Installation difficulties

[baffled88]

I'd appreciate any help somone can provide...

A year or so ago, I bought a refubed system 64-bit system with Vista. I then bought the Win 7 upgrade. After running 7 for a while my system began locking up. After spending fruitless hours disabling different services, I have decided I want to wipe my hard drive clean, then reinstall Windows XP (I do not have a Vista disk), then finally upgrade to Windows 7.

I have tried booting to my Win XP CD, but after it loads all the files, it blue screens. It will not let me reformat the partition. That is problem number one. Is it blue screening because I'm trying to boot to an XP 32-bit System disk and my computer is a 64-bit system? Assuming I can get it reformatted, can you forsee any other problems based on my set of circumstances?

Thanks for any help you can offer.

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

Welcome to the Windows Forum.

You can directly install Windows 7 from your upgrade disk - you don't need to install an earlier version first. You will need to insert your old (XP) disk sometime during the installation, as proof that you have an earlier Windows version.

[Alan2273]

The problem you are having is your computer boots from a sata drive and the XP disk does not recognize them, whereas Win 7 will, so do as pat says and install Win 7.

[Boris]

I believe that if your XP disk includes SP2 it should recognise SATA drives ?

[baffled88]

Thank you for your responses, gentlemen. I now have a brand new internal hard drive. When I boot to the Win 7 upgrade disk to install as you suggest, I get the following message: "No signed device drivers were found. Make sure that the installation media contains the correct drivers, and then click OK." Shouldn't this upgrade disk (media)contain the correct drivers?

Thanks.

[bludgard]

Shouldn't this upgrade disk (media)contain the correct drivers?

Absolutely.

What was the source of the Windows 7 media?If it is legitamate,are you choosing Custom (advanced) or Upgrade install option?Custom will be your choice for a clean install.

I ask about the source of the Windows .ISO because there are valid copies that are fauly.If it was created,was it verified after burning?

[baffled88]

The upgrade disk is legit (purchased at MicroCenter). I've gotten desperate and gone out and purchased a full install OEM and am now getting the same message with it. Is there anything I need to be doing to "prep" the hard drive before attempting to install Win 7 on it?

[rong]

Have you set the bias to SATA, not sure that you have to but something in the back of my head says you might need to

[bludgard]

Is there anything I need to be doing to "prep" the hard drive before attempting to install Win 7 on it?

This may help prepare your HD.

When you get to the screen asking where to install Windows,select the partition created during diskpart.In the bottom panel select Delete.Then select New.(This will let Windows install the 100MB partition System Reserved_Active).

(Note that by using this utility you will lose any and all data on the disk with focus)

Clean all and formatting takes quite some time (this command line usually takes about 2 1/2-3 hours on a 250GB HDD) so be patient if you decide to implement this.Progress is only noted by a blinking cursor "_".We are not going for the "quick" cleaning or formatting.

To access diskpart boot from install media.Select Next.Select Repair Your Computer.Select Command Prompt.

Hit the ENTER key after each command.

DISKPART

LIST DISK (Generates a list of disks available)

SELECT DISK # ("#" will indicate the actual disk number where Windows will be Installed)

Clean ALL (Completely wipes disk and writes zeros to it)

CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY (Creates a primary partition)

SELECT PARTITION 1 (Directs focus to newly created partition)

ACTIVE (Marks partition as active)

FORMAT (Formats the partition-if no format is chosen the default format will be evoked)

ASSIGN (Assigns a drive letter to selected partition)

EXIT

After cleaning all possible data on the disk to house Windows,boot from .ISO and select Custom install (or the equivalent thereof).

If you need further assistance with this,keep the thread updated.

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

"No signed device drivers were found. Make sure that the installation media contains the correct drivers, and then click OK."

What happens when you click OK - does the installation continue, or abort?

[josh22]

In installing win7, it does not need any previous versions. Just install it directly.