My painful journey of trying to reinstall windows 7

My painful journey of trying to reinstall windows 7

I have a 64-bit desktop computer, and a 32-bit laptop.

The 64-bit desktop was the patient that needs to be cured.

I haven’t used it for 2 years, I can imagine how rusty/dusty it is.

Anyway, the first problem encountered with the desktop is [Long Beeping Sound during starting].

1) It continuously created this long beeping sound when turning on, and simply would not start.

//SOLVED!// Google solution:  It implied a RAM problem. So I opened the case, plugged out and plugged in the memory cards. Simple! The problem was solved.

And here comes the second problem. There was no problem starting the computer now. But the explorer was always freezing and not responding. I had to resort to press “RESET” to restart the computer. I think the windows was [CORRUPTED].

2) The computer just kept freezing / not responding.

//WORKING ON IT// Google solution: Re-installing the windows !

2.1)BROKEN CD/DVD ROM

I have done this before and this should not be hard at all. I still had my OEM windows 7 disk. I put in the disk and started to boot from cd/dvd rom. However, whenever I did this, it went straight to the log-in page like I normally did when starting the computer. It simply wouldn’t go to the install page. At this point I thought I didn’t something wrong, maybe I didn’t press the right key when starting up. Later I tried to input several other disc and test the cd/dvd rom, and realized that it’s a hardware problem, the cd/dvd rom was BROKEN or needed to be repaired, as it kept ejecting the disc whenever I inserted one. At that point I was pretty discouraged, as without a functional cd/dvd rom, I would have to boot from a bootable USB. However, to eliminate the possibility that it is a Dusty Lens that caused the malfunction, I even took out the cd/dvd rom and cleaned it with cotton swab and alcohols.

//SOLUTION// I will have to create a bootable USB with Win7 DVD/USB tool.

2.2)FAILURE to Create Bootable USB with the Win7 DVD/USB tool

I tried to create a bootable USB from both 64-bit desktop and 32-bit laptop.

Only that, my ONLY functional 4.0 GB USB thumbdrive (Sandisk Data Traveler) seems to be malfunctioning too.

Whenever I inserted the USB thumbdrive, it occasionally asked me to reformat it (on both computers) . Initially the thumbdrive stills worked. So creating a bootable USB thumbdrive is totally workable. I was set out to do that. After downloading the Windows 7 ISO (64-bit) from the internet, which took about 1 hour, I used the Windows 7 DVD /USB  tool to create a bootable usb from my 32-bit laptop. I realized that you must download the bootsec.exe in order to create a 64-bit bootable usb from a 32-bit operating system. OKAY, I tried that too. It just won’t work. The program kept saying that it was unable to copy the ISO to the USB drive. I did not know if it’s the USB that caused the problem or the dvd/usb tool that is the culprit. At this point I have already tried this process for several times to make sure I did nothing wrong in the process.

I also tried to create a bootable usb from my 64-bit desktop. But as mentioned above, the 64-bit desktop was constantly freezing, so there are times when I had to force restart the computer. It was impossible to finish the process. I pretty much gave up creating the bootable USB with the 64-bit desktop.

//SOLUTION//Creating a bootable 64-bit usb with other method.

2.3)CORRUPTED WINDOWS 7 ISO FILES with the DISKPART method

More google time revealed that I could use the DISKPART method to create a bootable USB drive.

And I decided to give my 64-bit desktop a last chance to create a bootable usb. It is because I did not know how to create a 64-bit bootable device from a 32-bit bootable device without using the Windows 7 DVD/USB tool.

DISKPART method only works on 64-bit to 64-bit, 32-bit to 32-bit.

So I followed one of those Youtube Tutorial to carefully type in the commands and tried to transfer the ISO image to my thumbdrive. I tried Diskpart for a few times (as the computer freezed occasionally and I have to restart the process again.) with the same Sandisk Data Traveller USB. Finally it seems to work! The files were all transferred to the thumbdrive successfully. COOL. Now I can officially boot the desktop from my USB!

And so I did. Every things go smooth, I enter the windows installation page, it asked for my preferred languages and I pressed English , this and that. And then a tab popped up and said “No drivers were found”. Damn , another obstacle again. More google time.

I realized that the reason for that Error was a corrupted ISO files that I have downloaded from the internet. The Diskpart method was okay. That means I will have to find an uncorrupted Windows 7 64bit ISO from the internet again. Another hour was gone.

Okay My mistakes. Creating a 64-bit bootable USB from a 64-bit desktop is ideal only if your desktop is functional!  Mine is simply not working much. I should have just resorted to create a 64-bit bootable USB from my 32-bit desktop, without using  the Windows 7 DVD/USB tool, and a semi-broken USB thumbdrive,  even though I don’t quite know how to achieve that!

//SOLUTION//Creating a bootable 64-bit usb on a 32-bit platform

2.4)DISKPART METHOD, second try! Forget about broken thumbdrive, I bought a NEW ONE!

So after re-downloading the 64-bit Windows 7 ISO, I then downloaded the 32-bit ISO as well.  And I officially gave up the semi-broken usb thumbdrive, I thought I have given all my due benefit of doubts to it. It should die happily after causing me so much pain and patience. I bought a new 16GB USB and decided to use DISKPART method to create the bootable drive from my LAPTOP.

This time, I first used the diskpart method to transfer the 32-bit ISO images to my new USB, using my 32-bit laptop. And then I delete all the files inside the USB thumbdrive. Next I unzipped the 64-bit ISO image, copy and paste all of it to the thumbdrive. Everything goes smooth this time. DONE!

I patiently inserted the bootable USB to the desktop and finally re-installing the Windows 7 successfully!

CONCLUSION

Looking back, there are a lot of chances that I could have saved my time and jump to certain workable solutions. I could have simply bought a New DVD/CD rom, that would sort it out easily.

I could have bought a new thumbdrive earlier. Or I could have jumped to last solution as well.

But most of the time, it’s impossible to realize what the problem really is until you encounter the problem.

Time was consumed. And I can only comfort myself with finally reinstalled windows 7 after all this painful process.  Plus I am convinced that my patience tolerance has been boosted drastically, and I learn that MONEY can really save time! Haha.

If you read this part, I congratulate you on making this far. I don’t think such a long boring passage about the trial and error on re-installing windows will be of ANY interests to any people. Thanks for reading though!