Cael Vs. Windows 7

So, I had a nice... large... very large post about me installing Windows 7 on my computer. But well... it was kinda two hours of text typed out over 6 or so in the morning when I finally got things mostly working, but the thing was large enough to warrant five posts of its own. So, I thought I'd pare it down and make it digestible... or at least, more digestible. I may've been successful, but really... this is five days of stuff I got to post, 'cause that's how long it's taken me to install Windows 7: three days to install, two to set up. The main issue was my hardware was no longer well supported with drivers. In the process, I found out how to load a partition from a USB drive when your BIOS can't load partitions from USB drives (oh internets, why do you know everything?).

First, I should probably explain my situation. My computer, Tsuruya-san, has been with me for quite a while now, but the one thing that's bugged me was that she's always been 32-bit Windows XP Pro, despite the fact that she sports an Athlon 64 X2. Well, considering what I want to be doing, I'm positive I need a Windows installation. Also, I think it's time that Tsuruya-san got an OS that didn't hold her back. So, I've got a few choices: XP 64-bit, Vista 64-bit, and Windows 7 64-bit. I hear bad things about Vista in general, and I hear bad things about XP 64-bit driver support. So, Windows 7 it is.

Apparently, though... the equipment I use has bad driver support as well. I mean, my CD/DVD RW, a Sony Optiarc AD-7200S, does not come with drivers - it tells you to use Windows's default drivers. I suppose this isn't too terrible... but moving on, I have a Trendnet TEW-643PI that well... I don't really trust the brand that much, and I didn't find any drivers I could use. To boot, I couldn't find chipset drivers I could use (it uses a Realtek 8190). My Creative SB0730? ... I have several sources that say Creative isn't very... concerned, when it comes to drivers.

But the main cause of concern was the amount of extra legwork I had to do because the CD/DVD drive didn't work. I was confused because the installer said it couldn't recognize my drive, yet the installer had to have been loaded from the DVD in the drive! Moreover, the installer would stall for eons before it told me this. I had to do this twice - once to find out I needed drivers, and another to try to solve the problem with all the drivers I could come up with. Mind you, Windows scanning whatever folder I told it to for compatible drivers took... probably another hour. At least. I came up empty, as well.

So, I figured out a way around this: load the installer from a USB drive, and try to find a way to get Tsuruya to boot from a USB drive when her BIOS actually can't. Well, I was able to figure it out (through some time-consuming lessons), so here it is for those of you interested. Format your USB drive in NTFS. Hit up the command prompt, and look up your CD/DVD drive. Change directories to the boot folder. Let's say your CD/DVD drive is D: and your USB drive is E:.

D:\boot> bootsect /hd60 E:

That'll put a boot sector on your USB drive's partition that'll allow BOOTMGR (a bootloader supplied on the Windows 7 installation CD), to run on it. Then copy-paste from the DVD to your USB drive. (Update 29 Apr. 2011: This works even if you use the 32-bit version of Windows to run bootsect, then install the 64-bit version.)

Now, to get your computer to bootstrap from a USB device when its BIOS can't, you'll need Plop Boot Manager (there are others probably, but it's the one I used). Burn it on a CD and tell your BIOS to boot from CD, or put it in a bootable partition on your hard drive... whatever makes your boat look nice. Plop will give you a list of options to boot from, just pick USB and you might be good to go... but if you're not (and the boot manager freezes), you may have to go into its Setup menu and tell it to force USB loading use USB 1.1. You can use Mode A or Mode B, I used Mode A.

Of course, since it's USB 1.1, and the installer is 3 GB large... it's going to take a while.

Also, keep in mind... this actually didn't solve anything for me - even after Windows installed (taking probably hours, I just went off and played Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 for a while), anytime I'd insert a CD into the drive, Windows just couldn't handle it. It'd spend ages trying to read the disc, but not be able to. Of course, I only discovered this after I found my wireless card didn't work and got another one. The drivers for that wireless card come on a CD, right?

...

My new setup has a D-Link DWA-525 for the wireless, and an ASUS DRW-24B1ST for my CD/DVD RW. I'm running on on-board sound now, since Creative can't supply drivers that will let my card work, and neither will unofficial third-party builds. I also purchased a Western Digital Passport (500 GB, USB 3.0), which I'd been planning on for a while, so I didn't mind buying it. It's just I'll be able to switch to wired in a few weeks (but I can't now), meaning I spent some money on a wireless card that'll only be used those few weeks. It wasn't expensive... but hey, imagine that. I just pumped money into the American economy, rather than the Japanese one. That's new. ^^;

The thing is, I'm not so sure this is really Windows's fault: the devices themselves are functional, it's just they don't have drivers. Who should develop drivers for third-party hardware? The obvious answer is the manufacturer of said piece of hardware. Windows should supply some genero unoptimized drivers for basic things, sure, but if your hardware goes outside the realm of those genero drivers, you gotta make your own. I still think the Optiarc should've worked, but everything else is likely best left to the manufacturer.

Regardless, Tsuruya-san's up and running like she should be, at full power. Despite everything that's happened, I'm glad she's doing fine right now. I'll do a reinstall of Windows 7 just in case those third-party drivers did anything behind the scenes (anti-virus says it's okay though), but afterwards I'll be looking for sound cards.

And wow... this is the short version. I'll see you guys after a reinstall, but... I will miss my Optiarc, and I will miss my old external hard drive. It's been with me for years, probably close to a decade now. I think it's a USB 2.0 drive, but I know it's a Western Digital 160 GB. Don't remember the model number, I called it Endymion. Served me very well for years, and I will miss it.