will get a Boot Manager Error: This may be caused by a recent change in hardware or software please insert your installation disc choose language option and click repair.  Status: 0xc00000f7.  I can either hit enter to return or esc to exit.  

I understand it should be a custom install but I can't get that far. I tried the 64 bit install from a reformatted hdd.  I've flashed the BIOS to F9 and updated the chipset drivers (and pretty much every other driver.)  I've also burned a new copy of win 7 64 from the Microsoft store and used the Microsoft tool to make a bootable dvd.  I tried to load it both from the internal cdrom and a usb cdrom with the same result.

Everything I've learned and read the past week tells me the p35-ds3l rev 2 and the cpu should be 64 bit capable right out of the box and Gigabyte customer service sent me an email in horrid english confirming this.  I've run the compatibility check with no issues exept the warning about the custom install.

I've tried the official Microsoft win 7 forums, several hours on the phone with Microsoft tech support, also somehow managed to get banned from a Google group 24 hours after joining (still not sure how I managed that) and still no useful advice.  The one common theme seems to be, yeah should work fine are you sure there isn't a problem with the disc?  

This forum has been so helpful in the past I thought that maybe you all would have some ideas.

[PCBruiser]

I think the first thing we need to check is your hard drive.  This kind of behavior often suggests a possible hard drive failure.  You will need access to another system to do this.

Here's how.  First, you need to determine what brand hard drive you have.  Unless you happen to know that information, the easiest way to find out is simply to look at the drive itself, and the manufacturer's name will be on a label on the top of the drive.  To do this, turn off your computer, unplug it from the wall and wait an hour.  Then open the case and you should have a clear view of the hard drive.  The manufacturer will be either:

Western Digital
Seagate
Toshiba
Hitachi (or IBM for older Hitachi drives)
Samsung

There are a couple of more minor manufacturers, but those are the "big-5" with over a 90% market share.

Once you know who made the drive, close the case and plug the system back into the wall.

Now, go to the manufacturer's web site.  Under Downloads or Support, etc., you will find the manufacturer's hard drive diagnostics.  You should find two versions, one that creates a bootable floppy, the other that creates a bootable CD.  Pick one or the other, whichever is more convenient.  Then create the bootable disk following the manufacturer's instructions, boot from the disk, and run the diagnostics - there are usually two of them, a Quick one and a much longer Complete one.  Run the Quick one first, and if there are no errors, run the Complete one.  It isn't necessary to run the Complete one if the Quick one shows errors.  Post what you discover.

If you decide to download the CD version, that will be an iso file.  To burn an .iso file, you need to use something like Nero, and do an image burn.  If you do a regular burn the CD won't work.  Alternatively, you can grab a free .iso burner here:

http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm

Watch the versions, and make sure you pick the one for W7.  That will install the .iso burner.  You may need to reboot.

After that, navigate to the .iso file, right click on it and there will be a new context menu item called something like "Copy file to CD".  Use that, and it will correctly burn the .iso file for you.

[AlexStJ]

Wow thank you for the fast reply.

My C; drive is a WD800JD (SATA) I forgot to mention that I also downloaded the WD data lifeguard diagnostic for windows.  It didn't have me make a bootable disc but it did have 2 different tests and I ran the extended test with no errors.  I think it saved a log somewhere I can find and post if that will help.  Just loked it up and it's pretty thin.  It just says the drive model number firmware 05.01C05 and test result PASS.  If there's a better test it's not easy to find on the WD website.

I also have one other sata drive and a pata (IDE) drive hooked to my cdrom.  I unhooked the other two drives while trying to install on the clean c drive.  I also believe I tried the install with the other SATA drive as the only drive.

[PCBruiser]

Hi,

I assume this is you:  http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7install/thread/5f6981d1-9cb5-4dcd-8291-8c1add2273f1 correct?  

If the WD extended test came back as Passed, it is unlikely to be your hard drive, but it needed to be checked out first.

