It was very hard to install Windows 7 on this machine as it had no DVD drive and didn't support booting from the USB. Spent around 13 to 14 hours trying to get it going.
FAILED STEPS:
1. Took out an DVD drive from another PC and tried to fit it in the Dell but the Dell didn't support it cause it was using the old IDE drive connectors. The newer DVD drive was SATA.
2. Tried to boot from USB. No go for the old BIOS and motherboard.
3. Managed to scramble a old IDE HDD from another IBM PC and fit it in. Dumped the Windows 7 CD contents in and tried to boot it. BIOS gave an error and refused to boot.
4. Tried to install Windows 7 from my netbook using TFTP (i.e. Network Boot). However no go as errors kept springing up and halting the process with just a slightest bit of lag.
5. Re-formatted the PC with Windows XP Pro SP2, dumped the Windows 7 installer in and ran it. It ran fine until the step where it asked to choose the drive to install Windows 7 on. Both drives were greyed out. Because they weren't NTFS. (I always prefer FAT32 when formatting older machines.)
After 12 hours of crazy trying...
Finally did it..
RE-re-installed XP Pro SP2 now with NTFS. Took a bloody long time to re-format twice. Re-dumped Windows 7 installer in and ran it. Finally it worked. Formatting continued for the next one hour and half.
But I finally succeeded with the help from my younger brother.

Check out the awesome Windows Experience score. LMAO.
3/5 COMPUTERS WITH WINDOWS 7. 60%!
posted by sLaCkErZ™ @ 12:13 PM,
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