Originally Posted by
seacue
I have an absolutely legal end-user Win 7 Pro Installation disk and unused license number.
I tried to install it to replace Win XP Pro on a 5-yr-old Dell.
There was a diagnostic which said that the Dell was incompatible and something about ACPI. Maybe I'm supposed to flash the BIOS with a newer version. This Win XP PC is vital and I won't try flashing the BIOS until a suitable Win 7 PC is in house.
Am I too conservative about flashing the BIOS?
seacue
As Saab says, buy a new hard drive and stick it in the PC and work from there. Note down the relevant settings in the BIOS before you change them, and you can then stick the old hard disk back in and change the BIOS settings back and it'll be as before.
It's most probably just the setting for the hard drive mode, and will install perfectly well when set to the other setting.