Trying to install Win 7 to an old system.

[Presto]

The system has an ECS K7S5A motherboard, about 2001-ish, I think. Before anybody ask's why I'm undertaking such a thing, I'm doing it as an experiment and to see if I could possibly use it as a thin client or media centre. It has a 2ghz Athlon XP2400+ which should still be capable of giving it a good run, plus 1GB of RAM.

Anyways, upon booting the DVD I get the "CDBOOT Code 5 Can not boot from CD" error. I've looked at some solutions on the internet but most require the use of a floppy drive which, although it has one, I'm not sure if it even works anymore, nor do I have any disks to do it with.

Tried making a bootable USB which doesn't boot either. Also tried making a Windows 7 recovery CD (also a Vista x86 recovery CD) and neither seems to want to boot either. Also tried a Windows 98 startup with CD ROM support option but that won't start the DVD either.

So are there any other ways I can get this booting up?

 

[biggles1000]

yeah, i think your older PC just has a CD drive, so it can't read DVDs. I had this problem with an old machine, so I just swapped the CD drive out for a DVD drive from my new computer. I think this would be the only way to get it working, as i'm guessing that an external USB DVD drive wouldn't work either.

 

[Presto]

Drive is a Plextor PX-116A DVD-ROM drive PATA. I do have a Plextor DVD-RW drive PATA in the garage somewhere so I'll give that a go.

 

[biggles1000]

odd. well, good luck with it
I fear the BIOS may not support DVD drives, but I've never heard of that problem before. Did the Plextor that isn't working come with the computer?

 

[Presto]

No, most of this system has been made from recycled old parts that I had over the years. It reads CD/DVD's fine through Windows XP and the system also runs XP without issue.

 

[biggles1000]

phew. just a thought, you could try running the 'Upgrade' option from the windows 7 disc in XP, but I'm not sure what to do when it goes to the 'restarting your system to continue' parts.

 

[Presto]

I don't want to do that. Still want the XP partition to be usable whilst I'm trying this so was going to use a dual boot set up. Plus doesn't 7 require a clean install from the boot media if upgrading from XP?

 

[biggles1000]

ah. you may need something to partition your hard drive as I can't remember if the windows 7 installer can do that.
probably, never personally used upgrade as I don't see the point. I either start afresh or dual boot

 

[biggles1000]

you will probably want to follow point one of method one for dual booting here: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8057-dual-boot-installation-windows-7-xp.html

 

[Presto]

I've never done an upgrade either. Always wiped the drive and clean installed.
Think my only shot here is to make a bootable USB/CD that has all the relevant tools to boot the drive but no idea where to begin tbh.

 

[biggles1000]

yeah, it's a pain that the USB boot option is too modern for the mobo :/
I had similar problems with a 2003 Compaq work machine as just a CD drive and no USb support. I gave up on that machine, as my installation disc was too scratched to work when I swapped optical drives and couldn't be asked to upgrade to SP2. hardly the best exemplary motivator though
Do try swapping the optical drives if you have the time, and check the disc is completely unscratched (but the error you got doesn't look like a problem with the disc)

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello mate.


Just for information sake; once you get it booting you can use Windows 7 diskpart to create / format partitions before the install, have a look at Step Two of this tutorial at the link below for some ideas.


SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation


Here's another you may be interested in.

Do a Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version

 

[biggles1000]

ooh, that is handy. I think I remember some featureless disk partitioning in the XP setup, but I didn't know they'd carried it forwards to Windows 7. Nice tip

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

ooh, that is handy. I think I remember some featureless disk partitioning in the XP setup, but I didn't know they'd carried it forwards to Windows 7. Nice tip

Thanks mate!

 

[theog]

I've never done an upgrade either. Always wiped the drive and clean installed.
Think my only shot here is to make a bootable USB/CD that has all the relevant tools to boot the drive but no idea where to begin tbh.

Try using the TRY OTHER BOOT DEVICES in the BIOS setup.
Check in the manual.

You can download manual for ECS K7S5A from here:
ECS Web Site


http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2432-usb-windows-7-installation-key-drive-create.html?ltr=U

 

[Presto]

Tried the other boot devices and the boot menu on the K7S5A. Alao tried the bootable USB key methods in both FAT32 and NTFS. Neither working unfortunately. Thanks though.

 

[biggles1000]

Bad luck :/

 

[gregrocker]

If you can't boot the DVD then run the Win7 DVD from XP to install to a second partition you've created.

Best tool to shrink XP to make a new partition for Win7 install is free Partition Wizard bootable CD.

Create a new NTFS Primary partition.

Run the DVD from XP, select the newly created Partition for install. It should configure the DUal Boot for you - if not, use EasyBCD 2.02 to Win7 to Add XP.

You can also install Acronis to XP to apply an image of a Win7 installation to the partition you've created. A free version of Acronis is available if you have WD or Seagate HD's on their Support Downloads webpage.

 

[Presto]

Tried that as well and the installer insisted that the DVD be booted in order to install.

 

[gregrocker]

Are you opening the DVD then trying to run Setup file from XP? Try copying and pasting opened DVD files to desktop to run Setup.

The USB flash stick method which always works for me is to install UltraISO trial version: on File tab Open ISO or DVD, on Bootable tab "Write Disk Image", Format, Write.

Boot under USB or HD's on one-time BIOS Boot menu.

If you have a spare HD or want to back up an image of XP using free Macrium, you can wipe the HD using free Partition Wizard bootable CD which will autostart, then Win7 DVD should autostart to install.