I recently re-installed Windows 7 and for some reason I am getting a blank screen once in awhile. When I reinstalled Windows I did not scrub the hard drive. I'm thinking maybe I should scrub the hard drive and re-install Windows again. I figured now would be a good time to do this before I re-install all my software and saved files. Any help from those who are more technologically advance would be appreciated. Does it matter what hard drive I have? Are there any good free utilities or should I bite the bullet and purchase some? About now free would be good though. Thank you in advance
If it is still available I use Wipe Drive. It is fast,easy, and will over write up to seven times. Works whether you need to re install your os or over write a drive for opsec reasons.
Free is good Download Hard Drive Eraser Good marks from PC World Magazine and free Erase hard drive by Active@ KillDisk. Low Level Format. has a free version KIlldisk is DOD 5220 compliant Driverscrubber from CNet DriveScrubber - Free software downloads and software reviews - CNET Download.com You should make at least 5 full passes (go to lunch, this takes a while with large drives) For a comparison, Apple OSX makes 7 to 12 passes on erase. Hope this helps you out.
Is the blank screen immediately following the initial boot screen when you turn on the PC? If so it can be indicative of a failing drive. Other times it can be caused by a damaged MBR which is easy enough to repair... but considering it's a fresh install I doubt the MBR is corrupted already.
No, it is not after initial boot. It happens out of the blue after Windows has loaded. I guess I should mention that the computer came with Vista and we receive the Windows 7 upgrade could that be the problem. One thing I did do differently was load Vista and then did a clean install of Windows 7 rather than the upgrade of Vista if that makes any sense. During the upgrade install it gives you the option to clean install Windows 7. Sometimes the blank screen is white, last night it was grayish black. It has yet to be blue.
Sounds more like a monitor or video card issue to me if it's not just black or blue. Honestly can't say I've ever ran into this issue. A quick google does show others have similar problems when upgrading from Vista or XP to 7 but I can't imagine that being your problem if you did a clean install. I've always just used a 7 disc and booted to it and did a fresh install that way myself. You may want to try that rather than installing from within windows. If your PC is like mine you can hit ESC on the intial boot sceen and then select the dvd/cd drive as the boot device and give it a go that way. If thats not an option you'll need to enter BIOS and move the DVD drive to the top so that it's the first your PC tries booting from.
OS and drivers Does Windows 7 support your video card/hard drive? New OS installs often run into driver issues. You may have to slipstrem a an old driver set if it is a driver issue.
I booted and installed Windows Vista from DVD after changing selecting DVD as the boot device. After installing Vista I used the Windows 7 upgrade disk thinking I could not boot from that disk. Are you saying I could have done a clean install with the upgrade disk and saved a step on the install.
As far as legality goes I do have my ID key numbers for both versions of Windows I'm not trying to do illegal installs.
Ah yeah, I don't think you can boot and install via an upgrade disk. Sorry, like I said I've always just used a Windows 7 RTM disk that has all the various flavors on it.
If by chance you have a Linux live cd around, Boot it up if it loads up on your hardware then you Know the issue is windows related, rather than hardware problem.
To those suggesting it was video card/driver related thank you. I found the software upgrade that was installed when I upgraded it and uninstalled the drivers and all the 3D stuff and other things that came with. After uninstalling it my system installed the drivers that came with the machine, so I'm guessing Windows 7 does support my video card, as it recognized and identified the video card. Again, thank you and I will see if the monitor goes blank anymore.
CC, Running Windows drivers for the hardware devices is not the best method of practice. I never let Windows update install drivers for hardware devices as I've seen it crash a system more than once. What is the model and brand of your video card? Is your OS 32 or 64 bit? If you've got a Nvidia card, then get the appropriate driver from www.nvidia.com If you have an ATI video card, you can get the correct driver from www.amd.com which bought ATI.
