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Windows 7 will not install, period. Why? Please read...
Hello there,
Recently discovered these forums, so howdy first of all, my first post and all.
I'd really like your input on the following problem I face:
I have two PCs at home, a desktop and a laptop. The desktop, being my main computer, is "less open" to experiments such as new OS versions etc, so most of my tweaking happens on the (not-so-used) laptop machine.
Here's the story: Windows 7 will NOT install on this laptop. Which is something I cannot understand...
The laptop is Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo A1667G, a 2006 model. Its base specs are:
CPU: Athlon 64 (single-core) 4000+ (2.6 GHz)
VGA: ATI Radeon X700 128 MB
RAM: 2 GB DDR 400
HDD: Seagate Momentus 7200 100 GB
Windows 7 upgrade advisor didn't find any issues with the hardware of the machine. However, I have tried the following, and here's what happened every time. Note that the machine used to run Windows Vista x86 with no issues, before I decide to...take it to Windows 7.
Windows 7 x64:
- 7077 build DVD 1 went past "Copying files - 100%" and DID NOT go to "Expanding files". All options remained grayed out. 7077 DVD 2 (burnt at 4x, since the DVDs I used refused to be burned below 4x) actually went to "Expanding files", but stayed at 0%, seemingly forever.
- 7000 build, DVD 1: Reached "Expanding Files" and stayed at 0%. DVD 2 (re-burnt different image) - reached "Expanding Files" and DVD actually spinned for a bit - reached 1%, and then stayed there forever.
- USB stick: I did try to make a USB stick bootable with 7. However, the laptop did not explicitly support USB stick boot, so even though I tried to make it "appear like a HDD", it never worked out well enough.
Following these abysmal results, when RC 1 (build 7100) came out, I thought to give it another shot:
7100 x64 did the same as always - expanding files at 0%. I noticed after cancelling installation that some 700 MB had been copied to the installation partition, but still nothing happened.
Windows 7 7100 x86:
I tried to run x86 installer from within Windows XP SP3 x86 I installed on the laptop following all these unsuccessful attempts.
A bit of background info on the partitions:
Partition 1, ~45 GB, is Windows XP SP 3.
Partition 2, ~20 GB, is Ubuntu 9.04
Partition 3, ~30 GB, is free. I attempted to install 7100 on this partition.
7000/7077 were going on Partition 1, and when all failed, windows XP came on P1 instead.
Now - I decided to run the install from within Windows, since there was the option to "get installation updates from Internet" and all.
Every time, Windows did download a 1300 KB file for me, presumably some driver to use with the install. However, install went as follows:
- Attempt 1: Copying files, done. Expanding files up to 27%, done. Reboot. Expanding files to 100%, done. Installing features, updates, done. Here, it was supposed to reboot once more, but it never did - stuck on the wallpaper of the installation for quite sometime.
I rebooted manually, and then the installation thought this a bad thing to do, and mentioned that "Installation should be restarted", offering me only rollback. Rollback succeeded.- Attempt 2: As attempt 1, stuck at the same place not rebooting. Rebooted manually, this time installation seemed willing to go on. Reached "Completing installation" stage, waited for 1 hour, then terminated installation myself.
- Attempt 3: Reached "Completing installation" stage - Left the laptop on overnight. After 8+ hours, it's still at "completing installation".
Facts:
- Hardware cannot change, to make any more attempts. It's a laptop after all.
- BIOS cannot be upgraded, or USB stick used.
- Hardware is not as ancient as it could be - The mainboard chipset is to be honest (Socket 754 and all), and I could understand not being able to install the x64 version because the chipset can't support it properly / the CPU can't / whatever. But the x86 version? Especially when x86 Vista worked like a charm?!
Sorry for the excruciatingly long post - But any input will be much appreciated. I thought Win 7 would run better on this laptop than Vista (and I still believe they'll do better), but they have to install first for God's sake!
PS: Is there a way to track progress of the "Completing installation" part? That green bar on the bottom of the screen does actually fill? I can't recall, but I think I saw the bar getting greener...
Thanks in advance for your help and support (and time spent reading this!). Hope to hear any good ideas.