windows 7 - Can't install any OS on "old" PC

26
2014-06
  • szoszk

    I got an old PC (I think bought in 2002) just for some experiments. It has still windows XP Professional SP2 so I wanted at first install windows server 2008 (because I got it form DreamSpark) but that didn't work so I tried Xubuntu that didn't work because of a syslinux/isolinux error. Then I tried Ubuntu --> same error. Windows 7 USB didn't even boot. A XP recovery CD also didn't boot.

    Then I did a BIOS reset and now it directly boots into windows xp it ignores the CDs and USBs also when I manualy choose them.

    Can someone help me?

    EDIT: Here is the msinfo32 export: http://pastebin.com/4jqXQR6F

    • Answers
  • Quijote Shin

    Lets calm down..

    Probaly your CPU isn't 64 bits.

    So first check if your windows 7 and ubuntu are for 32 bits

    When you reset your bios you desordered the Boot device priority.

    go to your Bios. search for Boot options, boot order and READ how to place your USB or DVD , etc on top. save ( commonly F10) and exit

    Archlinux comes with dual architecture support so you can try they live cd

    and please comment if you get lucky !

  • szoszk

    Since the drive worked normally in windows I thought the optical drive couldn't be the issue. But after I changed the drive it worked.

    -->For other users experiencing this problem just try a different optical drive. (Also when it works normally in windows)


    • Related Question

    installation - "PXE-E61: media test failure" while trying to install Windows Server 2008
  • AJP

    I was trying to install Windows Server 2008 R2 on my new Dell XPS Laptop. A "PXE-E61: media test failure" error was showing while trying to install from DVD Drive of the laptop. I tried to troubleshoot it using the following steps, but didn't succeed.

    1. Made HDD the first option in the boot order priority.
    2. Disabled Inbuilt NIC. Didn't find any option to disable PXE boot.
    3. With the same DVD I was able to install Win2008 on a desktop machine. In the desktop machine, the Wind2008R2 installation prompts with a menu with number 1. and 2. nothing next to it, usually I select option "1" and hit enter key.
    4. To make sure there's no problem with the laptop HDD and DVD drive. I tried installing the Windows 7 Home premium on the laptop using the accompanied disk that came along with the laptop. The installation went successfully without any issues.

    I am not sure why this issue only shows up in my laptop and not on my desktop machine. Please help me to sort this out.


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  • AJP

    At last I was able to sort this out in a roundabout way. My laptop was already installed with Windows 7 and I was trying to make it dual boot by installing Win2008 R2 on a different partition. So as a last resort I tried to initialize the Win2008 R2 installation by logging on to Win7 and accessing the setup from the DVD drive. to my fate an error popped up which reads "unsupported format" something like that.

    To resolve this I installed MagicISO loaded the iso image for Win2008 R2, extracted the files to a partition on my laptop and started the installation from there. Everything went perfectly fine.

    The issue which I had posted comes up only when trying to boot up from the DVD.