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Tom's Hardware > Forum > Windows 7 > [Solved] Windows 7 Installation woes

[Solved] Windows 7 Installation woes

Forum Windows 7 : [Solved] Windows 7 Installation woes

This should have been so simple but here is my saga.

I received an OEM copy of Windows 7 Professional 64 bit.
I currently Run Windows XP Pro

PC Specs:

Intel Core 2 duo e6400
Intel P5Ql Pro
1 150 GB WD Drive
1 1TB WD Drive
2 GB of memory (adding more soon)
I purchased a 3rd WD 640gb drive to use for a clean install of Windows 7.

I opened my Windows 7 Cd, placed it in my DVD drive and turned off the PC. I then unhooked my 150 GB OS drive my the SATA1 and power and hooked up the new unformatted 640gb drive. I then powered on my PC. The PC could not find a boot device so I rebooted and checked the boot priority in BIOS. The DVD drive was first.
This brings me to question 1: Can't you boot from a windows 7 DVD?
I then rebooted into XP and attempted to browse the Windows 7 DVD. My DVD drive doesn't even detect a DVD in the Drive. So then I thought I received a broken Windows 7 pro DVD so I slapped it into my laptop (vista 64bit) and the Windows 7 DVD booted up just fine. *ugggggh* ok so the DVD is fine. I then put my old Windows XP cd in my PC DVD drive and that booted up just fine, so the DVD drive is fine.
I then went to google for the solutions and found out I need to run the Windows 7 DVD from an OS. Knowing it wouldnt work in my install of XP I reinstalled XP on my new 640BG drive.
OK Windows Xp installed on new HD. I popped in the Windows 7 disc and it spun up, but errored out stating that the startup program was not a valid 32bit program. I thought this might be an issue with Xp that was fixed in a Service pack so I installed some windows updates and service pack 2.
After I installed SP2 I tried again and now my DVD drive wont read the Windows 7 disc. The drive is detected but it shows no DVD or contents.

Grrrr!

What am I missing? This install should have been a cake walk.

I realize I cannot upgrade from XP to Windows 7. I was, and still am, prepared to do a clean install. But I can't even do that.

Help!

Reply to TheOnion

What dvd drive drive do you have in your desktop? I have come across early dvd drives that will not let you boot from modern disks, but from CD's they are ok...

The other thing you could do is create a bootable flash drive (must be at least 4GB in size) and install 7 from that. The method I used is as follows:

1. Download Microsoft's Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool here. Then download UltraISO from here.

2. Install both applications and then open UltraISO.

3. Create an ISO file of your Windows 7 DVD and save the file where ever you like.

4. Open Microsoft's USB DVD Tool and pick the ISO file you just created. Click USB Device in the next step.

5. Insert your flash drive and pick it from the drop down list, then click Begin Copying.

Once this is finished, you can then boot from the flash drive to install 7.

Edit: If you have a fast enough flash drive (a lot of recently released flash drives are) you can actually install 7 faster from the flash drive than from the DVD.

Message quoted 1 times
Message edited by The_Prophecy on 10-25-2009 at 08:29:06 PM

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Reply to The_Prophecy

The_Prophecy wrote :

What dvd drive drive do you have in your desktop? I have come across early dvd drives that will not let you boot from modern disks, but from CD's they are ok...

I have this DVD drive. NEC ND-3550A.

I've had it since 2006.

link on new egg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827152058

I will attempt the USB route. I hope it works.

thanks for the help.

Reply to TheOnion

For the fraction of the cost of a USB flash drive you could get a new DVD drive. Then it would just be a matter of installing the Win 7 64 disk and installing.

Reply to Anonymous

Have you looked into this recently? 4GB flash drives are cheaper than new DVD drives. Granted, it's only about a $2-$5 difference, but a new DVD drive isn't necessary. Installing from a flash drive is faster anyway.

------------------------------ Please give credit where credit is due! If you think this post was the most helpful, please remember to mark it as the best answer!
Reply to The_Prophecy

I have a 4GB flash drive. My problem now is the the Ultra ISO free version has a 350mb size limit on ISO's. I don't really want to buy it solely for this. Are there any free ISO creators I can use?

Reply to TheOnion

the size limit doesn't apply. You can create an iso from any sized disk. The only thing you can't do is modify the iso once you've created it, but you won't be doing that anyway.

