Upgrade from XP to Win7

I have an Averatec 6100 laptop with 4 Gb ram, an 80 Gb hard disk with
50Gb free space using a Pentium 4 running at 3Gz used very
occassionally. It came with and is currently running XP updated as best
it can be. I have the original dvds came with system and have used them
once years ago so unless they've gone "bad" I can recover from almost
anything.

To make it more usefull I figured I'd upgrade it to running Windows 7.

I can't seem to do it. System refuses to boot to a USB stick. I've tried
a few now using a Win7 iso and creating the USB stick with Rufus and
system doesn't even seem to try although BIOS screen flashes by does
inform you it found the device. I tried this method after problems as
follows in next paragraph.

It does boot using a CD/DVD (known from doing factory disk restore years
ago). Problem is of 3 different Win7 disks I've now tried on every
occassion system displays a black screen for inordinate time and then
reboots reverting back to the installed XP.

There is never any hint of what's going wrong.

Any ideas to try.

Note - Averatec is now out of business so BIOS updating etc. is not
feasible given 100% of the sites are those "auto driver update" style
sites and I NEVER use them EVER.

pjp wrote:
I have an Averatec 6100 laptop with 4 Gb ram, an 80 Gb hard disk with
50Gb free space using a Pentium 4 running at 3Gz used very
occassionally. It came with and is currently running XP updated as best
it can be. I have the original dvds came with system and have used them
once years ago so unless they've gone "bad" I can recover from almost
anything.

To make it more usefull I figured I'd upgrade it to running Windows 7.

I can't seem to do it. System refuses to boot to a USB stick. I've tried
a few now using a Win7 iso and creating the USB stick with Rufus and
system doesn't even seem to try although BIOS screen flashes by does
inform you it found the device. I tried this method after problems as
follows in next paragraph.

It does boot using a CD/DVD (known from doing factory disk restore years
ago). Problem is of 3 different Win7 disks I've now tried on every
occassion system displays a black screen for inordinate time and then
reboots reverting back to the installed XP.

There is never any hint of what's going wrong.

Any ideas to try.

Note - Averatec is now out of business so BIOS updating etc. is not
feasible given 100% of the sites are those "auto driver update" style
sites and I NEVER use them EVER.

trigem.com bankrupt 2012 (USA business branch).
Parent company is trigem.co.kr .

archive.org shows trigem.com web site was "flash monkey crap",
so there's not much chance of scraping drivers off it. There
is no ability to navigate.

Your video card is ATI 9600, and chances are, if you loaded Win7, you'd
be running in VESA driver mode. That means no Aero.

Maybe Linux is a better option ? You might get a working
browser that way.

*******

To load the Win7 ISO onto a USB stick, you can use this.

"Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool
(extracts from ISO9660 file and copies files to USB stick)"

The first link is the README, the second link the download.

http://web.archive.org/web/201201022...usbdvd_dwnTool

http://web.archive.org/web/201110052...B-DVD-tool.exe

Note that, the tool extracts a copy of bootsect.exe from the
ISO itself. This is only a problem if you install USB-DVD-Tool
on a 32-bit machine and process a 64-bit ISO. If you use a 32-bit
machine to process a 32-bit ISO, you will not have a problem.
On my 32-bit technician machine, I keep a 32-bit bootsect.exe
in the same folder as the executable, and the program is
smart enough to execute that, in lieu of extracting a copy right
from the ISO file being processed. The bootsect.exe is used
to make the USB flash bootable.

The tool works with Vista/Win7/Win8.1/Win10. It would work
at least well enough for a legacy BIOS or maybe a UEFI with CSM.
I don't know if it processes the content well enough for
pure UEFI mode.

I usually offer it an 8GB flash stick, for cases where
Win10 goes over the 4GB mark.

On my 32-bit machine, I can process 32-bit or 64-bit OS ISO files
for usage on the USB stick, and that's because I have my
32-bit bootsect.exe in the folder, to make the stick bootable.
If your technician machine is 64-bit, there is never a problem.
If your technician machine is 32-bit, you won't have a problem
processing a 32-bit OS ISO. It's only 32-bit TM processing
64-bit ISO, which is a problem, and needs the bootsect fix.

Paul

En el artículo ,
pjp escribió:

I can't seem to do it

Little surprise. You can't upgrade direct from XP to Win7. It can be
done if you're determined, but is messy and time consuming, by upgrading
to Vista, then from that to Win7. I've done it several times, it's more
likely to succeed if you pare, then clean, the XP installation down as
much as possible before starting - uninstall unwanted software, defrag,
etc.

You also need copies of Vista and 7 appropriate to the version of XP in
use, i.e. XP Pro - Vista Business - Win7 Pro. And to observe the
'bitness' - XP32 - V32 - W732 or XP64 - V64 - W764.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...ws_Vista_Upgra
de_Paths.svg

. System refuses to boot to a USB stick

A lot of early BIOSes won't, even if they recognise the stick on POST.
Use a DVD.

