Hi:

Looking at the system specs for your model, it it has the integrated Intel GMA 900 video adapter, and not an optional PCIe discrete video adapter, the only thing that won't run all the features of Wndows 7 is the graphics. It will not run Aero. I have a Dell Dimension 4700 and it runs all of the features of Windows 7 because I added an nVidia 8400 GS 512MB video card. It has the same chipset as the Dimension 5000. Your audio driver will be installed once you connect to the internet and launch the Windows Update program.

How are you trying to install Windows 7?  You need to boot from the DVD-ROM. Have you tried that?

Paul

Before you try again, consider that Dell DOES NOT support Vista or Windows 7 on this model.  Thus there may be hardware devices that do not work after installing Windows 7 because there are no Dell drivers.  Sound is one in particular, you need Dell sound drivers and since none is available you will have to do what others with non supported systems - install a separate PCI sound card that is Win 7 compaible.

As the PC probably has Windows XP on it you must do a complete install, you can't upgrade XP to Windows 7.  That means you will have to boot from the Windows 7 DVD and reformat the hard drive and then install Windows 7.  Windows 7 will install a lot of devices (especially if it's connected to the internet) but as noted anything missing you are "on your own" to try and find suitable drivers since there are no Dell drivers.

yeah i managed to get the hard drive formatted, started to load in windows 7 and we had a power cut , so installation got stopped. since then the problem started

Could it be the problem is that you no longer have an operating system installed if you are installing W7 from an upgrade disk?

Since you selected the option to format the HDD (which I never do), once the installation got interrupted by the power failure, Windows 7 is probably stuck and will not proceed. W7 Upgrade needs to see a qualifying OS to upgrade from (XP or Vista).

What I would do is to use your Dell reinstallation disk, load XP again. Don't even bother doing anything else once it loads. Just insert the W7 upgrade disk, restart the PC and see if it will begin the installation again.

That was some rotten luck you had there. The only thing that would be worse would have been if you were flashing the BIOS at the time.  :emotion-1:

Paul

no its a full windows 7 disk i am trying to install from.   i know there wont be an operating system on it now because i formatted it. but why wont it take windows 7 install.

the pc also has  a different graphics card and different sound card in it.

Hi:

Make a Win 98 SE OEM Boot disk.

You know the DOS commands to use, right?

FDISK

 Then have it delete the non-dos partitions.

Then have it delete the DOS partition.

Then create a new DOS partition, max size.

W7 should be able to boot from there. I don't think you will need to format it. If you do, it will take forever.

i have external floppy drives as it happens lol. i used to sell them and still have 5 or 6 left.  do i just go to that address and make a boot disk from any pc ?

i have a copy

what i need now is how to get onto the part where i do it.

i get to the dell page and have the choice to hit f2 = setup and f12

then it gives me the choice to hit

onboard sata

on board or usb cd-rom

on board or usb floppy drive

system setup

hard drive diagnostics

boot to utility partition

tryed all the options but keeps saying bootmgr is missing.

there were addresses here that have gone that i could download the bootdisk from. why did they disappear

Hmmm...that's not good.

I would have figured you would hit F12, select boot from the USB floppy, and it would just start booting from the Windows 98 boot disk. The you should have gotten to an A:\ prompt where you would enter the command FDISK.

So, you downloaded that Win98 SE file and it told you to insert a blank floppy, and automatically created a W98 boot disk for you, correct?