Every program install under Win7 produces disk errors
Using Win 7 has proven to be a most frustrating experience. Working with an ISO from the microsoft site, the install on a clean partition in a dual boot config with XP was without incident. I repeated it on a second computer, just to be sure, and again the install went fine. Updates, driver detection were fine on both machines as well.Then the "fun started".I downloaded and installed secuity programs on each machine and restarted as required. The first machine immediately came back with a message saying my Win7 drived needed to be checked for consistency, which I allowed ... next thing I saw was a long list of files being deleted from the index ... after which I rebooted again and Win7 started normally, or so I thought. Updating the virus program produced an error message about writing to disk and needing a reboot to fix it ... you guessed it, straight to "consistency check" again, more file deletions, etc.The second machine rebooted OK, but every attempt to install a new program or update an existing one resulted in the same scenario as the first one.Please note: before I created the partitions for the Win7 tests, I checked both hard drives with at least 3 different programs to make sure there were no disk problems in the making, and all reports came back clean. I am therefore left to conclude that there was a problem with Win7 that I just couldn't figure out. I lived with these repeated crashes for about a week and then uninstalled Win7 from both systems.For the few minutes that it worked every day, it seemed like a decent step up from my old XP systems, but I'm not going anywhere near it now.
March 11th, 2009 2:10am

Hi mjt328Thanks for the feedback.From your description, it sounds like the security programs may have something to do with this behavior? Programs, such as security suites, that work at the deepest system level canbe the source ofsome really inexplicable behavior.What was the name of these programs? There may be known issues that could helpexplain the problems.Let us know.Thank You for testing Windows 7 Beta Ronnie Vernon MVP
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March 11th, 2009 3:10am

Ack.. That does, indeed sound quite frustrating. Then again, keep in mind, this IS a beta and as such, things like this can happen.First off, what security program did you install? There may be an issue with it. Secondly, did you happen to catch WHICH files were being deleted? Were the OS related files or perhaps files related to the security app? Or something else?The thing is, the vast majority of the people posting here don't seem to be having this problem. And that leads me to think it MAY have been an issue with the security package you downloaded, OR it could have been the ISO itself that was at fault. Did you happen to do a hashcheck to see if the ISO file was intact?
March 11th, 2009 3:15am

I think what he meant was the normal invalid index entries (chkdsk behavior) were deleted from the files and not the files themselves were deleted. Mjt328, What security program did you install? When you installed Windows 7, did you install the 32bit or the 64bit version? If you installed the 64bit version, you MUST use a AV application that is specifically coded for 64bit operating systems. Like Ronnie and Wolfie stated, your fun is due to your choice and installation of a particular security package.
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March 11th, 2009 3:29am

Sorry folks, I should have mentioned these ... in reply to all of yourquestions so far:The security program on Computer 1 was the Norton 360 V3. Beta recommended for Windows 7;On the other computer I used Avast Free Edition plus PC Tools Firewall just to see what would happen, though I had feedback from some of my friends that this set up was working well on their machines.All programs - Win 7 included - were 32 bit versions.Idid not do a hashcheck on the Win7 ISO file as the download was from the Microsoft site itself and I trusted that it would not be corrupted. If there was a problem with it, there's probably nothing I can do about it now anyway.And as DarienHawk67 surmised, it was the invalid file entries that appear to have been deleted by the checkdisk routine, not the files themselves; in either case, I didn't really pay much attention to the files names as they were far too numberous.Finally, in case anyone thinks the machinery was the problmen, I should also have mentioned that both PCs easily met or exceeded all the minimum requirements needed to run Win 7.
March 11th, 2009 3:39am

Okay. You have me at an immediate loss. The same issue on two separate computers with different security suites installed. There has to be some other common denominator. If you got your ISO from MS, I doubt that you have a bad load. Normally, you would have experienced a failure much earlier in the install process. Since you are regressed to XP, you may want to try again. I, and I am sure others, would like to find out the underlying issue. However, since the RC is due in a month or so, you may be best served to wait and see if your particular issue has already been address in the later builds.
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March 11th, 2009 4:20am

I'm at a loss too, which is why I posted this in the first place. I've run dual boot setups before with XP and Linux, Vista and Linux, and XP and Vista using these same machines and never run into problems like these before. I'm willing to try Win 7 again (I can get another clean download of the ISO from a friend this weekend) and see what happens, and will report back afterwards. Hopefully it will work this time.Thanks again to all who responded for their questions and suggestions.
March 11th, 2009 4:34am

The only thing I can add (and it ain't much) is that I am on a dual boot machine (Win7 and XP) too, and I am running AVAST free ver with absolutely no probs.
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March 11th, 2009 6:31am

Just as a marginal supplementary information I can say that I am running "Windows 7" and "Vista home Premium" in dual boot, both as 32 bit versions, with AVG without any problem. Norton/Symantec, I was a fan of them but . . . it is a long time I avoid them.
March 11th, 2009 12:46pm

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