Cannot Install Windows 7 on new H97M Anniversary

Frankly, I'm out of ideas... except for strange ones that would seem unrelated.

What version of Windows 7 64bit  are you using? Win 7 Home Premium's memory limit is 16GB. Scroll down about half way on the page below for Windows 7 memory limits:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa366778(v=vs.85).aspx#

My point is, try removing 16GB of your current 32GB, and try again.

Otherwise, searching on your error produces things from bad drives to bad Windows disks that do not allow that file to be read.

You said you get the same error when using a Windows 10 installation disk?

Are you sure the optical drive is working fine? You said that Asus optical drive is a CD RW drive? I can't even remember, are Windows disks "CDs" or "DVDs"?

Make sure CSM is enabled in BIOS for legacy operation.

I have even set the eufi defaults with the same error. Sorry I didn't mention that in my first reply.

jasongeek wrote: I am using the 2.0 USB drive. I will try using a different 2.0 port. When I select BOOT Menu, two option say WINDOWS 7 Setup (EUFI & CD-ROM). It won't load the set up files (which ultimately give me the error screen) unless I choose EUFI: Asus CD-RW DRIVE or EUFI: USB. I have tried making the USB stick from the Windows 7 CD-ROM and Microsoft's Tool/ISO download. I have also tried doing it with a Windows 10 disc AND the USB version with the same error. I have used the Windows 7 disk in the past (another oem disc) with no problems on my other Asrock H97M Pro motheboard.

This is starting to make some sense now, at least for Windows 7. Choosing the UEFI entry in the boot order will fail with Windows 7 (more about that soon.) The non-UEFI entry is called Legacy. We can now do a UEFI or Legacy Windows installation. A Legacy installation is the standard manner of installing Windows. Explaining the difference between the two is not important for fixing this situation, unless you are attempting to do a UEFI booting Windows installation.

The UEFI entry uses a different boot loader (the .efi file you listed in your first post, although there is more than one file involved) than a Legacy installation. The Windows 7 installation folder and file structure has a bug in it that does not allow the EFI boot loader file to be found by the Win 7 installation program.

That can be manually fixed, but the question here is why you apparently can only select the UEFI entry for the installation media, and why the Legacy entry does not work.

This brings us to two possibilities: Either an option in the UEFI/BIOS has been set to cause a UEFI booting Windows installation, or the USB installation media for some reason is being set up to only do UEFI booting Windows installations.

Which brings me back to the question in my previous post, which was not answered. Did you change any options in the UEFI/BIOS, specifically setting Secure Boot to Enabled, or changing CSM to anything besides its default values. Changing the Fast Boot option from Disabled might also cause changes to the CSM option.

To make things simple, you should clear the UEFI/BIOS, to get all default values set. That will cause a standard, Legacy Windows installation, which I assume is what you want.

Your apparent problem with Win 10 disk does not make sense, since that version can install in UEFI booting mode fine.

I'm trying to think of what else I am missing that could cause the problem you are experiencing. Clearing the UEFI/BIOS must be done to remove UEFI settings as a variable.

You said you have two of the H97M Pro4 boards. What UEFI/BIOS versions do you have in each board? I can't believe a UEFI/BIOS bug that caused this problem would not have been noticed by others, given the last UEFI update is almost a year old.

I don't think your problem is caused by defective hardware of some kind. The only hardware related things I can guess at would be using the maximum amount of memory supported by your board (32GB), although if that was a problem it would probably not pass POST. The other is the UEFI/BIOS version used in your board. Any version will work with a G3258, but full support is apparently provided by version 1.20. The version in your board is shown on the main page of the UEFI/BIOS UI, or on a sticker on the BIOS chip.

Have you changed any options in the UEFI/BIOS from their default values? I'm not implying you should not do that, but the error message might be a hint that you did.

There are two options in the UEFI that when set a certain way, when using Windows 7, might result in the error message you get.

With either the Windows installation disk or USB installation media in the PC (put the USB flash drive in a USB 2.0 port on the board's IO panel), go into the UEFI/BIOS and go to the Boot screen. You should see whatever installation device you chose listed in the Boot order.

You may find multiple entries for the same installation device listed, each with a different prefix. For example, you may find "AHCI: Asus CD-RW Drive", and "UEFI: Asus CD-RW Drive", or similar entries.

The first/top entry is the one being used to boot from. What does your first entry look like, does it have a prefix? Do you see what seems to be multiple entries for the same installation device?

Have you used that Windows 7 disk in the past? Was the USB flash drive installer created from the same Win 7 disk?