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
    2018-08-29T05:15:01+00:00

    foud the missing files from the previous install..... like you I didn't have the usual windows.old, but I too had the locked $inplace.~tr and $windows.~q directories.  I decided to tell windows to unlock them so I could inspect the contents, and sure enough, all the files that should have been put into windows.old were divided up into those two directories. I don't know why windows setup didn't create the windows.old directory and transfer the files into it for the both of us.....

    I wasn't sure if I would, but now I am definitely going to try doing another repair install to see if the directory is still not getting created. this is very odd.... like I said a post or two above, the windows.old thing has been apart of windows setup upgrades since at least win95, so why it is not getting created for us is strange. I have at least 1tb of free space free, so it isn't a matter of setup running out of working room on the drive.

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-08-29T05:28:04+00:00

    Hi,

    I have done six of the Upgrade\Repairs and they all have worked the same...

    Even with different ISOs...

    I haven't actually looked for a Windows.old until you mentioned it, but the two I have just done both have a missing Windows.old…

    I'm back on Win 10 at the moment, but I saved an image of the last upgrade, so I will check on the "dir /a:d /s windows.old" later and let you know...

    Did you get any results from it ?

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-08-29T20:18:14+00:00

    Hi,

    I got a file not found error with your dir /a:d /s windows.old command...

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  4. 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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  5. 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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