Hi! I really need some help, please - I am at the end of my tether... I have an old PC/Desktop, which I want to give away to my cousin. I need to install Win7 (usually I have no problems with it but...), since I can install any language later on and it looks up for newer drivers on the net etc. Either from USB or from DVD - it can't boot, so I can't install it. Code Error 5 (for a standard, normally fully working DVD) or can't read from USB stick (or words to that effect)... I tried everything on the net (nothing works), including all the Hiren Boots, Ultimate Boot CDs and whatnot (all manner of tools) - except trying to make a custom DVD which would be bootable in a DVD drive, even though it is not bootable in my machine, thanx to an old motherboard and BIOS (there are no updates in that regard, btw - I have exhausted all other possibilities)... I have noticed that Hiren Boot 15.2 ("advanced" one, with "restored" content, i.e. the DVD version) boots in a flash! So, it is possible. But I wouldn't know how. I have read up but there is always some step missing for an IT lay person (the pros always miss something they think 'everyone must know', sadly...). Could anyone point me in the right direction - is there such an image/iso to burn to a DVD, please? Or could anyone make one, please? I am sure for old PCs there would be some grateful people! Thanx in advance! P.S. s**te! Now I have a problem isntalling XP, too... Grrrr.... It says it can't format it, having formatted it 100% - "Can't install on this partition, choose another one, the disk might be damaged" - and it isn't damaged... XP creates partitions and then... Echhhh.... WTH???
Maybe you just need to get a clean copy of Windows 7 (via a link from this forum), verify it's wasn't damaged in downloading and recreate your install media. That's the first thing I'd have done if I'd had all your problems. I'd also try an new DVD as well as a fresh flash drive.
You don't need to burn a new DVD or do anything fancy. Get your old Vista DVD, put it in, boot from it. Go to recovery mode, then open a command prompt. After that replace the DVD to the Win7 DVD. Navigate to its sources directory and start setup.exe from there. The windows 7 installer will start. It is actually a "feature" of the Win7 DVD, they left out support for some older chipsets. Not a damaged media.
Thanx, guys! I tried all that and nothing worked... Especially the various ways of "loading" some driver from a disk, then replace the disk and - heeeyyy.... nothing's happening... In the end I found out a way... well, almost: Hiren Boot > load Win7 minimal OS > install from there... "Mini XP can't, since it sees it as an upgrade, rather than a clean install...) Here comes the almost part: having created partitions and starting to install, Win7 must format it and it can't, just as XP couldn't when I tried installing XP SP3 => "Failed to format" (Windows code 0x80070057) I always get images of OS's from here, they are clean. However, once in the PC (on a DVD or USB stick) - no go... And I used quite a few various tools, many of them several times, with the invariable result, in the end... Btw, I threw away, very recently, 32b and 64b Vistas (gave the laptop that worked best with that to my mother, so...), Ubuntus and whatnot... Kicking myself now, if only for the fact that I could install Vista from a DVD and then install Win7 on top, since the driver for DVD would be in, at that point... But now, I am over the edge, I really had it with the palaver... enough... Btw, all these multi-tool disks are full of useless s**te... Every single one of them! Whenever I needed something serious to be fixed - nada/zilch/zip/zero.... Thanx again, appreciated!
eydee is completely right. It affected some MSI and asrock boards, they have problems with the boot sector of the win7 DVD which has changed compared to Vista. They never made the BIOS compatible to boot the w7 DVD....code 5 is here no driver issue. Boot Vista DVD--->Vista recovery--->start w7 setup from CMD--->delete all partitions, recreate them--->install w7 on the first partition
Can somebody post the Vista boot file, please? The ImgBurn is looking for BootImage.ima Pretty please...
Well, I extracted this (with ImgBurn) from my x86 Vista DVD, try it... Unzip first, forum doesn't accept raw image as attachment. Note that I have Gigabyte and AsRock MBs that likewise won't support the Win7 boot sector... thus I know your pain.
When I said that geeks often "forget" to include the necessary steps to do something - it is quite clear that is so, when one sees the Unwave page, where vLite is mentioned but NOTHING is explained...
After having a think, I selected NO, since in the guide - in one of the images above - I am told to use both, not just one of them... Route for me, please...
What kind of DVD are you trying to create? Btw. ImgBurn has an option in the settings for Build mode, called "Optimise duplicate files". Try enable it, maybe it reduces size.
No, no, it was a silly thing I did, s1ave77... Anyways, helped out by James Bond 007 and pointed in the right direction, plus aided and abetted with the necessary file by Carlos(!!!)... plus, of course, thanx to the two links by both of them... plus some thinking on my part... I finally managed... I copied the Win7 32b SP1 (I had from before) to my HDD (I did it on my laptop, so only 1 reader/burner...), then followed the second link (I'll C&P it below, it's better it's here, just in case...) - pointing to the boot file from the Vista package, as explained in it, choosing the source as my Win7 folder on the HDD and - voila... IT WORKED!!!!!! So, I owe you drinks, lads!!! P.S. ("Enter '4' in the 'Sectors To Load' field if your etfsboot.com file is 2K in size, enter '8' if it's 4K. (Basically it's the size of the file in bytes divided by 512 - i.e. 2048 / 512 = 4) Note: Vista's is normally 2KB and Windows 7 / 8's is 4KB... so enter '4' if you're building a Vista OS installation disc and '8' if you're building a Windows 7 / 8 OS installation disc.") Well, I left it at 4, as the size of the boot file was 2KB and I was trying to fool the old PC it was a Vista disk, even though it was Win7 - so it would co-operate...