hi all, i run 2 pcs 1 for poker the other for online radio an old dell dimension, i also have a 3rd for spare for when the dell splutters its last. wanted a fresh install of win 7 on spare but widows didnt recognise the HD even though BIOS did, so put it in the newest pc and bingo it was there, so installed windows from there and placed back in spare pc. but now when i start main pc i get "which operating system would you like to start" before it boots is there anyway i can just boot as normal without this message ? thanks for any replies.
Sounds like you have installed windows beside the old one so now dual booting.Its not a bad thing it can come in handy if the other gets corrupted.There's three options 1-reformat hdd using a live cd like as in link or use a flash drive with linux http://www.afterdawn.com/software/system_tools/misc_system_tools/ultimate_boot_cd.cfm 2-leave as is but reduce timeout to 3 seconds 3-set windows 7 as default with no timeout so it boots directly boot to win 7 then navigate to 1-control panel 2-system 3-in left column select advanced system settings 4-now select the third button down that says settings 5-if you want to boot to win 7 straight away set first check box to 0 set the 2nd to 5 6-also uncheck auto restart while your their 7-hit oh 8-hit apply 9-your done
thanks for reply scorpNZ will try on next boot, but i was trying to install on the maxtor HD had 2 options to install to the maxtor (for spare pc) and western digital HD my main pc. and as i clicked new install wouldnt it have removed all programmes etc ?
installing windows on another machine and swapping the hdd back to the old one almost never works unless both machines have identical hardware.you can,however format the hdd in another machine and reinstall it and try installing windows again.
What aldan said would be easiest or now is a good time to install & muck about with a free linux distro like PCLinux OS ,download iso,burn to a re-writeable cd/dvd its free as other numerous linux OS's .It should run quite well if your old machine can run win 7 http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=pclinuxos
scorp, at times your technical terminology is overwhelming. Please patronize us a little so that we are all able to comprehend.. Tnx.
so my best option for the other HD would be to reformat it on my main pc then install windows on the old pc ?
was that a new hard drive or did it have windows on it before & if it had windows before, what version?
it had win7 already on but wont start, i put the original win7 install disc in to repair but it doesnt recognise HD but the BIOS does, thats why i tried fresh install on main pc wich does recognise the HD
you must be correct i let it run to see what happens and it asks me to put in install disc, the second one is the correct one, this is how it looks which OS whould you like to boot from. WINDOWS 7 < asks for install disc WINDOWS 7 < boots correctly
what happens if you change the cabling to a known good one also try a different port instead of only 0 edit:so now its booting ok when you boot to the already installed version of windows
it boots ok but i have to make sure i move it to the 2nd win 7 in the list, thats why i was asking if there was a way to remove the first win 7 in the list that asks for install disc. ps: this is my main pc not the HD that i am trying to do a fresh install. the HD that i am trying to do a fesh install of win 7 is giving me headache, ive tried different cables(working ones) but still the install disc is not seeing the HD, i downloaded the UBCD that you gave me the link for the partition/disc wipe tool didnt see it but HD diagnostics did so made sure it was formatted to ntfs, tried win 7 again still doesnt see it. so there was a linux set of programmes on the disc so chose the partmagic and that saw the disc straight away so i partitioned it and it showed the partition size etc closed the programmes tried win 7 again and still nothing so now im stumped as what to do next just dont know why some programmes recognise it and others dont.
Only thing i can think of now would be a missing driver from the install disc as to why it can't see the hd & why other discs do. There is a way to get win 7 on there & that's by doing exactly what you did by putting the drive in another computer & installing it ; what happens then is you then install an imaging software & create an image file of it.You do this to deploy on the trouble machine by using differential hardware option,so once hard drive image is created you can then place the hd back into the troublesome machine & reinstall win 7 using the image by way of the imaging programs live cd creator,oddly enough it does actually work.What happens is it installs win 7 without any drivers,when you boot to win 7 it will install the drivers you need.However not all will be there so you'll need to download whatever drivers are missing i have free copy of easeus todo backup v5.5 & an older fully functional version that should be able to do the job,the option is there for differential i just can't remember how to access it,i'll have a look a bit later today.Reason i mention these two versions is in the newer ones that are free the compression level is locked to medium or higher,where as the ones i have do not have a limitation,it'll save space edit:just realized after posting you maybe able to make an image of the your main computer or any other you have with all the required software you have installed & deploy that directly,it may save time or may not
ok, first i will try in main pc to format or wipe/format and try to install, then if not will create image and try that.
ignore this post your BIOS sees the hdd in case you were wondering,including the op's post count down to 5th post http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...sata-hdd/228b6519-eacd-432c-aaf2-387765c26cc0 edit: can a later copy of win 7 either 64 or 32 bit from a torrent see it
this reply is from the pc with an ethernet cable plugged in and set up with partedmagic(linux) on the link you gave. i placed the hd in the main pc and tried the install again the hd showed that it had installed win 7 (disc space used) but no show on pc i want to use it on. so next step is to see if i still have the original win xp cd and try that if that installs then will upgrade from the win 7 disc, my last option is to try the image copy in other pc . might be a couple of days before i reply again as a bit busy it was originally win xp, i installed win 7 but wanted fresh install, and its not the HD as have done diagnostic checks via the cd download scorps gave me.