I also want to check your RAM, although I am fairly sure that is not the issue, but better to eliminate that possibility early.  To check the RAM, we use memtest, from here:  http://www.memtest.org/  Simply follow the instructions and let it run for 4 hours or so.  You can also do that overnight. Any failures means either your RAM is going bad, or you have an issue with your BIOS settings.

And, since you just flashed your BIOS, assuming you are the one who posted to MS above, please check all your BIOS settings to make sure they are all set to default before running Memtest.  Let's see if Memtest finds anything before we go further.  As I said, I doubt the RAM is the problem, but it is worth checking before digging deeper.

[PCBruiser]

Hi,

One other thing, is the time & date set correctly in your BIOS?  If not, Windows may not install, so check that out.  If your motherboard won't retain the time & date correctly, then the problem is the CR2032 battery on your motherboard needs to be replaced.  That's the flat quarter sized LIon battery in a socket on your motherboard.

[AlexStJ]

That link gives me a 404 error but it's probably me as this is really baffling me and I haven't been shy about asking around for help.  Speaking of, I really appreciate what you guys do o this site.  Honestly, way above and beyond. Edit:  Ok I added the 1 to the link and yes that's me.

Not sure about the time as I'm at work I'll check that out tonight.

As for the memory, since I am apparently incapable of making a bootable DVD using pretty much any program, ever.  I used the windows memtest version and ran two seperate instances of memtest using 1477 Kbytes and it checked out with 0 errors after 4+ hours.  Not sure about the math as I have 4gb of memory but there was no way to run more than two instances of memtest.  I also ran the onboard win.7 32-bit memory diagnostic overnight but can't find the log.  It seems to indicate that it will display after I log in but it didn't.  I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to recover that.

[PCBruiser]

Hi,

I doubt it is the RAM given what you have done.  Next, let's make sure the motherboard battery is OK, and that your BIOS settings are not strange.  In particular, make sure your settings for your CPU and RAM are at default so that we can be sure that you aren't trying to install Windows in any kind of overclocked or optimized settings.  That isn't a good idea, and often fails.  Also make sure that your boot/hard drive priority settings default to the correct drive. 

If everything is OK, the next step is to install W7 in 32 bit mode just to make sure that goes properly.  If that goes correctly, then try the 64 bit one again.  I want to make sure that the problem is isolated to 64 bit only, and that otherwise 32 bit installs properly.  That helps narrow down the range of issues.  If 32 bit installs, and 64 bit does not, I want to disconnect or disable all non-essential hardware and try 64 bit again.  Depending on what happens with that, it may help to isolate the problem somewhat.

Unfortunately problems like this require step by step, time consuming processes to find the one thing that is preventing the install.  It can be frustrating until you find that needle in a haystack.

[AlexStJ]

Ok it looks like the motherboard is keeping time fine and i changed the bios from optimized defaults to failsafe defaults and still the same error message.

[PCBruiser]

OK, let's try the rest, doing the 32 bit then the 64 bit and seeing if we can get somewhere.  If you still get the error message, try with minimal hardware and see if that works.  

One more idea for the moment, if both the 64 bit installs fail, try starting the install from within the 32 bit W7 environment and let's see what happens.  If that fails too, do you know anyone with an identical 64 bit installer DVD?  The MS license is the serial number on your storage box.  Any 64 bit installer of the same type will work with your serial number and is legal to use.  If you do know someone, borrow their installer DVD, use your serial number and let's see if that works.  It could be a defective DVD.

[AlexStJ]

I reformatted and reinstalled win.7 32 on the C: drive again and it went fine, no problems.  I tried to install the 64 bit setup from the desktop of the operating OS and it wouldn't do anything.  Immediately pops an error about invalid format, put in your 32 bit disc.  Poked around in the upgrade folder but I couldn't get anything to run.

My first go around I tried to install the 64 bit using just my motherboard, processor, video card and single HDD, both the SATA and the PATA drives installed.  I'm pretty sure at one point I even tried to install without any of the HDD's installed and still got the same message.  Which may or may not be suprising I guess.  I'll try it again tonight but I do have an old dells 4700 pentium 4 box I've been using if it would help to switch components.  Knowing of course that you'd have to be pretty convincing to get me to try to do anything with the processor.

