Windows boot failure

Malc · December 21, 2016, 02:42:25 PM

I'm not sure you'll get away with booting your new machine from your old disk as the BIOS will be different.

keithfre · December 21, 2016, 03:02:06 PM

Quote from: Malc on December 21, 2016, 02:42:25 PM
I'm not sure you'll get away with booting your new machine from your old disk as the BIOS will be different.

Yes, I had that problem when I tried the old hard disk in a new computer.

Dorsetmike · December 21, 2016, 03:31:21 PM

Same make of machine, same AMD processor and same make motherboard but slightly faster clock, so I could be lucky! Failing that I'll just copy as much as possible from the old disc, I have all the downloads of software on a separate partition so I should be able to run them from that & not have to download everything again.

Photos, music, railway items and other data all on separate partitions too

Izzy · December 21, 2016, 04:40:37 PM

Are you going to load a fresh install of Win 7 on the new machine if I understand correctly? On the new HDD and not just put in the current already loaded Win 7 HDD?

Could I warn that you may find difficulty updating/downloading/installing all the Win 7 updates issued to date. In the summer I did a clean wipe/re-install of my Win 7 laptop and found it impossible to update the machine as per normal means. Somewhere along the line Microsoft seems to have changed the update service - being cynical I think they just want to stop people using anything but Win 10 - and updates just will not download or install. You can leave the machine 'downloading and installing' the updates for hours/days etc and nothing happens. I discovered it is a well known problem.

Eventually I managed to get things working again by downlaoding and installing the relevent files of wsusoffline - this loads most updates and then the system gets back to downloading/installing them as per normal because the newer update regime is installed somewhere along the line.

However, if you have any older equipment that needs older drivers install them first before any updates.

The current updates overwrite driver files with the latest versions which in many cases don't work unless older driver files are already present. Because of this I now have a sprog 2 which will not work on the laptop as I was not aware of this situation at the time.

Izzy

Dorsetmike · December 21, 2016, 06:08:00 PM

I intend to load Win 7 pro on the new machine if possible so I can check the machine boots, then swop in the old Hard drive and relegate the new drive to back up.

I've got "never10" on all my machines, seems to be working.

lil chris · December 21, 2016, 08:57:48 PM

I was of the same view Mike,never go to W10 after trying the free update on this machine before July,it locked up the machine so I reverted back to W7 straight away. Anyway after buying a W10 key online for about £24 and downloading W10 ISO from Microsoft's web site. I created a install disc and and a USB install, I have now got a nice clean copy of W10 on my main machine. It runs pretty good my games and programs all work ok. I built a new machine for my son, he bought a key too and we installed W10 on his computer has well. I have a friend who has Windows 10 on his machine it was a free upgrade from W8-1 ,but it run so slow you would not believe. I have now used the USB install to put a clean install on his machine, apparently once you are registered for W10 you do not need the key anymore Microsoft recognise you has a user.

davidinyork · December 21, 2016, 09:10:09 PM

Quote from: keithfre on December 21, 2016, 03:02:06 PM
Quote from: Malc on December 21, 2016, 02:42:25 PM
I'm not sure you'll get away with booting your new machine from your old disk as the BIOS will be different.
Yes, I had that problem when I tried the old hard disk in a new computer.

The main thing is whether the hard drive controller chip is the same. If not, you are very unlikely to get it to boot.

Railwaygun · December 22, 2016, 01:53:55 AM

Win 7 has had difficulty upgrading since win 10 arrived.

Here is my recipe

Do fresh install ( 64 bit if possible)

Download Internet explorer 11 ( filehippo ) and install. A number of updates are installed automatically with this.

Follow instructions for new installation

http://plugable.com/2016/06/08/windows-7-wont-update-what-to-do/

http://filehippo.com/download_internet_explorer_windows_7/

Install browser of choice

This worked for me.

stevewalker · December 22, 2016, 07:14:59 PM

I have upgraded my PCs many times, with different motherboards, processors and memory - even changes between AMD and Intel processors. I have had no problem doing so, with the machines booting straight away and automatically installing various drivers. Following that up with manually installing motherboard chipset specific drivers has left everything running fine. Before the correct drivers are installed, video, disk controllers, etc. all still worked, but using Windows own basic drivers - so low res, lower speeds, etc.

Dorsetmike · December 24, 2016, 03:21:32 PM

I seem fated! New machine won't boot from old drive and won't install windows from CD, I've tried 7 pro and 7 home premium.

Swapped new machine drive into old machine, trying to install Win 7 from CD, it's got as far as "expanding files (2%)" and been there for over 20 minutes!

Getting just a bit P'd off!!!!!!!!!

keithfre · December 24, 2016, 04:23:16 PM

Quote from: Dorsetmike on December 24, 2016, 03:21:32 PM
Getting just a bit P'd off!!!!!!!!!

Time to switch to Linux, perhaps?

themadhippy · December 24, 2016, 04:58:36 PM

QuoteTime to switch to Linux, perhaps

yep,then chuck on virtual box an the free legal windoze images to run anything that wine cant cope with,do a snapshop of the virtual box an you dont even need to worry about micro$hafts 90 day limit on the box images

Mito · December 24, 2016, 09:16:03 PM

Quote from: themadhippy on December 24, 2016, 04:58:36 PM

QuoteTime to switch to Linux, perhaps
yep,then chuck on virtual box an the free legal windoze images to run anything that wine cant cope with,do a snapshop of the virtual box an you dont even need to worry about micro$hafts 90 day limit on the box images

Best thing you could do. Linux Mint or Elementary OS are two great systems.

Dorsetmike · December 24, 2016, 10:22:25 PM

At 82 I'm not going to start climbing the Linux learning curve; last time I tried it I tried to find a driver for a new OKI colour laser, to find the comment "it's only good for a paper weight"; also most of the software I use, photo editing & plotter cutter driver among others won't run on Linux, so summat else to learn - always assuming there is software to do the jobs, I did look at the GIMP for photo editing, no thanks, what I'm using (not photoshop) does what I need.

lil chris · December 25, 2016, 12:12:55 AM

Mike, I am not trying to tell you how to suck eggs, but when I tried to load w10 on my friends computer and it was not having it I realised there was something wrong with the dvd drive. It was showing in the bios but even though I changed boot order in the bios it would not load. I ended up going home for another dvd drive but I also had a USB with W10 install and I used that. Pity I am not near to you, I have a iso of windows 7 and could put it on a usb for you to try, it is a lot quicker to install if you can from USB. I do not understand why you are having trouble trying to install on a new machine with a clean drive. The only thing I can think of is the way the new drive is formatted, I seem to remember having a similar problem once with a new drive I bought,can you try formatting the new drive before the install or do you not get that far.