Mission: Impossible on Windows

I’ve tried absolutely everything under the sun to get Windows 7 installed (I’m stuck on Windows XP for now), but I’ve been at this for two straight days, grinding from sunrise to sunset. I’ve cycled through every possible workaround and fix I could find online, but nothing—and I mean nothing—has worked...
The only thing I haven't messed with is the BIOS settings, mostly because I don't want to screw things up so badly that I have to go into hiding..
Honestly, Error 404 is going to be the death of me. 😠

I’ve tested both the 64-bit and 32-bit versions. I’ve swapped out the RAM sticks—tried them one by one, then tried a completely different set, then even a third set just to be sure. I’ve tried booting from the DVD and from a USB drive. It doesn't matter; there is zero chance of success...
It starts the unpacking process, hits about the 20-30% mark, and then just slams me with an error.
It is seriously driving me up the wall, it's beyond frustrating..
Does anyone have any actual advice?

Since the BIOS is the only thing I haven't touched yet, I’m betting my last dollar that the culprit is hiding in there. 🙄

looks like your hard drive is throwing an error, honestly just try doing a full format instead of a quick one, might actually fix it

Look, I’m absolutely not formatting this drive because there is no way in hell I’m losing what’s sitting on it. This is my work machine, for crying out loud.
I’ve already run chkdsk on all the drives and partitions, and everything comes back clean—zero errors found.

Are you looking at a system upgrade or setting up a dual boot?

If you're upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7, I’d say save yourself the headache and just go with a dual boot—especially if you aren't looking to reformat your partitions.
You can always just wipe a single partition instead of the whole drive, I guess.

I’ve got a Ghost image of my old setup with Windows XP sitting right there on the C drive.
Since this is my main workstation, I need to make sure I can roll back to XP and all my software in under five minutes using Ghost if things go south during the upgrade.
Do you guys think I should just wipe the C partition clean before I attempt the Windows 7 install?
And just to be safe, assuming chkdsk comes up totally clean with no errors or bad sectors?

Errors popping up during a Windows installation usually point toward a hardware issue—could be the hard drive, the RAM, or maybe something less likely like the power supply, motherboard, or even the CPU.

Have you checked the S.M.A.R.T. status using CrystalDisk Info?
And does Windows XP actually run fine on this machine otherwise—no blue screens or anything weird?

Windows XP is running smooth as silk without a single error.
I haven't seen a Blue Screen of Death since I started this.
As for this S. M. A. R. T. thing, I honestly have no clue what it's about—haven't even poked around there yet..

http://crystalmark.info/software/Cry...o/index-e.html

Alright, I'm here, but honestly? I have absolutely no clue what any of this actually means.🙄

It just says Health status -good

Are all those little circles on the list the exact same shade of blue, or does one look a bit off? What’s it showing for the disk health status? Maybe just grab a screenshot if you aren't totally sure

All the status indicators are showing that same shade of blue, health status looks good, and the temperature is sitting at 50°C.

If my hunch is right, you’re basically stuck...

Your Windows XP is probably sitting on a FAT32 file system. Here's the deal: Windows 7 refuses to install on FAT32 because it demands an NTFS file system for the primary partition—basically, the spot where the OS actually lives. Windows 7 can talk to FAT and FAT32 just fine and supports them fully, it just won't let you run the installation on them.

So, go ahead and check which file system that XP setup is using...

System C/ Properties/File System/NTFS

🤔

If you've got some extra space on your drive, I wouldn't touch the C partition—it’s probably better to just grab what you need from another partition for Windows 7. You'll need at least 20GB, though I wouldn't recommend anything less than 50GB if you want things to run smoothly. Just create a new partition and install Windows 7 there—basically, set up a dual boot.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...dows-7-xp.html

Thanks for the hand, but I think that’s getting a bit too deep in the weeds for me. I can't really afford to go in there and accidentally break something.
So, here’s the deal: I’ve got two 320GB drives sitting in my rig.
One of those drives is split into three partitions, and one of them is my C /system drive running Windows XP.
That partition is sitting at 100GB, and the rest of the space on that drive is carved up into two other partitions.
Right now, Windows XP and all my apps are only eating up about 10GB.
Which means I’ve basically got 90GB of breathing room left on that C partition.
Plus, I've got another 50GB of unallocated space just hanging out on that same hard drive.

Alright, so...

Can we ask why you're trying to install Windows 7 on that specific machine?
Maybe there's some other way to handle whatever issue you're dealing with.

I'm looking to overhaul my system because Windows XP just can't handle the amount of RAM I need, plus all the new software I’ve been trying to run won't even launch on XP anymore.

It's an old rig, sure, but honestly? It’s still a beast and runs like a dream without a single hiccup; we're talking a Core 2 Duo 3GHz, a D975XBB2, some Crucial Ballistix, and so on...

I’m trying to figure out if there's a way to split my C drive right down the middle. I want to carve out a second partition so I can run a fresh install of Windows 7 on the new one, while keeping my original system partition completely untouched and still able to boot up just fine like nothing happened.

It’s easier than you think, provided you actually have the expertise.
Knowledge is non-negotiable.
Since you seem worried about breaking something, find someone who knows what they're doing.
You need specific software for this.
There is always a risk of corrupting a partition, so a professional will perform a backup of the C drive/Boot Partition first—that's the most sensitive part.
That way, if things go south, there's a recovery path.
It is safer to hire a pro.
Maybe you can find a reliable technician in Washington, D.C.—assuming you're based there—to handle this for $23.

1: For safety, you must create a backup on an External HDD.
2: You need partitioning software to manage everything—merging, resizing, or splitting partitions.
3: Install Windows 7 on a new, additional partition. This allows the Windows 7 Boot Manager to organize the boot sequence. It is vital that Windows XP remains the primary Boot Partition and Windows 7 is the secondary. Once successful, you simply select which Windows to boot at startup.

darkotter35 said:Thanks for the help, but I think this is way too complicated for me—I can't afford to mess something up.
I've got two 320GB drives in my rig.
One of those drives has three partitions, and one of them is my C drive running Windows XP.
That partition is sitting at 100GB. The rest is split between two other partitions.
XP and all my apps are currently taking up about 10GB.
So, there's basically 90GB of free space left on the C drive.
Plus there's an extra 50GB on that same physical hard drive.

Alright, so here's the thing...

If I'm following you correctly, just install a fresh Windows 7 onto that second drive (without formatting it, obviously) totally independent of the XP setup and boom—problem solved... I don't see why it's such a big deal if you have two separate drives in your PC? From what I gather, one drive has multiple partitions with Windows XP on it... and the other hard drive is just one big empty space? Is it just for storage or something?

Just throw Windows 7 on there, and even if the whole thing crashes tomorrow, you can still hop into Windows XP to rescue your files... there's really nothing to be scared of... and hey, if you do manage to screw something up, we're right here to help 🙂
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ps. Look, Lawrence Barnes64, if someone actually had $23 they probably wouldn't be asking questions on a forum anyway... honestly, the easiest thing is just to pay some pro to do it for you... but if the guy actually wants to learn, he should try doing it himself—it's not like he's trying to split the atom or anything. And your post, which was exactly 152 words and 911 characters (including spaces), doesn't really mean much besides telling him to go spend money... you kind of hit the nail on the head with the theory, but you made it way more complicated than it needs to be... basically, you're just discouraging him instead of actually helping him out...