Windows 7 fails to install

windows 7windows-vista

I'm upgrading from Vista SP1 (which was actually upgraded from XP over a year ago) to Windows 7 RTM (64-bit Ultimate to 64-bit Ultimate). After 4 hours or so, the install fails with the message "This version of Windows could not be installed, Your previous version of Windows has been restored, and you can continue to use it." This error is back at my Vista desktop, there's no error that I could see during install, I just a message indicating that it was reverting everything.

I tracked down the error logs and here's the log at
I uploaded the error log (from C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources\Panther) and uploaded onto Pastebin. Here is an excerpt:

2009-08-09 02:54:57, Error      Number of Enumerated Devices = 21[gle=0x00000103]
2009-08-09 02:54:58, Error      Failed to find driver file path. Error=00000002x
2009-08-09 02:54:58, Error      Failed to find driver file path. Error=00000002x
2009-08-09 02:54:58, Error      Failed to find driver file path. Error=00000002x[gle=0x80092004]
2009-08-09 02:54:58, Error      Failed to find driver file path. Error=00000002x[gle=0x80092004]

It was suggested that I upgrade to SP2 before upgrading to Vista, but this made no difference. I since uninstalled SP2 since it was creating some problems with a piece of hardware.

I know a fresh install is best, but I'm hoping to avoid that because I'd need a new hard drive.

Per Reuben's instruction, I found the install's dump and uploaded it here. (266 KB)

Best Answer

When you hit a failure during a Windows 7 upgrade (and it rolls back to the original system), it would be helpful to share out and/or look at \$windows.~bt\sources\panther\setupact.log. (The setuperr.log file that you shared contains a filtered view of the full log file.) Also, you should look to see if there are any "dump files" (with extension .dmp) anywhere under the $windows.~bt\sources folder; it's possible that some device driver installed on your system caused the computer to blue-screen during the upgrade process.

Update: Loading up the attached dump file in WinDbg shows the problem to most likely lie in viahduaa.sys. A quick search on the web shows that it's some sort of audio driver, possibly distributed by VIA. My recommendation would be to first see if there's an update available for that driver (and install the update before upgrading). If that doesn't work, you might be able to see if you can forcibly uninstall the driver (and make sure it gets deleted from your system) before upgrading. Once the upgrade goes through successfully, you can worry about making sure you have the right audio drivers again.

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