- Jul 5, 2013
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I know this is really long and I probably couldnt be bothered to read it if I had a quick look but I am really begging for help. If anyone can solve this I will send you a thank you card in the post! with a poem or something!
So I helped my girlfriend pick out a new laptop for college - samsung series 3 37r5e (no optical drive).
It came with windows 8, which she understandably hated so I decided to install win7 (which I have done a few times on various pcs with no issues).
I followed the method here to create a win7 bootable usb, and it appeared to work fine until i got to the disk options in the installer, where it told me "Windows cannot be installed on this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style.".
After googling what that meant I booted with an ubuntu USB stick I had lying around and deleted all the partitions (~450gb main + 3 or 4 small backup and samsung partitons). I then created one primary partition, and tried again with the same problem.
I went back into gparted in ubuntu, and created a new ms-dos partition table as it appeared to be the GPT that was the problem.
With the GPT, windows was booting but I couldnt get past stage two of the installation, with MS-DOS it hangs on a black screen without booting.
I reverted to GPT *again*, and tried to repair the disk through the windows installer.
It now tells me, every time I try to boot, that "windows failed to start. A recent h/w or s/w change might be the cause. to fix the problem:
1 insert your windows inst. disc and restart your computer (laptop has no optical drive...)
2 choose language etc
3 click repair computer..
file: \boot\bcd
status: 0xc0000098
Info: the windows boot configuration data file does not contain a valid os entry
Enter=continue Esc=exit
restarts computer, straight back to this screen Ditto
I am stuck.
I have formatted the HDD again and again, made new partition tables again and again, pulled my hair out, smoked countless cigarettes, and am almost at the point of crying. I have been at this for hours because I cant tell my girlfriend that I might have ruined the laptop she got this morning.
Please help me!
ps.
I am pretty sure i have covered all the basics, boot order, CSM...
So I helped my girlfriend pick out a new laptop for college - samsung series 3 37r5e (no optical drive).
It came with windows 8, which she understandably hated so I decided to install win7 (which I have done a few times on various pcs with no issues).
I followed the method here to create a win7 bootable usb, and it appeared to work fine until i got to the disk options in the installer, where it told me "Windows cannot be installed on this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style.".
After googling what that meant I booted with an ubuntu USB stick I had lying around and deleted all the partitions (~450gb main + 3 or 4 small backup and samsung partitons). I then created one primary partition, and tried again with the same problem.
I went back into gparted in ubuntu, and created a new ms-dos partition table as it appeared to be the GPT that was the problem.
With the GPT, windows was booting but I couldnt get past stage two of the installation, with MS-DOS it hangs on a black screen without booting.
I reverted to GPT *again*, and tried to repair the disk through the windows installer.
It now tells me, every time I try to boot, that "windows failed to start. A recent h/w or s/w change might be the cause. to fix the problem:
1 insert your windows inst. disc and restart your computer (laptop has no optical drive...)
2 choose language etc
3 click repair computer..
file: \boot\bcd
status: 0xc0000098
Info: the windows boot configuration data file does not contain a valid os entry
Enter=continue Esc=exit
restarts computer, straight back to this screen Ditto
I am stuck.
I have formatted the HDD again and again, made new partition tables again and again, pulled my hair out, smoked countless cigarettes, and am almost at the point of crying. I have been at this for hours because I cant tell my girlfriend that I might have ruined the laptop she got this morning.
Please help me!
ps.
I am pretty sure i have covered all the basics, boot order, CSM...
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