clean install over XP Pro

I'm trying to install W7 on my wife's PC that currently has Windows XP Pro SP3 32 bit. The PC is a year old and has AMD II X250 cpu's on an ASUSTeK Computer INC. M3N78-EM motherboard with 4 Gb RAM and a 500 Gb hard disk, a NVIDIA GeForce 8300 display adaptor and an Iiyama 17 " monitor.

When it first failed I thought it was due to only having 1.85 Gb free of 60 Gb on drive C, so I used Easus to delete drive E with 437 Gb and increase drive C to be the whole 500 Gb. Still no joy, so I looked at the installation guides on the web and realised I had to change the boot sequence in the BIOS so that the CD drive came bvefore the hard disk.

If I try to boot from the W7 Home Premium family pack CD I get the option to boot from CD or DVD, which I accept by hitting a key. The screen then displays "Starting Windows" with a progress bar, after which the Microsoft logo is displayed and then finally the Windows 7 splash screen is displayed. After this, nothing further happens. The mouse cursor moves with the mouse but the keyboard doesn't appear to be active. The CD continues to spin for a while before it too gets bored and shuts down.

If I start running XP and then use Windows Explorer to start the setup.exe on the CD I get an error message telling me that I have the incorrect version for the PC.

I've tried looking for a solution on the internet but so far have drawn a blank, all instructions have the belief that at the stage I reach I should be seeing the installation dialogue.

When I installed W7 on my PC I didn't get the dialogue that I expected about formatting the hard disk, but at least the installation started and succeeded, that was on a Vista Home Premium and I guess it was an upgrade install as there is a windows.old file on the PC now.

If anyone can please help me with this I'd be very grateful.

regards,
Trevor

While XP is still on machine, update the BIOS to latest version. If it's current then reset the CMOS: Clear CMOS - 3 Ways to Clear the CMOS - Reset BIOS

If you're using a SATA HD, while in BIOS setup set the SATA controller to AHCI first, then later to IDE if it fails.

Remove all but 2gb of RAM to try install.

backup all files externally. Wipe the HD using tutorial posted above by BareFootKid.

Unplug all other HD's and peripherals.

trevor shaw said:

I'm trying to install W7 on my wife's PC that currently has Windows XP Pro SP3 32 bit. The PC is a year old and has AMD II X250 cpu's on an ASUSTeK Computer INC. M3N78-EM motherboard with 4 Gb RAM and a 500 Gb hard disk, a NVIDIA GeForce 8300 display adaptor and an Iiyama 17 " monitor.

When it first failed I thought it was due to only having 1.85 Gb free of 60 Gb on drive C, so I used Easus to delete drive E with 437 Gb and increase drive C to be the whole 500 Gb. Still no joy, so I looked at the installation guides on the web and realised I had to change the boot sequence in the BIOS so that the CD drive came bvefore the hard disk.

If I try to boot from the W7 Home Premium family pack CD I get the option to boot from CD or DVD, which I accept by hitting a key. The screen then displays "Starting Windows" with a progress bar, after which the Microsoft logo is displayed and then finally the Windows 7 splash screen is displayed. After this, nothing further happens. The mouse cursor moves with the mouse but the keyboard doesn't appear to be active. The CD continues to spin for a while before it too gets bored and shuts down.

If I start running XP and then use Windows Explorer to start the setup.exe on the CD I get an error message telling me that I have the incorrect version for the PC.

I've tried looking for a solution on the internet but so far have drawn a blank, all instructions have the belief that at the stage I reach I should be seeing the installation dialogue.

When I installed W7 on my PC I didn't get the dialogue that I expected about formatting the hard disk, but at least the installation started and succeeded, that was on a Vista Home Premium and I guess it was an upgrade install as there is a windows.old file on the PC now.

If anyone can please help me with this I'd be very grateful.

regards,
Trevor

You did not do an upgrade installation. You actually did a custom installation of Windows 7 on top of your Windows Vista installation. The thing is Windows.old is only created when you do a custom installation (Clean Install Windows 7). No such folder is created when doing an upgrade installation (Upgrade Install with Windows 7).

I managed to install Windows 7 64 bit with everyone’s help and a bit from Microsoft. Here’s what happened to provide feedback and to maybe help someone else in future.
First I tried to format the hard disk, but that doesn’t work too well, I approved the dismount of drive C but there were still handles in use so that failed. I probably had Format on a copy of Hirens CD but I’m not very familiar with this. I chose to follow the procedures given by bare Foot Kid.
The secure erase/partitioning and the installation steps were all as laid out in the two links provided by Bare Foot Kid, and all went well until I was asked to enter the product code, which returned an Invalid Code message – odd as it worked ok on the first installation on my PC. I wondered if it was because the Family Pack is an upgrade installation maybe it was expecting an XP Pro product code but that gave the same error message. I decided to sort it out later and so allowed the installation to complete without activation. At this stage Windows 7 was up and running and I stated installing the other software required.
I phoned Microsoft Support and eventually got through their phone menu to an activation person. After explaining the problem I was instructed to carry out a repair installation, at the end of which I entered my product code which was now accepted.
Once again, my thanks to everyone who responded, particularly bare Foot Kid.

regards,
Trevor

You only needed to keep the thread current and we could have shown you the workarounds described in the tutorial BFK posted just above, including a much easier Registry edit workaround which takes seconds.

Glad you have it up and running now.