Win7 hangs at "Expanding Windows Files (0%)"

[BennyP]

Hello,

I am new to VirtualBox and am having trouble installing a Windows 7 64bit guest with VirtualBox 4.3.18.

When I begin the installation it never gets past "Expanding Windows Files" and stays at 0%. I have let it sit for a couple hours with no change.

I have uploaded my log but below is a summary of my setup:

Host information:
Windows 7 Ultimate SP 1 64 bit
Intel i7 930 (has VT-x, and is enabled in the host bios) (8 threads)
6GB RAM
Windows is installed on a solid state drive, user directory is on a separate HDD
VirtualBox directory is a second SSD

I have tried the following so far without the same results:
Changing Installation Media - I have used both a physical Win 7 disk with passthrough disabled, and an ISO image
Changing the IDE controller to PIIX3 from PIIX4 (neither works)
Using both a static and a dynamic VDI

I also use the following settings for the VM:
Verifying that 'version' is set to "Windows 7 64 bit"
2048 MB Ram
4 VCPUs

As a test, I have been able to run an Ubuntu live CD without issue.

I've searched the forums, the FAQs and google and I hate to admit it but I am stumped

Any help would be appreciated, many thanks in advance!

[socratis]

Your log seems to be OK, unless I missed something obvious. You mentioned that you tried both the physical DVD and an ISO file. Did you create the ISO from the aforementioned DVD? I'm asking because there might be a chance that the DVD is corrupted and the corruption got transferred to the ISO as well. Can you try with a different installation media?

[mpack]

What is drive G? What type of drive and what filesystem?

[BennyP]

@socratis ISO was not made from the DVD, I've had it for a while, it may have come from Techcenter at some point or from somewhere else.

@mpack Drive G is a SSD, the second one in my computer. NTFS

[mpack]

How are you installing from an ISO? There is no ISO mounted in the VM.

[BennyP]

Last time was not with an ISO. I started the VM, went to Devices>CD/DVD Devices> Host Drive 'E:' Windows install disk is in the E drive

[mpack]

Well, next thing to try is reverting to VBox 4.3.12 and see if that's any better.

[daved31415]

I was experiencing this same issue while trying to install Windows 7 Home x64 on a Windows 7 Pro x64 host. I had downloaded the most recent of VBox about a month ago, whatever that was. After reverting to VBox V4.3.12, based on mpack's suggestion, the installer proceed beyond 0%.

When the installer was "froze" at 0% I had looked at task and resource managers and saw little activity - it resembled a typical idle condition. Now the guest OS is installing and the DVD drive light is on during the file expansion.

Unfortunately, during this whole ordeal I ran into a more difficult issue that I was unable to solve - changing the email address linked to my account here on the Virtual Box forums. I did find a post on an entirely different forum asking about how to do that but it was of no help.

Anyway... thanks mpack!

[mpack]

Unfortunately, during this whole ordeal I ran into a more difficult issue that I was unable to solve - changing the email address linked to my account here on the Virtual Box forums.

There is no email address linked to your forum account. You use OSSO to log on here: the email address is linked to your OSSO account, and they are who you should contact about changing email addresses.

[jmejias]

In the Storage Setting of the Virtual Machine. I change the Hard Disk Controller from SATA to IDE and it works.

[JustJinxed]

I had the same issue, found my trouble was the not only the SATA vs IDE setting, but the fact that I was running the CD Rom off a usb connector. After changing the DVD to IDE, something in windows continued to reset the USB connection line during the install.

All this talk about corrupted iso files is very secondary and shouldn't be the first thing people rail off when this issue comes up. There is indeed some issue with the SATA settings during windows 7 installs in Virtbox. I'm happy to report after changing the drive to IDE, the expansion of the files finally took place. It took a little longer than I expected but once I saw it go to 1% a smile embarked upon my face! Thanks to everyone for the work around.