Windows setup could not configure windows to run on this hardware message during repair install

Anonymous

Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 x64

I am trying to do a repair install of Windows 7 Ultimate which came pre-installed on the system, but every time I run windows setup, it gets 99% done, and is at the completing setup phase and suddenly pops up with a message saying windows can not be run on my current hardware. Setup then does a rollback of widows. This is absolutely ridiculous.... I am attempting to reinstall the SAME version of windows that was already on the system! Windows 7 Ultimate has been on the system since the day it rolled off the factory assembly line. I have triple checked to make sure the image I am using to do a repair install is x64. I have checked to make sure the image is not corrupted by doing a test install on a fresh drive in another PC. that time I got as far as asking for the license key before I stopped (because I didn't have a license for that PC). I did find a support article on the dell support site surprisingly enough (why not the M$ support site too?) that said to press shift+F10 and start c:\windows\system32\oobe\msoobe.exe manually. which I tried, but when I started msoobe manually, I got as far as the screen that askes me about default IE security settings, then the screen went almost black. anyone just seeing the screen might think that the backlight had just turned off. you could dimly see the dialogs on the scree showing, but not well enough to see what you could select. the only thing that was clearly visible, and proved that the backlight for the display was indeed still active, was the mouse cursor was still clear as day. I tried restarting my pc, hoping I could pick up where I left off, but windows setup did a rollback instead. I don't know if a recent update is causing this, or if it is caused by the damage to windows I am trying to repair. I have never ever, in all my years of using windows encountered this message. the fact that it appears to not have an error code associated with it makes it all that much harder to diagnose. what can I do?

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43 answers

Anonymous

2018-08-30T23:42:55+00:00

by all accounts windows.old should be created when upgrading windows. it's even documented by Microsoft. I wonder what would happen if you set the PC's clock back to 2014 and did a repair install if would be created then. if so, then that means there is a date based kill switch that MS put into windows 7 setup for the creation of the windows.old folder. possibly to encourage users to upgrade to the next version of windows. I do not know, at this point I am really out of my depth. I wish M$ was still monitoring the win7 threads. I would love to get some insight from them.
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Anonymous

2018-08-30T02:02:05+00:00

Hi,

Same results again... No Windows.old when Upgrading\Repairing with the same ISO as the original installation...
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Anonymous

2018-08-30T01:14:38+00:00

Hi,

I also have a 6mbps internet connection... Fortunately I didn't need it to answer the question of Windows.old...

I happened to have a image of a clean Windows 7 installation from 2016... No Updates at all.. Never connected to the internet, and no Ethernet drivers installed..

I had to connect and install Ethernet drivers to Activate and install a couple of programs I need for the machine to be more functional...

I then did the Upgrade\Repair installation... No Windows,old...

Just the two hidden files as before...

Windows Update detected 119 Important Updates, and 66 Optional, after removing 40+ Language Pack Updates...

One thing I regret is that I used the ISO that we currently have access to, not the ISO that was used in the Initial Installation..

Since everything is all setup to try again, I will see what happens with the older ISO..
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Anonymous

2018-08-29T20:53:58+00:00

as for the large amount of updates I have found doing the bare minimum of updating and then installing so called "sp2" update is best. it installs everything in one go.

my order of updating windows 7 after a repair install:

IE11 and pre-requisite updates

.net updates

"sp2"updates and it's prerequisites.

current convenience roll-up updates

any other updates needed. (should be relatively few at this point)

office updates (if any needed)

I have a slow 6Mbps connection with constant ISP slowdowns so strategizing my downloads is beneficial for me.
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Anonymous

2018-08-29T20:46:40+00:00

no I didn't find a windows.old after I did a in-place upgrade / repair install. this is not normal behavior for windows setup the last link I gave clearly indicates that windows.old should exist with the old windows files. additionally this has been a behavior since windows 95, possibly even windows 3.1 and earlier (I am at an old enough age where I am starting to forget stuff from that long ago...). the fact that this .... bug? issue? something? is repeatable on completely different systems is disturbing.

we may have stumbled apon something that has gone undetected until now. could I ask you to do a fresh (clean) windows 7 install (using a hyper V or what have you is ok) without updates, then do a repair install, and check for the windows.old directory? if it exists then, proceed to fully update windows 7 and then do another windows repair (in-place upgrade), then another check for windows.old? I would do such a check myself but I don't have a spare drive to use. you seem to be better situated tech wise than me.
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