Windows 7 installation Issue

[Witty]

Hi everyone

I’m trying to rebuild my brothers PC.

The hard drive (80GB SATA) was wiped a while back and my brother tried to reinstall Windows XP. During the installation he was asked to insert ‘XP disc 2’, unfortunately, he could not find the disc and he decided to shut down the PC mid-installation. He wants me to install Windows 7. The problem is, even though I have my CD/DVD drive to boot first with the Windows 7 CD inserted, the PC tries to continue with the original XP installation.

Do I need to wipe/ reformat the hard drive and then start with a clean installation?

Thanks all!!!!!

Witty

[Hanaisse]

I find it's always best to wipe a HD first and eliminate all traces of pesky unneeded old Windows stuff.

[lonewolf_kai]

Yeah, I'd wipe that sucker out again and start all over.

[Witty]

Okay.

How do I wipe it with no other PC available? Can I wipe from the BIOS?

[Hanaisse]

The best option is taking that HD to another computer, slave it and direct Windows to reformat it.

You can't format directly from BIOS. So if the above option is not available, insert the XP disk and go through the process again. Near the beginning it should start asking about partitions, etc. I believe at that point you can direct it to reformat the HD.

[Witty]

Thanks Hana, I'm sure the guys in work can find a spare PC!

Cookie for you!

[Arion]

If that hard drive ever had Windows 7 on it you'll need to do a wipe as opposed to just formatting it. Best advice is to look up the drive manufacturer and get their disk tools which will have a zero write application to wipe the drive.

If it hasn't had Windows 7 on it , boot the drive with the Windows XP disk, do a custom install and when you get to where it asks what partition you want to install on, delete all the partitions and rebuild them to your liking ( with an 80 that's probably just 1) and then continue the install. Unless your XP disk is from XP media center it shouldn't ask for disk 2.

[Witty]

Hi Arion

The disc never had W7 installed and we dont have the XP discs.

I'm hoping the IT guys in work can wipe and reformat the hard drive.

Cheers

[HeyYou]

If you told it to boot from cd first, and it isn't..... you need to find out why. The Win7 disk should be bootable...... If it goes to the original O/S anyway, something is awry.

[darkstone]

Agree with Hey here, the underlying issue is really why wont the W7 install disc boot. Personally though, I use a utility called GParted to prep my hard drives whether its re-partitioning or formatting.

[Arion]

Boot with the Win 7 disk in the dvd/cd drive... When the computer starts to boot you should see something like Press "Del" or F2 to go to Set Up Menu. Or BIOS. In the BIOS make sure that your first boot disk is the DVD/CD drive and the hard drive is second. F10 usually is the save function. Then reboot. It should look to the dvd drive first to see if there is a bootable disk. You can use the custom install to repartition and format the hard drive and install Win 7.

If its set up correctly when it detects a bootable disk in the DVD drive it will say "Press any key to boot from DVD drive"

[_echo]

The best option is taking that HD to another computer, slave it and direct Windows to reformat it.

You don't need to slave SATA devices. They don't run off that structure like IDE does.

[Witty]

Thanks again for the feedback!

My computer responds just fine to my microsoft keyboard during the BIOS. But as soon as I try to install windows 7 and the "press any key to boot from CD" screen appears my computer refuses to respond to keyboard commands.

It's late here so probably wont fix this evening. I will have a look tomorrow.

I could try a PS2 keyboard?

Edited August 30, 2011 by Witty

[Hanaisse]

You don't need to slave SATA devices. They don't run off that structure like IDE does.

So as not to confuse Witty... when I say slave (yeah, I'm old skool) I mean just add it as a second, third, fourth HD to a windows setup. Just plug it in so you can see it, right click, Format. Done.

[lilith]

USB Keyboard? Yep, try a PS/2 sometimes they work better as USB's lose power during boot-up.

[Witty]

All sorted!

Thanks again for your help