--
(\_/)
(='.'=) "Between two evils, I always pick
(")_(") the one I never tried before." - Mae West

Paul wrote:

pjp wrote:
I have an Averatec 6100 laptop with 4 Gb ram, an 80 Gb hard disk with
50Gb free space using a Pentium 4 running at 3Gz used very
occassionally. [...]

Your video card is ATI 9600, and chances are, if you loaded Win7, you'd
be running in VESA driver mode. That means no Aero.

The ATI Radeon Mobility series is not supported in Windows 7. I
managed to find a hacked Vista driver for my now semi-retired
Thinkpad T41 (same generation, ATI Radeon Mobility 7500).

With the manufacturer gone, it'll be nearly impossible to find
drivers.

Maybe Linux is a better option ? You might get a working
browser that way.

I second this approach. I recently installed Lubuntu 16.04
(Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, using the LXDE lightweight desktop) on my T41.
It's much more responsive than Windows 7 ever was on that
machine. The upside is that will probably find all the drivers
it needs.

If the upgrade to 17.04 goes well, I'll probably wipe the drive
and do a fresh install.

Start he https://www.ubuntu.com/ or http://lubuntu.me/

Good hunting.

Mike Tomlinson wrote:
En el artículo ,
pjp escribió:

I can't seem to do it

A lot of early BIOSes won't, even if they recognise the stick on POST.
Use a DVD.

Now that's a good point. The OPs laptop is from 2004, and around
the 2004-2005 era is when USB boot was just being added to
some of the BIOS company products.

In particular, boards with USB1.1 on the Southbridge, and a
NEC USB2 chip added to allow USB2 ports, those didn't have
USB boot code. It was some of the first "native" USB2 on the
Southbridge, that got the USB BIOS page and USB hard
drive emulation for boot.

And as for DVD, I have a couple S370 boards, that won't
boot from a DVD drive. They'll boot from a CD drive, but
some bus command seems to be missing to allow an IDE
DVD drive to work. The light on the drive never flashes.
And that eliminates a lot of modern Linux OSes as
direct install material. (You have to load the hard drive
elsewhere, and bring it over to the machine to boot it.)

Paul

"pjp" wrote

| It does boot using a CD/DVD (known from doing factory disk restore years
| ago). Problem is of 3 different Win7 disks I've now tried on every
| occassion system displays a black screen for inordinate time and then
| reboots reverting back to the installed XP.
|

Are you sure the DVD drive is set as first boot drive
and the apparent boot is not just a lag caused by putting
a disk in the drive? If it's really booting from the disk
then it should also boot from the disk when it reboots.
You can check boot order in the BIOS to make sure
you have the DVD drive first.

Given that people seem to agree you won't find drivers,
I wonder what the sense would be of going to Win7. And
why install Linux just because it's currently XP, unless
you just want to explore it. You said you thought you'd
make the computer "a little more useful" with 7. Is there
some specific software you need that won't run on XP?
If not then I don't see the logic.

XP will be more efficient and take up far less space than
7 on the same hardware. And nearly all hardware/software
is still supported for XP. (I just bought a new printer to use
with XP a few months ago.) The only thing I've found notable
about Win7 over XP is the option to have 64-bit for graphic
editing.

En el artículo , Paul
escribió:

Now that's a good point. The OPs laptop is from 2004, and around
the 2004-2005 era is when USB boot was just being added to
some of the BIOS company products.

I've got a board here (Gigabyte GA-MA69VM-S2, from about 2008, which I
use for testing stuff) which has the following USB boot options: USB-
FDD, USB-ZIP, USB-CDROM, USB-HDD. None of those options will boot a USB
memory stick that works in everything else. It's just plain weird.

I would try one of those USB memory sticks that has a 'proper' SSD
controller and should look like a hard disc to the BIOS USB boot code
(using the USB-HDD boot option) but don't have a spare one knocking
around.

--
(\_/)
(='.'=) "Between two evils, I always pick
(")_(") the one I never tried before." - Mae West

On Wed, 2 Aug 2017 02:39:18 -0300, pjp
wrote:


I have an Averatec 6100 laptop with 4 Gb ram, an 80 Gb hard disk with
50Gb free space using a Pentium 4 running at 3Gz used very
occassionally. It came with and is currently running XP updated as best
it can be. I have the original dvds came with system and have used them
once years ago so unless they've gone "bad" I can recover from almost
anything.

To make it more usefull I figured I'd upgrade it to running Windows 7.


An upgrade from XP to 7 is not possible. You have to do a clean
installation (or a two-step upgrade--first to Vista, then to 7--but
that doubles the risk of problems).

In article , am says...

"pjp" wrote

| It does boot using a CD/DVD (known from doing factory disk restore years
| ago). Problem is of 3 different Win7 disks I've now tried on every
| occassion system displays a black screen for inordinate time and then
| reboots reverting back to the installed XP.
|

Are you sure the DVD drive is set as first boot drive
and the apparent boot is not just a lag caused by putting
a disk in the drive? If it's really booting from the disk
then it should also boot from the disk when it reboots.
You can check boot order in the BIOS to make sure
you have the DVD drive first.

