Installing WIndows 7 64bit

ASKER

Hi jcgriff2. Sorry I dont understand. Which part am I supposed to check? It talks about flashing the system, which I'm not doing. Did you mean I should have flash/update the bios?

Thanks

jamietoner

What happens if you don't use the intel deployment cd and just boot and install from the win 7 dvd? I found (from intels website) that win 7 isn't a supported os for the deployment cd it only shows server os's on the supported list.
http://download.intel.com/design/servers/ISM/docs/31157903.pdf

ASKER

Jamietoner, well, the original CD that comes with the motherboard doesnt support Win7. But they have a newer version available for download, which I've downloaded, that has WIndows 7 64 bit option. The only thing is that it seems to be searching for a USB Disk on Key ( I'm taking a wild guess that this is = USB Stick?).

dwinks616

Just install using the Windows 7 DVD and don't even bother with Intel's thing. That will only cause you headaches and it's completely unnecessary (and it'll likely install a bunch of crapware you don't need).

The most you might need to do is download a driver for your chipset and toss it on a thumbdrive to use while you are installing windows, I know that was needed for my chipset, however it's a fairly easy thing to do. Just make sure you don't try putting a .exe file on there, as that won't work, however you can use Uniextract to extract the files from an .exe installer for your drivers to the thumbdrive, if they don't provide them in a zip file.

ASKER

dwinks616, the reason I'm using Intel deployment CD is because I've had trouble installing win2003 server directly before. But when using Intel's deployment CD it works like a charm.

Anyhow, I've also tried direct install. The install process was fine except for the last part (Finalizing installation) where the computer would hang and I have to hit the reset button. Once I rebooted I was able to login but the mouse movement and everything was very slow and there's a lot of lag/time delay between clicks. Googling will show that some users are facing the same problem.

Of course ubuntu will just work. no hassle. but I need a window on this system and win xp x64 (which worked fine on this system, by the way) is no longer available on the market.

jamietoner

"Once I rebooted I was able to login but the mouse movement and everything was very slow and there's a lot of lag/time delay between clicks" How did it behave once the updated chipset, raid controller and video drivers were installed?

ASKER

Because of the lags, it took a really long time for me to finally manage to install all updates. However, the result is the same. Still slow and laggy. WHich is why I'm trying to do the intel assistant method.

dwinks616

It being slow and laggy would be due to driver issues, something that the Intel assistant won't resolve any better than just installing them after the first boot. I'd look at the drivers for video first, then chipset, then raid.

Also, I've seen Windows 7 (and vista) hang at the finalizing installation screen for an hour or so before and when left alone would eventually finish and reboot as normal and not have any other issues. How long did you let it sit at that screen before you forcibly reset it?

ASKER

I left the installation overnight. so I guess it would at least be 8 hours.

I've tried installing all the drivers. Still problematic.
I'm using ATI Sapphire 5750.

I agree with the above that you should install without the deployment tool, and then install all the drivers for your PC. Make sure you download those drivers from the manufacturer's site, if you use other driver sources you may be installing the wrong ones and that would explain the slowness. Also check your device manager for any inconsistencies.

I don't know how this deployment CD works, but I assume that it should first be run on the installed PC, using a previous OS, like XP. It probably then collects the necessary drivers, and at the end saves all that collected info in a file or bunch of files, and those you'd then save to a USB key. The installation then probably asks for that key so it can inject those drivers into the installation.

Have you tried pressing F2 and going into the BIOS setup to change the boot order to CD Rom first? I suspect the BIOS is set to boot from USB before hard drive.

The boot order for your purposes should be CD>HDD (or whatever controller it's connected to)>USB>NIC.

In 90% when the system or application appears to hang, it just needs enough time. Windows 7 does have that problem on some installations, nobody knows why, but it will always get through. Same with practically any other software. Never press reset button on the same day when it hung.

Regarding the original problem, I think it would be reasonable to contact Intel support and ask them where you are supposed to obtain the requested USB disk. But prior to that, one anecdotal way to find out is to _very_ carefully inspect the contents of the box with the motherboard. Chances are, you will find the stick attached in the corner. It happened to me 2-3 times. About 10 years ago, I recall, Sony sent me "missing" battery from the camcorder that I purchased, and only then I found where it was hidden in the box.

ASKER

Rindi, when installing directly from Win7 CD, as soon as the installation finished and reboots and I get to the desktop it will become extremely slow within about 2 seconds. The kind of slow where it is impossible to even move a mouse (pointer jumps around) or open windows explorer to get to where the drivers are. Most of the time when I manage to open windows explorer, it would just display a blank white box.

Deployment CDs are actually linux based. Its a live CD that will "prep" the computer for installation. I've used it many time with success for other servers for W2k3. Note that I've tried 64 bit ubuntu which, like xp x64, also worked flawlessly. So I'm thinking its a driver issue but W7 is not giving me a chance to install the proper drivers.

Netman66: I did boot to CD first (the Deployment program is on a CD).

