Windows 7 User Submissions

Nearly impossible to install

by Cecil Britton
(Sierra Vista, AZ)

I have a computer running an Intel E8400 dual core processor on an Asus P5Q motherboard with 4 GB of RAM.

This computer has two SATA hard drives one with 3 partitions on 750 GB drive and another with 4 partitions on a 1 TB drive.

I have XP on the 1 TB drive so I decided to put RC1 on the 750 GB drive that has nothing on it.

The first attempt at installation bombed completely, installation would proceed to the first reboot where it would lock up.

I thought that maybe I had a corrupt ISO file so I went back and downloaded RC1 again and burnt another DVD.

I started install from the new DVD and told it to format the partition where the first bad install was located.

Then installation appeared to proceed normally and Windows 7 was up and running.

Unfortunately everywhere I turned I was getting errors when trying to use simple commands or to load software like Microsoft Office.

Since I could never get it to perform normally I went throught the whole routine all over again.

After formatting the partition and installing for the third time I finally had a working system that worked like a charm.

The problem now was that the boot loader didn't show my XP installation as a boot option.

I looked in BIOS and the XP partition on the 1 TB drive was not shown as a boot option any longer.

I played aroung trying to restore the XP drive boot sector for a full day and never got it to work.

I finally had to run a repair reinstall of XP and restore all my user info, drivers and applications.

Now at this moment I have a good working XP installation but I can't boot Windows 7.

I may try to get things going again but I am really scared that it will only cause more problems for me.

Cecil Britton