MS-6585 motherboard installation

As I already said, I am a computer technician. That makes me an expert user. Yes, I pressed ENTER when seeing the "Press any key to boot from CD" message and I even pressed F11 (Boot selection) and selected to boot from the DVD-ROM drive. And all I got was the error message that it cannot boot from CD because this shit BIOS cannot boot from UDF media, only good old ISO 9660 ones. I even started setup from a folder within Windows XP to avoid booting from CD issues, and it didn't work. Please read carefully what we post before you reply. Thank you.

PS: Just to make sure the DVD was readable, I made a fresh copy and even used an external USB DVD-ROM to boot from, just in case the PC's internal ATAPI DVD-ROM was faulty. So it's neither the disc nor the drive. The BIOS just doesn't support booting from UDF media, period.

spapakons said:

As I already said, I am a computer technician. That makes me an expert user. Yes, I pressed ENTER when seeing the "Press any key to boot from CD" message and I even pressed F11 (Boot selection) and selected to boot from the DVD-ROM drive. And all I got was the error message that it cannot boot from CD because this shit BIOS cannot boot from UDF media, only good old ISO 9660 ones. I even started setup from a folder within Windows XP to avoid booting from CD issues, and it didn't work. Please read carefully what we post before you reply. Thank you.

PS: Just to make sure the DVD was readable, I made a fresh copy and even used an external USB DVD-ROM to boot from, just in case the PC's internal ATAPI DVD-ROM was faulty. So it's neither the disc nor the drive. The BIOS just doesn't support booting from UDF media, period.

*bump* Yeah, sorry, but whatever.

I've got this uber-elderly board (now 12 years old) to install Windows 7.

What you need to do, is to not only download all the files off the disk to the root directory of the C:\drive, but it may help to make a 5GB partition (if you're starting from fresh) to do this. You can also do this on your XP partition if that happens to be on the first partition, and you'd like to keep the OS (a good idea, since some apps won't work on 7 the way they do on XP).

What everybody is missing, is the updated boot-code that Bootmgr needs! This resolves the problem of trying setup from the XP GUI.

Once the Files off the disk are sent to the drive in question, you now need an elevated command prompt.

Right click CMD (Either in Accessories --> Command Prompt, or Windows --> System32 folder

Select Run As (administrator) and input the credentials (password).

Then, in the black box, type the following, where c: represents the drive you just copied the media to:

1. C:
2. cd\
3. cd boot
4. bootsect.exe /nt60 c: /force /mbr

Now, depending on whether or not you're already running your OS on C: you mightn't be allowed to do this last part. If not, then you should try the Recovery console if you're on XP, or you could use the DVD if you have one (Or the Repair disc - that's at least giving you the command prompt - select Repair as an option, then use the tools, and NOT restore an image). Then you can do the above command without the problem of having to force the drive to dismount while your current OS is running.

Failing that? You'll need to use Grub to boot the bootmgr file

That's always fun!

If you have Grub bootloader installed, then good. If you don't, then do it before you try any of this. You'll be grateful...

In Grub bootloader, press 'c' to get a commandline.

Then, do this:

1. root (hd0,0)

This denotes the first partition on the first drive, which is where we put our files... right? If it's the first drive, but second partition, then use (hd0,1). Second disk, first partition? (hd1,0) etc...

2. chainloader (hd0,0)/bootmgr

You only need to include (hd0,0) on this command if you have more than one Bootmgr file resident on your system, but as long as you used the first command, you're already pointing at it anyway, and probably don't need to use it. Still, for something this important, there's no harm in it.

3. boot

And there you have it... You've gone to the right drive with the setup files! Once you're in there though, you'll need to use the command prompt to make the transition official, because up until this point, Grub was the only chance of booting it cleanly.

Thanks for letting me bore you to tears. My MSI-6585, despite what everybody else here, and at Microstar are saying, is quite adequate for running Windows 7. Sure, I can't use Aero, even though my card isn't terrible (ATI Radeon 9550 AGP). I also find that it's running fine off 2GB of RAM. I wouldn't recommend anybody running less than 1GB, as it's using up at least 500MB CONSTANTLY. That is with Anti-virus, mind.

In the end, this board mightn't be recommended by many today, but I'm not so mean as to suggest it's rubbish. It was the best value for money mobo in the world in it's day. Yes that's a long time ago, but what do they say about form and class? Be not surprised then, that this board can run Windows 7.

Hello!

I found the solution while trying to install Windows 8 to a Pentum 4 PC that didn't meet the PAE/NX requirements. I followed a guide describing how to extract the Windows 8 setup files from the image install.wim to the hard disk, patch some system files and then reboot to continue installation. This partly installs Windows to the hard disk and doesn't require to boot from Windows 8 setup DVD. I tried the same method to partially install Windows 7 in an old computer that could not boot from the Windows 7 setup DVD and it worked! I was able to reboot, resume installation and install Windows 7 32-bit in such an old computer! I successfully repeated the process and installed Windows 7 at two other old computers!

Here are all the steps:
1) Copy the image file install.wim from folder SOURCES of Windows 7 DVD in a flash drive. Also download and copy the utility imagex.exe (32-bit version at both cases of course).
2) If the computer has two or more disks, disconnect everything and let only the one to install Windows. This is because the disk will be wiped, to avoid deleting the wrong disk. Leave only the hard disk, the CD/DVD-ROM drive and the flash drive connected.
3) Boot with a Windows XP CD-ROM and press R when you see the relevant message to "repair" windows. This will give you a command prompt.
4) At the command prompt type the following commands:

Code:

diskpart
select disk 0
clean
create partition primary
format fs=ntfs quick
active
assign letter=W
exit
C:\imagex.exe /apply C:\install.wim 5 W:\
bcdboot W:\Windows /s W:
bootsect /nt60 W: /force /mbr
wpeutil reboot

This code wipes the hard disk, creates a new NTFS partition that takes all available space, makes it bootable and assigns letter W. Then we run the utlity imagex.exe to extract the image file install.wim from the flash drive to the hard disk and make the hard disk bootable with Windows Boot Loader. Since the flash drive is the only formatted non-CD drive, it should take letter C, otherwise correct as appropriate. Parameter 5 selects Windows 7 Ultimate, for lower versions, decrease as appropriate (1 is Windows 7 Starter etc). Assuming we did it correctly and we didn't accidentally formated the flash drive instead, last command reboots the computer. You may now remove the Window XP CD-ROM and let computer boot from the hard disk. You should see Windows 7 Setup program and installation should continue as normal. All the Windows files are on the disk, so the Windows 7 DVD is no longer necessary.

Congratulations!

PS: In case you were wondering, to install Windows 8 on the same machine, do these steps, but you must also patch some files before rebooting. You have to repeat the patch again everytime you run Windows Update and these files are replaced.

I've never not been able to install Win7 to older hardware that meets minimum specs possible. The steps for Windows 7 Installation Failure - Overcome resolve 90% of failures.

I would not want such a crippled install in any case.