Hung at "Verifying DMI Pool Data"

I spent most of Saturday trying to install Windows 7, with a spectacular lack of success!

At first all seemed to be going well and I got the Win7 desktop and had a look at various bits. Then I changed the Workgroup name so that it would be on the same one as my other machines and I could copy some files across, that of course needed a restart. The boot process got as far as 'verifying DMI pool data' and hung.

I tried installing it again, and that only got as far as the first restart and once again it hung at 'verifying DMI pool data'.

At this point I changed the hard disk and installed Win7 again, that got to the first restart and yet again it hung at 'verifying DMI pool data'.

I then installed XP Home on the same drive, getting the XP install to format the drive to remove any traces of Win7, XP installed OK and had no problems with restarts. I then started the Win7 install from within XP, and once again it hung at 'verifying DMI pool data' on the first restart!!

Has anyone else had this?

It's odd that W7 boots once before failing. Did you install anything or update any drivers during this time (even via Windows Update)? I'm wondering if some updated drivers (perhaps drive controller) are causing this.

There are lots of other things that could cause this, but I'd try the following and see if that helps:

• Enable the "Reset Configuration Data" or "Force update ESCD" option in the BIOS, which forces a refresh of the extended system config data. If this is corrupt, it would cause this problem - although I think that is unlikely in this case (but worth a shot).
• Run CHKDSK (full test) just to make sure there are no other outstanding disk issues.
• Check the W7 install CD on another PC to see if it works OK - although I imagine if it boots once then it should be ok.

There can be several causes for this. In addition to what Ian suggested:

• Remove all disks and unplug any flash storage media from the system. Floppies, dvds, USB drives, external drives, etc. (I've seen a game DVD cause this, believe it or not)
  
• If that doesn't work go into the BIOS and make sure the correct hard drive is selected as the boot drive.
  
• If you are using a SATA drive, disable the "Native SATA" setting if that is enabled. Also change SATA operation to IDE mode.
  
• If you are using a PATA (IDE) drive, make sure the hard drive is jumpered to match if it is the primary or secondary drive. If it's the only drive on the IDE ribbon then make use it is using the last connector on the cable and is jumpered as the primary drive.

Hi

Had the same problem, but managed to cure it - do the following and pass this info on, I know how helpful things like this can be when trying for days on end to get something working

I installed a fresh copy of Windows 7, got the same error "Verifying DMI Pool Data" and hanging.

To fix this boot from the windows 7 dvd again, select the Repair Windows section, select the command prompt option, type BOOTREC.EXE /FIXBOOT and hot enter, close the command prompt and select restart - all is now ok P.S This also works for Windows Vista