Message edited by The_Prophecy on 10-26-2009 at 03:50:18 AM

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Reply to The_Prophecy

ISO created and copied to my USB Drive. Time to head back to the problematic PC.

Reply to TheOnion

Two problems now:

1. My motherboard Asus P5Ql- Pro has no USB listed in the boot priority order. I cannot find anywhere in the BIOS to boot from USB. I tried powering down, pulling the power from my main HD, hooking up my new HD, inserting the USB and powering on. I tried multiple USB slots and the PC could not find a valid boot device.

2. When I try to run the Setup.exe file on the USB drive from the Windows XP desktop I get the following error.

"Setup.exe is not a valid Win32 application"

Screen shot of the error message.

http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/8 [...] 7error.jpg

What now?

Message edited by TheOnion on 10-26-2009 at 07:52:12 PM

Reply to TheOnion

Best answer

The easiest thing to do would have been to simply get a working DVD drive and install it from there. Yes, I realize that you can install from a USB drive, but for all the trouble you've experienced it would have been easier to simply get a working drive and use your DVD.

Message quoted 1 times

------------------------------ Desktop: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit; Intel Q6600 CPU; E-VGA 780i SLI motherboard; E-VGA E-GeForce 8800GT; OCZ Vista 4GB dual-channel kit; Ultra X2 750W power supply; 2 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB in RAID 0. Laptop: Acer Aspire 8730-6314; Windo
Reply to Zoron

Zoron wrote :

I am starting to think that too, but my other concern is if I am able to install a 64bit version of Windows 7 from a 32bit version of windows xp. That is what the error message alludes to. Even when I run the setup.exe from the USB drive.

Reply to TheOnion

You can't do an in-place upgrade... that is off the table. What you have to do is have your previous version of Windows installed and activated, then do a custom install. Even with 32-bit Windows 7, you would still have to perform a clean (custom) install rather than just a straight in-place upgrade.

Message quoted 1 times

Zoron wrote :

Yeah I knew I needed to do a "custom" install. I have a new 640GB hard drive ready for it with XP pro installed. The problem is the error message when running setup.exe. I am afraid that will still come up after I get a new DVD drive and I will be out the $25 bucks for the new drive and no farther along.

Reply to TheOnion

I've been having a similar problem on this new build using an OEM new, not upgrade, copy of Win7 Professional:

Case: Cooler Master Storm
Motherboard: ASRock X58 Extreme
Processor: Intel i7 920 @2.67Ghz
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master V-8
Memory: 12GB OCZ DDR3 1066
HDD: Intel X25-M 80GB Mainstream SSD version 2
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200, 320GB
Power Supply: Cooler Master 750 W
Graphics Card: Gigabyte GTX 260
DVD: Two Lite-on 24x SATA
Floppy/Card Reader: BYTECH 3.5”/Card reader Combo
Mouse & Keyboard: Logitech USB Wireless

Sometimes the DVD's see the the Win7 disc and starts to load sometimes it doesn't. I was able to make a Thumb drive, got part way thru the install and reboot. Restarts insall and reboot. Actuall got a full install once but couldn't keep from rebooting while open. Tried installin 32 bit Vista and 64 bit vista, same thing. Put on SP2 version of XP and all is well.

I've trid this in all these combinations on both the Barracuda and the SSD drive, disconecting one or the other, to no avail. Looks like I've built and expensive XP machine.

I've been in contact with Microsoft, http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums so far no solution but I'll keep plugging. Any suggestions? Also contacted ASRock, no help ther either.

Reply to Anonymous

habe you got more than one optical drive? I seem to remember having this problem with exactly the same NEC drive that you have and it drove me spare.

I seem to remember it had something to do with unplugging the other ide drives and it may have even been a bit fussy about which ide channel it was one - for that matter make sure you've disabled any on board raid on the ide channels and try that....

Reply to will_chellam

sorry, should have said, this was a windows xp install - it could see the disc in windows but not from the bios....

Reply to will_chellam

My situation seems to be resolving itself. While attempting to burn a new copy of my Windows 7 DVD my drive died and wouldnt even open. I went out and bought a new LG drive. I will attempt the install with this new DVD drive tonight.

*fingers crossed*

Reply to TheOnion

New LG drive solved my problem. I got Windows 7 installed and so far I am loving it.

Reply to TheOnion

Glad you got it working... my suspicion about your optical drive failing turned out to be correct.

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