No, it pauses asking you to press a key to boot from dvd drive. No key
press and it boots from hard disk instead.

Given that people seem to agree you won't find drivers,
I wonder what the sense would be of going to Win7. And
why install Linux just because it's currently XP, unless
you just want to explore it. You said you thought you'd
make the computer "a little more useful" with 7. Is there
some specific software you need that won't run on XP?
If not then I don't see the logic.

I was thinking of the future, drivers for newer things etc, e.g.
printers etc.

And was a little bored and nada to do


XP will be more efficient and take up far less space than
7 on the same hardware. And nearly all hardware/software
is still supported for XP. (I just bought a new printer to use
with XP a few months ago.) The only thing I've found notable
about Win7 over XP is the option to have 64-bit for graphic
editing.

In article ,
says...

On Wed, 2 Aug 2017 02:39:18 -0300, pjp
wrote:


I have an Averatec 6100 laptop with 4 Gb ram, an 80 Gb hard disk with
50Gb free space using a Pentium 4 running at 3Gz used very
occassionally. It came with and is currently running XP updated as best
it can be. I have the original dvds came with system and have used them
once years ago so unless they've gone "bad" I can recover from almost
anything.

To make it more usefull I figured I'd upgrade it to running Windows 7.


An upgrade from XP to 7 is not possible. You have to do a clean
installation (or a two-step upgrade--first to Vista, then to 7--but
that doubles the risk of problems).

I was trying to do a clean install. Problem is booting to the DVD
results in pc just rebooting after little while. Usually I see the
startup Win 7 install logo then black screen then reboot?

pjp wrote:
In article ,
says...
On Wed, 2 Aug 2017 02:39:18 -0300, pjp
wrote:

I have an Averatec 6100 laptop with 4 Gb ram, an 80 Gb hard disk with
50Gb free space using a Pentium 4 running at 3Gz used very
occassionally. It came with and is currently running XP updated as best
it can be. I have the original dvds came with system and have used them
once years ago so unless they've gone "bad" I can recover from almost
anything.

To make it more usefull I figured I'd upgrade it to running Windows 7.

An upgrade from XP to 7 is not possible. You have to do a clean
installation (or a two-step upgrade--first to Vista, then to 7--but
that doubles the risk of problems).

I was trying to do a clean install. Problem is booting to the DVD
results in pc just rebooting after little while. Usually I see the
startup Win 7 install logo then black screen then reboot?

"Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor "

https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/down...ils.aspx?id=20

"Supported Operating System

Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP Service Pack 2

.NET Framework 2.0 or higher if running Windows XP"

Generally, they make the Upgrade Advisors, so they cannot be run
on just any ole starting materials. Usually the .NET requirement
helps prevent older OSes from being used as test platforms.

So you couldn't run that from Win98 say, just for fun.

Paul

pjp wrote:
To make it more usefull I figured I'd upgrade it to running Windows 7.

I would keep the XP and add a linux. Use the linux online because it
has current browsers and is more secure; use the XP for non-online stuff
if there isn't a linux equivalent you like.



--
Mike Easter

On 02/08/2017 06:39, pjp wrote:


Any ideas to try.


Did you try running the "setup.exe" from the USB or was this too much to
try for a brain damaged person like you? There is no need to boot the
machine to install the operating system. However, we are dealing with a
demented nutter so nothing will ever work.




--
With over 500 million devices now running Windows 10, customer
satisfaction is higher than any previous version of windows.

On 02/08/2017 17:39, Mike Easter wrote:

I would keep the XP and add a linux.



Very good suggestion especially when we know that the poster has limited
brain capacity to do anything useful on a Windows machine. Linux can
mask the inadequacy by simply saying "I am on a Linux so it can't be
done" Very good excuse indeed.




--
With over 500 million devices now running Windows 10, customer
satisfaction is higher than any previous version of windows.

On 08/02/2017 09:38 AM, Ken Blake wrote:
On Wed, 2 Aug 2017 02:39:18 -0300, pjp
wrote:


I have an Averatec 6100 laptop with 4 Gb ram, an 80 Gb hard disk with
50Gb free space using a Pentium 4 running at 3Gz used very
occassionally. It came with and is currently running XP updated as best
it can be. I have the original dvds came with system and have used them
once years ago so unless they've gone "bad" I can recover from almost
anything.

To make it more usefull I figured I'd upgrade it to running Windows 7.


An upgrade from XP to 7 is not possible. You have to do a clean
installation (or a two-step upgrade--first to Vista, then to 7--but
that doubles the risk of problems).




Now that I'm retired and have plenty of time to waste, I've upgraded
quite a few XP machines to Win7 going the "Visa first" route.

It has always worked for me but I would not bother unless the machine as
at least a 2ghz CPU and 2 -3 gigs of RAM


That said, the OP seems to want to perform a clean install and cannot
boot from the DVD.

Either the DVD is defective or the DVD drive is defective is what I figure.