Splitting a Win7 dvd to cd's?

[TheHouseBunny]

I've got a computer with only a cd-rom in it, and it's all scsi so buying a dvd aint a choice.

So i wonder if there is a way to burn the win7 iso to several cd's instead of of a dvd.

[hdood]

Can it boot from USB? If so, installing from a 4GB USB stick would be much easier.

[Rigby]

What kind of CPU and how much RAM does it have? Only a CD-ROM and SCSI only, no offense but it sounds kind of ancient (unless it's some kind of specialized corporate computer). I'm just wondering if it can even run Windows 7.

[TheHouseBunny]

It's a Dell PowerEdge 2400.

Dual P3 - 733mhz, 3x36gb scsi and 1gb of ram.

Old server.

Cant boot from usb.

[Roadrunna]

I wouldn't bother. It might work if you add a dvd-drive but you'd be saddled with so much legacy hardware it'll probably be a nightmare getting all the drivers for windows 7 to even boot. As for the eye-candy, no way! Stick with whatever you already have on there or buy a newer system.

[Rigby]

I agree, I think it's probably too old to run Windows 7 very well. I doubt the graphics card is up to date enough for Aero either. I don't know what OS you have on it now but XP should work fine with that system and it's still supported by Microsoft. So I'd go with that if you don't have it already, or possibly some version of Linux.

[aussiefloyd_fan]

It's a Dell PowerEdge 2400.

Dual P3 - 733mhz, 3x36gb scsi and 1gb of ram.

Old server.

Cant boot from usb.

ermmmm in the windows 7 it says it needs at least a 1ghz CPU... so the compatibility report probably wont even let you install...

[Madoshi]

i have got to say, that is one tough system to get Win 7 onto. no IDE whatsoever (Googled it) and the lack of SCSI DVD-ROM (they are very rare)

honestly if you are going to do anything serious on such a low end machine (733 PIII) you really should consider an older version of Windows. or a lightweight or server-oriented Linux distro.

although i believe there must be a way to produce a set of Windows 7 CDs (Vista could be special-ordered on a set of 7 CDs, and it uses the same installer) and i would be very interested myself to see a method of doing so.

[hdood]

It'll run on the hardware, but it will suck, especially since you probably don't have a modern graphics card. Don't but the nonsense that 7 is orgasmically awesome on these old machines. Is there anything wrong with what it's currently running? You could build a new system that is massively more powerful and capable of running 7 for a few hundred bucks, if that's an option.

[TheHouseBunny]

I just wanna do it for kicks, i got a c2d e6600 as my main box running w7.

Currently the box is just doing nothing, just wanna try it.

And its a dual cpu box, thats 2 cpu's.

So, 2x P3 733mhz, 1gb ram and 10k rpm scsidrives.

I dont care about using Aero, as long as Win7 runs on the box =)

[Madoshi]

well if its just for fun, you might try putting on XP and starting the 7 install from there

[hdood]

Does it currently have XP installed? If so, can the other machine share the DVD over the network? Could you just run the installer from XP? It should copy all the files over before rebooting into the installer.

[aussiefloyd_fan]

well if its just for fun, you might try putting on XP and starting the 7 install from there

yes.. i have confirmed this will work.. if you have the windows 7 iso in your computer.. and daemon tools.. it will copy over all the needed files before the first rebook

[TheHouseBunny]

It has Ubuntu atm on it.

Bah, isnt there and easy way of converting a Win7 dvd into like 4 cd's =)

And fyi, i'm an experienced computer technician, i've worked with computers for 20 years, so i'm not a newb =)

But i've never runned into this problems before :p

[Rigby]

Good luck with it, and be sure to let us know how it goes. Would be interesting to hear how Windows 7 runs on a machine with those specs.

[I8PP]

Well if you did manage to span the DVD into x number of CD's, Windows setup isn't designed to know when to check for the next media, or even prompt for it. Only Microsoft, if they wanted to, can create CD install media like they did for Vista.

[Raa]

An experienced tech, going for 20 years?

You should know better. :p

[sweetsam]

You could create an iso image of win7 dvd which can be cut in to sizes that will fit on cd, transferred on to the system to be reassembled. You can then use an emulator to mount the dvd image and install from there. Alternatively you could transfer the dvd image via LAN if you have one.

[Madoshi]

you know what, you could also nLite it enough to fit onto a CD

i tried Windows 7 on my ThinkPad: a P3-650 and 512MB memory, some 4MB PCI-bus video chip, and ISA audio. it was extremely sluggish but you could actually do things like pop up the Start menu and play in Paint. audio i could never get working (too old). i think with the fast SCSI disk and 1GB memory it would be useable, at least for fun ;)

[TheHouseBunny]

Raa Yes, but i've never encountered something like this, thats why i'm asking.

A good technician asks people around him for advices, just dont "do things".

[Guest xiphi]

You will need to get the WAIK to be able to have 7 fit on cds.

[sirgh0st]

I can not believe no one here has mentioned this. Just go get a cheap pci sata controller card, pop it in and put a sata dvd rom drive in the machine. Both are cheap anymore and would solve the issue very easily.

[lars77]

Windows Vista definitely had alternate CD media, but I haven't heard of Windows 7 having any.

If you have an .iso file of the Windows 7 DVD you might try creating a new partition on your hard drive & then copying the entire DVD's contents over to the new partition. Then mark the partition as the bootable/active partition. If it works then your old server should hopefully boot into the Windows 7 installer. (you may want to keep a spare GParted livedisc or similar in case it doesn't work..)

Also, you can look into starting the installer over the network from a Windows PE disc, assuming you have access to a Windows machine that can install the WAIK & create a Windows PE disc.

Though I'd have to agree with sirgh0st, a USB or SATA PCI card would be way easier, assuming your old server has an open PCI slot.

[Madoshi]

assuming SATA and USB cards were on hand:

the SATA card would conflict with the SCSI adapter, in terms of bootability. on top of that, not all SATA cards are bootable.

the USB card would never be bootable, ever.

[WizardCM]

Maybe get one of those external USB HDD boxes, but instead of hooking up a HDD hook up a DVD box. :)