Disk read error on PIII with Windows 7

[mikefitzvw]

Hello all,

OK, so I have this 12-year-old Dell Dimension XPS R450 that dual-boots Win98 and Ubuntu 9.10 (the CPU was upgraded to a PIII 700MHZ, and the BIOS was updated to the most latest one, from 2000). I also have a newer Dell (well, it WAS a dell until I replaced everything within the case) that runs Windows 7 64-bit. Using one (and then later a second) spare HDD, I tried to see if the 32-bit Windows 7 disc would install on the old machine (without internet, so it wouldn't have a clue). It was able to install just fine, but when I rebooted I got a "a disk read error has occurred press Ctr-Alt-Del to restart" message, or something very very close to that. I tried a different HDD, I tried re-installing, I tried installing on the new machine and transferring the HDD to the old machine, and I tried changing settings in the BIOS (which I put back to default, except the boot order which I put the DVD drive first so I can boot from discs). Does anyone know how to prevent this? If Windows 7 works I will buy it for this machine, but otherwise I'll just have to stick with Ubuntu, even though it's worse than Win98 (but current). The system has 512MB RAM and a 32MB graphics card if that makes any difference. It's insanely powerful for 1998.

[bonestonne]

insanely powerful for 1998 was the Supermicro S2DGU with dual P3 Xeon 700Mhz (sorry, I have one upstairs that i now use as a chair).

Likely it doesn't have enough RAM. Windows 7 uses A LOT of RAM. In fact, on my current desktop (specs in sig) at idle it's using 1.4gb of RAM, which is nearly 3x the RAM you have in the system alone.

I also think Win 7 required at least 1ghz CPU speed? I would check the minimum requirements for 7, but you're not likely to get it working without the help of slimming it down via vLite or similar.

I don't see why Ubuntu 9.10 is so bad though, I still run that on a spare drive in my workstation.

Edited April 24, 2010 by bonestonne

[puntoMX]

Using one (and then later a second) spare HDD, I tried to see if the 32-bit Windows 7 disc would install on the old machine (without internet, so it wouldn't have a clue). It was able to install just fine, but when I rebooted I got a "a disk read error has occurred press Ctr-Alt-Del to restart" message, or something very very close to that.

I think that the IDE controller isn't supported as you would like in Windows 7. Just my 0.02.

Likely it doesn't have enough RAM. Windows 7 uses A LOT of RAM. In fact, on my current desktop (specs in sig) at idle it's using 1.4gb of RAM, which is nearly 3x the RAM you have in the system alone.

If the computer has less memory, Windows 7 will lower the memory usage and page a bit more.

On a clean install on an average system, with microsoft security essentials installed and running a 479MB of "free" RAM (32/33MB shared memory) will use:

270MB to 300MB of RAM (yes, that low)

210MB Cached

60MB Paged kernel

11MB Non-paged kernel

0 to 15MB "free" memory

memory in total with page is set at 1500MB and 33% of that is "in use"

Now, I must say that with 1GB it works way better, that for sure .

[mikefitzvw]

So you say the IDE controller isn't supported? What if I tried an add-on card or something? Can the computer boot off of that? I've just never tried it. Also, the reason I don't like Ubuntu is because, compared to 98, it's way slower (not that 7 won't be, if I ever get it to work) and it struggles to play CDs/flash audio/video.

Now I know that seems like a high task for such an old machine, but on Windows 98 using kernelEX (a program some other people in the Win9x forum showed me) I was able to download the latest Flash and watch youtube videos, although the sound would always die after 3 minutes. It was astounding. Plus, Windows Media Player 7.1 always played audio/CDs very nicely, which for some reason Ubuntu doesn't want to do. I'll see if I can remedy that. But thanks for your help.

[awergh]

It should be able to boot of an IDE controller not sure its worth it though, I suppose it wont be as bad as my Cyrix 6x86 MII 233Mhz experiment.

[mikefitzvw]

OK, now here's one for you all. I haven't touched the PIII desktop yet, but I have a PIII laptop (a Dell Inspiron 8100) with 512MB RAM maxed out, an 80 (75GB) HDD, and an 866MHz processor. I'm considering keeping this for college. It runs XP, it may need a new backlight in the future (not too pricey, is replaceable separate from the screen for $20), and I have NO intention to play any games on it. I tried installing Windows 7 (but not activating, because it was a leftover disc from my modern desktop) and it ran just fine. All the way up to 1024x768 resolution too, with no drivers installed. Should I:

Buy Windows 7 and 2 batteries (not purchased yet) and, assuming display eventually dies, spend up to $340 on this large, comfortable, adequately fast 14" laptop for the next 4 years

OR

Buy a tiny netbook with an uncomfortable keyboard and tiny 11" screen for $340 (but it's new)

OR

Keep XP 'cause the world's gonna end in 2012 but XP support won't end until 2014 so it's all good

Thanks again for any advice (thoughts on the Dell Desktop still welcome)

[puntoMX]

OR

Sell the paperweight and put the 340USD on top of that and get yourself a new notebook; for 350USD you can get brands like emachines 15.6" notebooks (Acer in black) that will serve you some 4 years, Walmart had some cheap ones, and not so bad ones either... better don't touch anything that has an nVidia chipset, but AMD with ATI and Intel with Intel will do fine.

I call it a paperweight as it's better to use it as-is, I see that you like to put Windows 7 on every machine so go for something that comes out-of-the-box with Windows 7 .

[CoffeeFiend]

Buy Windows 7 and 2 batteries (not purchased yet) and, assuming display eventually dies, spend up to $340 on this large, comfortable, adequately fast 14" laptop for the next 4 years

That's a lot of money wasted on a machine I wouldn't pay $20 for.

Buy a tiny netbook with an uncomfortable keyboard and tiny 11" screen for $340 (but it's new)

OR like puntoMX said, get a low end laptop that doesn't suck, like this for instance which is $10 cheaper than trying to make-do with that P3 junker.

The 2.2GHz CPU is about 6x faster than that P3, it has 4x as much RAM which is also faster, a widescreen LCD of far better quality (for one, it's not out of the P3 era) which has higher resolution, a bigger and faster 160GB SATA HD, a DVD writer, a better video card, wifi (B/G/N), 3 USB 2 ports, likely far better audio, better/newer chipset, the trackpad and keyboard are most likely a lot better, the set of connections for other stuff is likely better, it's a 64 bit system, it comes with Win7 x64 already, the battery is also brand new and its power management is better, it's a bit lighter and thinner, it has full warranty, the finish likely looks a lot nicer, etc. It might be a low end laptop but it's at least a million times better than an old P3 (paperweights indeed)

And that's the very first model I even checked and at the first store too, so if you shop around you might find better deals still.

[mikefitzvw]

Hope I'm not bothering anyone by asking another related question on my older post. For now, the XPS hasn't been touched and the laptop has XP reinstalled (I ordered a replacement CD from Microsoft, because the system was beginning to respond weirdly). Now, I have this leftover 20GB ATA drive from this laptop. Does anyone know why the Windows 7 installation, which worked fine when I did a try-out on my 80GB Western Digital ATA drive, will not recognize the 20GB Hitachi ATA drive at all? The installer doesn't see the presence of any mass-storage drives. I haven't bought Windows 7 (still using trial disc from other system), but I wanted to try it out again with this free drive, especially to see how readyboost works, because the RAM maxes out at 512. Why on earth won't it recognize the drive? It can't be a controller issue, because it recognizes the 80GB drive. 20GB is the minimum spec required for HDDs. I don't see why it wouldn't show up. Any ideas?