Update to my Home Lab with VMware Workstation 8 – Part 2 Fun with a Windows 7 Installer
Part 1 of this series outlined the hardware I wanted to purchase and some of the ideas I had around the products.
I created an image of the current install of Windows 7, then booted it to my new hardware, and to my surprise there were not any hidden files or drivers that needed adjusted.
It worked quite well, so well it was scary but simply Impressive…. Sure beats those old XP days when you had to just about tear it apart to get it to work.
However I would like this install of Workstation 8 to run on a fresh copy of Windows 7 so I have decided to reinstall it.
Now this shouldn’t warrant a blog post however they way I had to get Windows 7 to behave is why I’m posting.
In this post I go into getting Windows 7 to install properly when you don’t have proper installation CD.
The CD I own for Windows 7 is an Windows based Installation only, you cannot create boot CD to install the OS fresh.
Trust me I tired many ways but it just doesn’t work…
Here is what I wanted to accomplish –
1. I’d like a fresh copy of Windows 7 Installed on to my system
2. I need to enable AHCI in my system BIOS (for more info see here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Host_Controller_Interface)
I found on the corsair blogs that my SSD drive will run much better if you enable AHCI in your BIOS.
Unfortunately this pretty much deems a reinstall. I’m okay with this because it is what I’m wanting to do.
Issues –
1. The version of Windows 7 I have is an upgrade or restore only version.
2. Currently AHCI is not enabled in my BIOS
Here’s how I did it… Oh, did it take some trickery and learning but it worked..
Know this…
Windows 7 will do a recovery install to your current HD (C:) or to a new HD (E:).
If you install to your current HD, C:, then it will install in to a WINDOWS.001 folder, and leave lots of old files laying around.
Not ideal as I want a pristine Install
Do this…
From Windows I initiated the install, choose custom install and choose my E: drive (At the time E: was just a blank HD)
Windows did it typical install, Copying files, and they rebooted the system.
During the reboot I enabled AHCI on ALL controllers in the BIOS << THIS IS VERY important step, if you miss this Windows will install in IDE Mode
Windows completed the install and boots to your E: drive.
Having E:\ be the boot and E:\Windows is not ideal. I really want Windows 7 on my C: drive.
I formatted my C: drive and ran the windows install, only this time choose the C: HD.
Windows completes the install and reboots.
When I was done Windows 7 is a fresh install and running on the C: drive.
Summary…
I got to tell you it was a chore figuring this out, it seems very simple now but I went through imaging processes, partition changing, drive renames, lots of blog posts, KB’s, etc…
Nothing worked well and it took up hours of my time. This pattern worked for me, Windows 7 installed properly and its working quite well.
Now its on to installing Workstation 8…
vmexplorer 