>>>>Sorry to put this in chatter but I can't find a better category. I meant to direct it to Al, the king of hardware and OSes.
>>>>
>>>>I am having a heck of a time reinstalling Windows 7 from scratch. I guess I spoke too soon about how well protected I am. My main PC is floating dead in the water. This is not catastrophic because my data is in three separate off-computer locations. It's still a PITA.
>>>>
>>>>It boots, then goes into an obscure sequence of dialogs that lead nowhere. The Windows 7 install disk is giving me fits. I have tried both boot options. I have formatted the C: drive. Isn't there a simple way to install Windows 7 fresh?
>>>>
>>>>Maybe I should make this computer my mainstay and let the other one be a doorstop. It's sure powerful enough. I took some good advice here and got one with an SSD. Whoa.
>>>
>>>Can you give some background i.e.
>>>
>>>- why are you reinstalling from scratch? Virus incident, hardware failure, ??
>>>
>>>- what's the make/model of the computer? Is it still under warranty?
>>>
>>>To (re)install an OS you need a functional computer i.e functional system board, RAM memory, optical drive and hard/SSD drive. It's a good idea to "simplify" - disconnect unnecessary devices e.g printers, scanners, other USB devices. A couple of weeks ago a client's laptop would not resume from sleep, it turned out he plugged his Blackberry into it to charge. Once the phone was disconnected, all was OK. The only things you need to install an OS are keyboard and monitor; mouse is optional (but useful), wired network is optional as well but needed later for Windows activation and updates.
>>>
>>>If you are reinstalling because of a real or suspected hardware problem, and your system is still under warranty, then that's the place to start. If not under warranty, you can use another computer to download bootable diagnostics for your specific hardware. Some manufacturers have system diagnostics on the hard drive that can be accessed during machine boot. That doesn't help if the hard drive has failed, so in that case the manufacturers always make the same software available as a download (e.g. ISO) that you can burn to an optical disk. Such disks are typically bootable, like the Windows installation disk.
>>>
>>>Most modern computers have a boot select option. You press a key during boot (e.g. F12, the computer will generally tell you which key to use during boot) and you are presented with a menu that lets you select the desired boot device. This is very useful when trying to install a new OS from an optical disk. If messages are flying by too fast to read or respond to, you can press the Pause key to pause the boot. You can resume the boot after a pause by pressing Enter.
>>>
>>>If you can get the Windows 7 setup disk to boot you should be most of the way there. It includes a basic disk partition utility. If you want to install from scratch you can completely delete the C: partition and instruct Setup to install Windows on the unallocated space.
>>
>>Al, got it! The key piece of advice you gave me was to disconnect unneeded devices. There is an external hard drive which I didn't disconnect for the first few install tries. Then I figured if I was going to ask you for advice I might as well follow it. I detached the drive and off it went. Thank you, sir.
>>
>>I have one last small problem. One of the last steps, if not the last step, is to enter the 25 character product key. This is a completely licensed copy of Windows 7 Ultimate from my MSDN subscription. But I can't find the license key anywhere. Is anyone willing to email me a valid key for Windows 7 Ultimate. This is just to get Windows installed; it will not be used for any other purpose.l My email is mbeane@inbox.com. Thanks in advance to anyone willing to give me a Christmas present a day late.
>>
>>>
>>>If you have access to some sort of digital camera, you can pause the boot sequence and take pictures, then post them here. That may be helpful.
>
>(1) I do not think it is wise to share validation keys
>(2) If you log on to MSDN - you can find your (past) license keys
>
>(3) Always keep your license keys somewhere in a text file

Good advice about saving activation keys. On a thumb drive, not the hard drive. I already have a text file on it with user IDs, passwords, etc. but it doesn't have activation keys. Yet.

As it turns out I didn't need a license key. There is a button which lets you skip that. Windows is not installed. There is still a lot of work reinstalling apps and restoring data from the external hard drive but it's great being past this first step.