Installing Win7 Enterprise 32-bit on a 384 MB machine w/ 8.4 GB limit

Greetings all,

Yes I know the title is nuts, but according to here I know the RAM part can be covered:
Install Windows 7 on Computer with Less than 512MB RAM

Now, here's my question - have an old Gateway Solo 9100 with a PII @ 400 MHz with 384 MB of RAM (max) and a 160 GB HDD. Problem is it suffers from an 8.4 GB limit, i.e., the C:\ will only be 8.4 GB or so, but the rest of the drive will be under E:\.

So, any suggestions on installing this? Can it be done? I know I'm nuts but hey I like a challenge!

I do have a Win7 Enterprise SP1 32-bit disc if that helps.

Thanks!
VV5

Thanks for the reply, but I'm just curious on something. Other users were able to install it with lower RAM than mine, and probably a machine just as old. But didn't they suffer from at 8.4 GB (or other HD) limit as well? How did they overcome it then?

VV5

Almost certainly NO. And for multiple reasons.

1. 8.4 GB disk space is only half the specified minimum of 16 GB. Most likely the installer would refuse to run.

2. Lack of compatible device drivers. Nobody is going to go to the considerable trouble of writing Windows 7 device drivers for hardware that does not mean the minimum requirements.

3. I doubt the PII CPU would be compatible. Windows 7 specifies a minimum 1 GHZ CPU and the PII never went that high. Almost certainly a more modern CPU would be required.

This is not a complete list.

Edit: When the PII was released 384 MB was a huge amount of RAM. Many P4 systems were sold new with considerably less. I have a 256 MB Pentium 4 system that came with Windows 2000 installed.

From what I remember most PII systems did not have the 8.4 GB disk size limit.

I was just trying to get my questions answered. I didn't think I was wasting anyone's time.

Boot the installer and see. THere's a certain minimum processor power below which it will error out that it can't be installed. I think you're below it. If not then I wouldn't bother with that little RAM. 500mb maybe, 1gb yes, 2gb a surer thing.

Hey Greg,

First - thanks for the response.

Some quick questions since I'm a noob at this.

1.) I think I found a document that says this old chipset (Intel 440BX) is ACPI compliant. Is there any way to check for sure or anyway around it?
2.) When you say "boot the installer" - I was booting from the DVD. Are you meaning to try something else?
3.) How do others on here like DocBrown et.al. get Win7 on less specs than I do?