Can't install windows 7

Troncoso

Troncoso

VIP Member
So I have an Alienware. When I first got it, I couldn't play games. Any game I tried would crash my PC. So the first thing I tried was re-installing windows. I popped in the recovery disk and at the very end of installing it gave me this error:

Windows could not be installed on this hardware configuration. Please restart your computer....something like that, so I did and every time I restart I get this:

"Windows could not complete the installation. To install Windows on this computer, restart the installation"

So I though "No big, I'll just use the recovery partition" So I did, and that worked fine. Though it didn't fix the gaming problem. So, I finally get a tech out here that replaces my motherboard, ram and hard drive.....as hard as I tried to convince them it's the video card, they wouldn't believe...even though I got errors that said the video card stopped working....Well whatever.

Either way, because the new HDD was installed I had to put windows on it again, so I tried the recovery disk again and got the same results....But this time there is no recovery partition so using a disk is my only option. I don't know how to get past this error. I've tried the recovery disk and I've tried a regular windows 7 ultimate disk. So, what are my options?
 
check bios.. del or f2 on startup usually says "press <__> to enter setup"

once in here, look for the option to restore defaults. if your bios is like most dells, u are probly going to have to search a bit for it. unless its the f5 key.. then just press that and f10 to save and exit..

also feel free to look for any thing regarding video card in bios... btw, if u see a setting and dont understand what it does, dont change it.


as long as the disk you are using is 64 bit. i couldnt understand why it wont install... u can try booting into the disk and before it loads maybe press f8 try to install in vga mode. or 1024x768. which still stumps me, because off the disk its only using the most basic hard ware drivers until the os is installed completely. thats really strange that it doesnt work...
 
The bios is fine. It doesn't make sense to me that I can restore from the recovery partition and not a disk. I'm 98% positive it has nothing to do with the video card though. I don't know, I'm letting it run again so I can see the first error message again about my hardware configuration.
 
small chance, it burns disks just fine, when i used the recovery partition, i could then use the driver disk just fine to install the drivers...sucks that its a slot loading drive, so it's not that easy switch out to be sure
 
okay the actual error message it gives me is:

"Windows Setup could not configure Windows to run on this computer's hardware."

If that helps at all.

Edit: Maybe it was the BIOS, I just found that the ide mode for the hard drive was set to RAID......don't quite understand that, or how it was installed the first time around like that. I'm trying the installation again in ACHI mode, to see if that fixes the problem
 
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try formatting the hard drive too before installing. with the windows disk delete the partition and create a new one,

its possible the new hdd had a pre setup partition usually they dont, but i never trust dell
 
Jc61990 said:
try formatting the hard drive too before installing. with the windows disk delete the partition and create a new one,

its possible the new hdd had a pre setup partition usually they dont, but i never trust dell
Click to expand...

Yeah, I format every time I install windows. Don't want to leave anything behind. Haha. I'll be pretty pissed though if that setting was somehow linked to me not being able to play games...I doubt it, but regardless. I've been out a gaming system for 2 months already.
 
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