[PCBruiser]

Hi,

No, I sure wouldn't want to replace the Core 2 Duo with a P4.  That Duo system blows the P4 away.  You are way better off using the Duo with 32 bit than the P4 with 64 bit.

Can you tell me exactly when the error occurs?  Do you get to the screen where you are asked to repartition and reformat the drive partitions which also created the small system partition of ~100MB?  If you get to that screen did you delete the existing partitions and create them again?  This seems to be a unique problem, hard to diagnose.

Next, I want to test the integrity of that 64 bit installer DVD.  Let's see if it is defective in some way.  BTW, that does happen from time-to-time, I've seen it.  Download VSO Inspector from here:  http://www.vso-software.fr/products/inspector/inspector.php  Install it and run the tests in the Scan tab.  Let's see if that picks up any errors or not.  BTW, also check your optical drive to see if it has the latest firmware installed.  VSO Inspector can do that in the first tab.

[AlexStJ]

I actually don't get to the screen where it identifies drives or let's me partition.

I put int he disc and hit F12 to get the boot menu.  I select CDROM or USB-CDROM and I will then sometimes get the Windows [EMS] or memory diagnostics screen.  Then it goes to WINDOWS LOADING FILES on the bottom of the screen, it refreshes once quickly and again much slower.   As soon as the bar is done refreshing for the second time I get the boot manager error.

So I updated my firmware and the VSO inspector found a ton of errors on the Windows 7 64 disc.  1% of sectors and the file sources.install.wim.  I assume that's not good.  I also have an installation disc that was linked to me by the windows tech support guy from http://msft-dnl.digitalrivercontent.net/msvista/pub/X15-65733/X15-65733.iso and the create your own bootable windows 7dvd from the Microsoft website.  That disc checks out fine but it still gives me a boot manager error.  Is there any chance that I get a new Windows 7 disc and I won't get the same error?

[PCBruiser]

Hi,

This is getting even more interesting.

Do you have another optical drive that we could try temporarily on this system?  I'm wondering if something on the 64 bit installer DVD is having some issue with your optical drive.  If the drive has issues reading that DVD, then false positive errors could appear in VSO Inspector.   Alternatively, check the DVD with VSO Inspector using a different system and see if it has the same issues.

Where did you get your copy of W7?  While I think that DVD might be the problem, there is still a real chance that another errorless DVD might still hang.  But, we won't know until we try.  Clearly, if the 64 bit DVD has lots of errors, you should have a copy which properly checks out.  You bought it, you are entitled to it.  If it is a full retail version, then MS should replace it for you.  If it is an OEM version then the OEM should replace it.  Make sure you have a printed copy (or several) of the VSO Inspector report enumerating the errors to prove the DVD is defective.

[AlexStJ]

I have a USB DVD that I tried but the only other internal I could conveniently swap out is another of the same brand PATA dvd8671.  I used the USB DVD and tested the original win7 64 bit disc and started getting errors in the same place as the internal (78.4%). 

During my first go around trying to fix this I did lift a much newer lightscribe USB DVD from my parents and tried both the digital river and the original DVD and still got the same error.

And just FYI I got the widows 7 package from amazon.com as a birthday present and since I haven't activated it yet I'm hopng it'll be a snap to get replaced.

[PCBruiser]

Hi,

I think that your tests with the USB drive proves that DVD is defective.  I would call Microsoft.  Check the site, they have toll free numbers to contact them, and they should replace the DVD.  They might also ask you to have Amazon do the replacement, and that too shouldn't be any issues.  Remember, the DVD is useless unless you have a valid code to activate the install.  And, they can verify that install has never activated.  I think we need to get that replaced, and then see what happens.  Since I am completely unsure exactly what that Digital River download actually does, I am not putting too much credence on it.  

Bottom line, you have a legal copy of W7, you have a right to a 64 bit installer DVD that is not corrupted, and you may really need it in the future for a reinstall, or a rescue, etc, even though W7 is exceptionally stable.  I think we get that taken care of now, and then see if we can install the 64 bit version.