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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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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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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Anonymous

2018-09-02T13:31:36+00:00

Hi,

In the process of going through my installation media, I found a DVD of Vista Ultimate SP2 x64...

Out of curiosity I installed it as I did the Win 7 in my previous post, saved an image, and attempted an upgrade to Win 7 SP1... It was eventually successful after a couple of retries... No Windows.old again..

I tried two different DVD versions of Win 7, and they both hung at 18% of "Expanding Files"... The message was that "Your Computer Needs To Restart", but wouldn't... Just kept cycling between messages.

It turns out the culprit was the "User Account Control" in Vista SP2...

I turned it off and everything went smoothly... I had forgotten how fast Vista boots\restarts as compared to Win 7...
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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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Anonymous

2018-08-31T00:57:17+00:00

Hi,

I might have a 2014 era Win 7 image... non-SP1 that I could check...

I definitely have non SP1 Installation Media from it's original release...

In my case, the machine was not even connected to the internet when I made the previous image, but I needed to connect it to activate it...

Although the upgrade might have proceeded with out activation...

I didn't try unhooking it again before starting the upgrade..

I have seen documentation talking about Windows.old in Windows 7, but have never actually seen one... But then I haven't done the type of upgrades that would normally generate one..

I don't think the clock would have any effect, but any connection to Microsoft's servers might...
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