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

Anonymous
2018-08-24T03:20:19+00:00

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?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Install and upgrade

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-09-28T22:35:11+00:00

    As best as I can tell the on the drive that failed, it was the drive controller board that exists on every hdd that failed.

    The drive would spin up, and initially the data cached to the ssd portion tried to load windows, but the hdd portion would not be recognized. Bios would throw a fit and freeze up for log periods on the main screen that showed the time, date, and drives in the system, but would act normal on the other screens, the drive also did not show up as being present. You could here the motor spin the platters up to speed. But the as far as I could tell the read/write heads were remaining parked after initial power up of the drive. No evidence of anything fried on the controller board, but then everything was so small you would need really powerful magnitudes to see if there was.

    I have other drives fail before, things like head failure,  Or the platters getting stuck, or not able to spin, or the drive just wore out and there increasing numbers of bad sectors even after a low level format. I have also had a drive where the main chip on the controller board started smoking and a small hole appear in the top of the chip when the drive was first powered up .but never had a previously good hard drive suddenly have the controller board suddenly fail,  while I was using the pc.

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-09-28T22:06:44+00:00

    No this was a system image made by my rebit 6 backup software. It had a bug in it that was never fixed because rebit was bought by carbonite and subsequently shutdown. The bug was this: 

    When performing a system recovery, the contents of the back up would disappear after the recovery was finished. An annoying bug to be sure. I guess I forgot to make a new backup after my last recovery (when i got my new sshd).

    Fortunately the software engineers who worked on rebit got together and started a new company, and bought the debit stuff back from carbonate (its not like they were using the stuff for anything.) so the rebit software is back. I have already purchased a new license (it's the same software, except it is patched, hopefully) for the new rebit pro. I did unfortunately have to purchase a business license so I could avoid the cloud storage and get only a yearly renewal fee. It is annoying to have to pay every year now, but it is what it is. Personally I would rather pay once, and then pay a fee when the next version comes out. Oh, and not have to deal .with the cloud backup nonsense. My internet connection is much to slow for cloud backups. One drive syncing already makes it so no one else can access the internet when it is syncing. Doing back up of my pc to the cloud would be impossible.

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-09-25T23:45:48+00:00

    Hi,

    That's not good...

    If you check the properties of the system image made by the Win 7 Backup\Restore, it will show as a "Empty" folder even if it is not...

    But it may actually be empty in reality as well...

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  4. Anonymous
    2018-09-25T22:46:31+00:00

    Well whole issue is moot now. Was using my PC two weeks ago, and the new sshd i had just installed suddenly died, and then then i found out the  system recovery image i was going to rely on to get back up and running was empty......

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  5. Anonymous
    2018-08-31T04:33:48+00:00

    Hi,

    I think I've exhausted all options, and no Windows.old…

    Just the two hidden files mentioned before...

    Just to be sure, I unhooked all drives except for a 256GB SSD that had been wiped... I unhooked the internet from the computer...

    I installed WIN 7 Ultimate x64 from an original RTM DVD and saved an image.

    The machine was never hooked up to the internet, or had any drivers or etc. installed... Just what was on the DVD...

    I then did a Upgrade\Repair with the same DVD as used in the installation...

    No Windows.old…

    I then tried an upgrade to Win 7 Ultimate SP1... This failed with the message that SP1 had to be installed before the upgrade could be run...

    Imagine that... I had to install SP1 manually from a file... windows6.1-KB976932-X64before I could upgrade to Windows 7 SP1 !!!

    Regardless... There again is no Windows.old…

    The file I used to install SP1 was downloaded and saved when SP1 first became available, so it is not possible that anything has been modified since in it since then...

    The machine still had no access to the internet, and could not have downloaded any type of patch...

    So I don't know where the info about Windows.old in Windows 7 is originating from, but it seems to be invalid...

    I doubt that it has anything to do with OEM versions either, as to the best of my knowledge, they are exactly the same as the Full Retail, other than the Licensing Provisions and Microsoft Support...

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