Vadimrapp1: Yes. I waited overnight and gave W7 as much time as humanely tolerable. It would sit there happily if I dont do anything, but as soon as I moved the mouse it will become very laggy. The same is happening with using the keyboard. (I tried not moving the mouse and exclusively using keyboard shortcut such as Win+E, and so on, but still extremely laggy. Note that this is not the kind of laggy that some people complains about. This is the kind of lag that will take 1-3 minutes to get a reaction from W7 when I press the windows button.
And no, there is no USB stick. direct install W7 can also be done without USB stick and installing XP x64 from Deployment CD works without USB stick.

Where I live there's pretty much no such support from manufacturers (so far that I know). You pretty much try to get help from the computer shop and if they can't.... end of story....

That means the deployment CD isn't an m$ product, but rather came with the PC, something similar to the CD's that come with Dell Servers?

You are probably still meant to put the drivers, particularly those for the disk controller, on a USB stick, and that is probably meant with that key.

ASKER

Hi Rindi: Yes the CD is from Intel and comes with motherboard. I'm not familiar with Dell server but if I have to take a wild fuess, it's probably something similar. (Though not like the ones that comes with laptops that has a builtin OS).

This is just a startup cd that will load up all the supposedly relevant mobo drivers. So the drivers for the mobo would be pre-loaded during installation of W7, which is why I suspect it would solve the lagging issue. (Since I'm having difficulty installing the driver manually after a fresh installation)

Therefore the USB stick probably wont contain the drivers. The actual term they used if I remember correctly was: "USB Stick on Key"

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ASKER

I havent actually tried this, but it seems there are other pointers that says the same: I need to look for a utility in the boot cd.

This is something new to me.

Thank You

I re-read the original question, and I think I figured out what it means. Windows 7 can be installed not only from the DVD, but also from bootable USB stick, as an alternative. If I understand correctly, you first boot from Intel CD, then at some point Intel's setup is asking you to insert Windows 7 installation DVD. Since Windows 7 installation can be also on USB stick, that's the option that Intel setup is giving you.

The instructions to create installation USB can be found at this page: http://w.e-e.com/rgFfkh , among the others.

So you are right that the USB stick is created by the utility found on the Windows 7 installation DVD, however the stick will contain not the drivers but the actual installation of Windows 7. Indeed, if the utility was able to create the USB with the drivers, meaning that it probably already had those drivers ready, then why moving them to separate medium?

ASKER

Vadimrapp1:
That is what I thought at first (either W7 DVD or USB Stick). But I have the W7 DVD on the dvd player and it wont accept it. This was the source of confusion over the usb-stick-on-key thing.

Logically, the drivers should be on intel deployment cd, as you point out. So why move it to a usb stick? I'm not sure either. In fact, I'm not sure if the stick is meant for the driver (i.e: I have got no idea whats going on).

The standard windows 7 installer looks for drivers on USB sticks, It doesn't look on CD's. So those drivers have to be put on a USB stick.

Exactly. The Intel CD should have a driver media creation utility that can be run to place the extracted drivers on alternate media - in your case, the usb key.

Drivers extracted from where? if win7 already has them, then no need to place them elsewhere; if not, then the vendor usually provides his own means to create the media.

Do you have any reference to such utility or such process?

> I have the W7 DVD on the dvd player and it wont accept it

you mean, Intel setup is asking to insert win7 installation dvd, but when you do, it rejects it?

@vad - server assisted installation normally contains utilities on the vendor's CD that will create driver disks. These are used during OS installation.

HP/Compaq SmartStart creates a utility/driver partition and scripts the installation from there. Intel, I beleive, requires the creation of separate driver disks.

Intel Deployment Assistant CD has white paper where all this is described. Can be accessed form the web interface of the CD, or found in the directory "Documentation". The steps outlines in that white paper aren't exactly intuitive, involve creating various directories, running command-line utilities, and such. That directory also has many other documents, so the best is to probably learn them all.

I think the reason why Windows 7 installed without this CD does not work very well, is exactly in the fact that this CD puts in place Intel platform drivers. Standards' non-compliance and resulting incompatibilities and instabilities of the big vendors' products has been the issue for decades. For me, the finding that the board does not work with the standard o/s without special vendor-dependent drivers (i.e. without being hacked by the vendor), would be enough reason to return the board.

ASKER

Rindi & Netman66: that makes sense. I never knew that because W2k3, WinXP and Ubuntu had never given me such issue. (For the time being, I ended up installing Win XP X64 on this system. Out of curiosity, I tried both direct method and Deployment CD method. Both worked fine). But I think I will give W7 another go since I have a copy already.

Vadimrapp1: "The steps outlines in that white paper aren't exactly intuitive," I did found some documents and as you've pointed out, not very clear and took too much time to figure out.
"the best is to probably learn them all." :) Thank you very much, but no thanks. Thats what I get a subscription on EE.
"the finding that the board does not work with the standard o/s without special vendor-dependent drivers" would be nice, but I actually think the issue here is with W7. Since XP x64 worked and Ubuntu worked. Why I dont just switch to Ubuntu I don't know.... (has something to do with the rest of the world using windows though....)

And again, Thanks for the help.

If you still want to use Windows 7, you can always virtualize it with VMware Server or XEN or Virtualbox etc. Here you have the advantage that you run it simultaneously with Ubuntu. You just need enough resources.