Windows 7 aaargh!

[Kirk Gittings]

Though in general I find W7 to be far stabler more and problem free than Vista, I have had three crashes (windows won't start and won't boot from repair disk or C clone or C image) of the OS since switching when W764 bit first came out. Two were major-would not repair or go back to earlier set point or re-install from an earlier clean system image.

So..........Once again without warning today (after hours of trying everything) I am forced to do a complete reinstall of the OS from scratch.

So..........Once again without warning this happened in the middle of an impossibly tight deadline for a commercial photo job. So I had to call them and tell them I probably won't make their deadline......ouch.

i'm just venting.........really frustrated and depressed. Anybody have similar problems? I can't afford to switch to Mac......your thoughts?

[Math]

Sorry to hear that! I know the pain.. And it only crashes majorly at the most important times!
The thought that Macs don't crash at all is an incorrect one, it's sadly a problem with PCs in general. I have been running Windows 7 for over a year now, and honestly I haven't had a single crash.. Maybe it's hardware related? Perhaps a smaller / cheaper back-up PC would be helpful if this occurs more often, in case of deadlines?

[Scott Walker]

I feel your pain, I replaced all my office computers a few years back and the OS they came with was Vista. After about a month of frustration I decided the easiest and most productive solution was to go back to XP. I recently repalced 2 laptops and they came with 7......way better than Vista, but one of them crashed way too often so it got traded in for XP. The other is being used by a 20 year old and he does not want to switch to XP so he works around the fact that I have had to reload the OS twice now. Fortunately he does research with it mostly so there is little information to loose on the hard drive.

[Kuzano]

What you describe is so unlike Windows 7 in my experience and I have been working on PC's for over 20 years and have finally reached the point of admitting that perhaps Microsoft got it right this time.

Is the machine you are talking about built for Windows 7 or OEM with W7 originally installed. Upgrades to Window7, and particularly Vista for a machine that was originally built during the XP era is a real crapshoot and often does not work.

I'm inclined to think you have a hardware driver problem, ie using a custom graphics card not properly driven by drivers for W7, or made before Windows 7. Other things I would look at would be mismatched RAM or test the RAM thoroughly. Also, download the hard drive test utility from the drive manufacturer and run the extended test and read/write test a couple of times. Again, what you describe can result from a "sketchy" hard drive corrupting the Operating System.

I any event, I would definitely look at hardware driver or memory problems. I don't think your reload of the system is going to last much longer than what you have been experiencing. I hate to say this, because we've been able to blame Microsoft for these problems for Soooo Long. This time, I think you have to look elsewhere.

I also have to mention that there are some things that Windows 7 is getting some complaints on, like running VERY slow when sorting or indexing folders with many large files in them (like images). I'm still on XP since it's going to be supported until 2014 at this point in time. That's a concession Microsoft made to the corporate marketplace when Vista turned out to be such a "black" eye. (Remember Millenia here)

[Brian C. Miller]

What kind of hardware are you running?

This really sounds like your disk subsystem has a problem, like the controller (possibly on the motherboard) or a drive. I am presuming that you are trying to boot from the CD and it won't go, is that correct? Is the CD the first boot device, with the hard drive being the last boot device?

The last time I personally had something like that happening on a system, the hard drive itself was dying. If you have any kind of hardware diagnostics, I would recommend that you run those. Also, there are Linux diagnostics distros, and they are menu-driven. You can use one of those to check your hardware.

[Kirk Gittings]

FYI This 64 bit machine was built for me about two years ago. It is pretty stripped down as I only use it for LR and PS. It originally came with Vista (just a couple of weeks before W7 was released) and I upgraded soon to W7. BUT it has crashed once before and I ended up doing a clean install. That was about a year ago.

[Armin Seeholzer]

i'm just venting.........really frustrated and depressed. Anybody have similar problems? I can't afford to switch to Mac......your thoughts?

The Mac is the cheaper thing to go, then loosing jobs!

My 2 cts. and iMacs are not so much anymore!

[Kirk Gittings]

I simply cannot afford that option right now especially because it means buying another copy of PS since I am switching platforms.

[Preston]

Kirk,

I am in the 'hardware problem' group. As mentioned, this could be a disk controller on the motherboard, a failing disk, or a RAM problem. You might also check to see if the power supply, and the cooling fans are operating correctly.

While you're looking around, open the case check all the connectors, reseat your RAM sticks, and blow out any dust bunnies.

--P

[Kirk Gittings]

Thanks I will check things out.