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
    2018-09-02T13:31:36+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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  2. 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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  3. Anonymous
    2018-08-25T05:23:30+00:00

    Hi,

    I used your ISO to upgrade a fully updated Win 7 Ultimate SP1 image...

    This again completed successfully...

    I actually got IE11 to install this time... It took a couple of IE8 updates, and possibly a "Platform Update" to get it to install...

    BTW... The original fully updated Win 7 has a build number of 6.1.7601.24214...

    After running your ISO and "Upgrading" it is now 6.1.7601.17514...

    It went backwards, but needs about 175 more Windows Updates...

    BTW... On both "Upgrades" I choose to "Ask Me Later" when asked about Windows Updates... Are you allowing your "Repair" to try and install 175-200 updates all at once ?

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  4. Anonymous
    2018-08-24T19:07:34+00:00

    as far as I know it is not possible to do a repair install of windows 7 SP1 using Windows 7 RTM images. the image I am trying to do repair install with just has SP1 and what ever other updates and hotfixes that M$ decided to include with the image.

    I have tried to do setup with AND with out dynamic updates, and the results are the same.

    I do have both Windows 8 Pro and Windows 10 pro licenses, but I am hesitant to do an upgrade to either of those right now. I would not want the issues I am having right now follow me over to the new version of windows. When performing an inplace upgrade to a new version of windows, I always prefer to have any issues resolved before making the upgrade, even if that means performing a repair install of the current OS version (in this case windows 7).

    I do have an Windows Ultimate iso from 2014 that I got from the digital river servers before they got shutdown. I guess I could try that one instead of the one I am using now... but as far as I can tell, the contents of the two iso's are the same. the only diference being in the name of the iso file.

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  5. Anonymous
    2018-08-24T14:12:35+00:00

    Hi,

    The only way to use a different build would be to try the Original Ultimate before SP1... You do realize don't you that some of these cumulative updates do if fact change the build number... There are a lot more numbers after the 7601..

    In Win 8 ad 10 it is much easier to use a different build because there are ISO's available for them..

    Normally what I remember seeing when trying to run Windows from within Windows of the same build, that there was a message that Windows was already installed and something like boot with the media message...

    It is most certainly possible that there is something going on with an Update... I have noticed some different behavior lately, but at the moment I can't recall exactly what...

    I will see if I can test your problem on my machine... I have a lot of backup images already... Don't know exactly when, but hopefully today...

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