Windows 7 windows 7 - Old Compaq?

[ckain]

Has anyone tried or know if you can do an install on an old Compaq. I have one that needs to be reformatted and we have lost or never even had the disks for this a long time ago, at least 5 years ago. I glanced through their website for the model number and they only had software for XP. From my investigation Im assuming that it is not possible to succesfully install windows 7, although I still have hopes. Im running windows 7 on other computers and loving it, just thought I would throw it on the compaq if possible.

thanks in advance!

Ckain

 

[bobkn]

You might get better advice on this if you gave a bit more information, like the model number.

I have read of installing Win7 on an old Pentium 3 machine, although it was not exactly up to the minimum Win7 requirements.

I've installed the Win7 RC on an old "Toughbook" notebook with 1GB of RAM and onboard S3 graphics that were incapable of supporting Aero Glass. Seemed to run well enough. I couldn't get the native resolution of the LCD display until I found Vista-compatible graphics drivers, though. With any luck, the pieces in your Compaq will be less obscure.

I suggest that you check the graphics, sound, any any other peripherals in the box. (If it's running XP, a utility like Belarc Advisor may help.) See whether Vista drivers exist for them (at the manufacturers, not at HP).

 

[mike2k9]

What have you got to lose? Just give it a shot. I installed it on an old custom machine I built 8 years ago. AMD Athlon+ 3200 Thoroughbred with 768MB memory and an old ATI AGP graphics card. It runs pretty darn good.

 

[textureDnB]

Don't nuke that drive yet! The reason you don't have any recovery disc's is that there is an Image stored on D:\ as a recovery partition and there is a utity in all programs to make a set of recovery disc's from it or you can recover XP from that partition just look closely during boot up for recovery options.

 

[bobkn]

Don't nuke that drive yet! The reason you don't have any recovery disc's is that there is an Image stored on D:\ as a recovery partition and there is a utity in all programs to make a set of recovery disc's from it or you can recover XP from that partition just look closely during boot up for recovery options.

Good advice.

I wonder if Compaq was using the recovery partition at that time? HP probably was. Dell supplied a recovery CD. (Thay've gone to the partition now. Probably saves $0.50.)

 

[ckain]

Yes my compaq has the recovery partition, which is the main reason I decided to just go with the install. Question answered, yes it installed and runs flawlessly. I dont beleive it ran this good brand new, once again Windows7 impresses me.

Thanks everyone.