Windows 7, and possibly Windows Vista can suffer from various problems when installing

• AMD cool and quiet can prevent windows 7 x64 installation, disable it in bios (try diabling smart fan control aswell)
• FDD present in bios but not physicaly can cause massive time delays or the installation to stop
• make sure only one drive connected as windows 7 gets confused where to put the bootloader, also speeds up the setup as it does not wait for drives to respond
• set drives to achi not sata or native ide or raid (and possibly vice versa as an option)
• detach all unnecessary USB and other external devices. USB mice, pendrive and printers with card readers
• check hardware with windows 7 upgrade advisor can be helpful
• Try formatting the partition manually during setup rather than just clicking next
• Drop ram to minimum ie 1gb by 1 stick. also might try different variations as certain memory arrangements can cause issues
• clock memory down from 1333 to 800 etc.
  
  Also these can be valid aswell, not fully checked though

• Disabling USB
• Try 1 video card when 2 are present
• Disable ide and use usb cdrom
• disabling power saving in bios might speed windows 7 up aswell as help
• Choose Enable Low-resolution video (640*480) option, and press Enter

Useful links

http://superuser.com/questions/17207/windows-7-install-stuck-at-setup-is-starting
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itproinstall/thread/bae1726d-f99a-4b24-a5a8-fa8a84451056
http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7install/thread/e947432f-a6f2-419f-b307-16e301c34bb6
http://superuser.com/questions/59378/windows-7-setup-hangs-after-starting-windows-screen
http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/586647.aspx

Windows 7 Install Stuck at Setup is Starting / Windows 7 setup hangs after “Starting Windows…”-screen

I'm trying to install Windows 7 RTM 64-bit on my computer but I am stuck between "Starting Windows" and the first dialog window asking for the language. All I can see is the standard Win7 background and the mouse cursor which I can move around. There is no hard drive or CD-ROM activity.

• Disable FDD in BIOS.

Win7 x64 setup freezes on "Completing Installation"

• Found the problem. AMD Cool 'n Quiet Technology. I switched it off in the BIOS, and it installed straight away

Windows 7 64 bit takes half hour to Boot - if not FDD issue

I'm doing a clean installation of windows 7 ultimate 64 bit on my machine, it gets to the point where it says "Setup is starting..." when I install, and then takes half an hour approximately to get to the point where I can choose drives, etc... And then every time it reboots, half hour until I can do anything. My vista 64 bit install takes approx 20 minutes on this machine, and the win 7 compatibility test thing says everything is fine. I have the following hardware:

• Apparently has something to do with my secondary raid array. I disable (removed the power to those two drives) that, and I get super quick boot.
• The issues you were having were most likely due to drivers for the RAID controller not being totally compatable with Windows 7.