This afternoon I installed all the new computer parts I ordered over the last few weeks. The new motherboard fit into the case with a bit more room than I had anticipated, which was a nice surprise. With everything in place, I plugged in the bare minimum of cables for the first power-on test, namely just the video card connection, a mouse, and a keyboard. When I hit the power switch, I waited a few seconds to hear one and only one beep, which signaled that the system detected no faults on initial boot up. In the BIOS screen I was also pleased to see the CPU temperature was quite reasonable and within the average that other people were reporting for the same CPU.
With the initial test passed, my next goal was to do a bare bones installation of Windows 7 and then immediately upgrade to Windows 10 via a legal and free but somewhat shady method. To begin, I grabbed my Windows 7 Pro disc, which I bought from Microsoft so many years ago. The Windows 7 installation pretty much ground to a halt almost immediately. I was trying to install Windows 7 to my SSD but back when Windows 7 was released, SSDs weren’t really a common thing. As such, the installation program doesn’t really know what to do with it and just basically refused to install.
I have a few options at this point. The first is to continue to look at ways to solve this problem. I’ve discovered one new option to try that I haven’t explored already. I could also try installing it to a regular, old mechanical hard drive but I’d then have to clone the installation back to my SSD before upgrading to Windows 10. I also don’t have an extra HDD lying around. The last option is just to bite the bullet and buy a copy of Windows 10. It will for sure know how to deal with SSDs and I won’t have to deal with any more frustrations. I know a few people who work at Microsoft who can get my a copy for cheap but I don’t see them very often. If I bought it at regular price, it’d set me back about $100.
Well, at least nothing has blown up so far.