XP Woes - "mbr Error 1. Press Any Key To Boot From Floppy"

I would recommend starting creating Images of the system from square one. I think I created 7-8 of them along the way to getting it the way I wanted.

First off, pre-partition the drive as you would like it. You can do it on your current system and of course, the file system must be NTFS. A 500 GB drive, maybe 100 GB for the system and 400 GB for data or whatever you want it for. The important thing is to NOT let Windows 7 install itself on an empty drive. You will end up with a few extra "system and recovery" partitions which are not neccessary, especially if you plan on using an imaging program for system backup. With a pre-partitioned drive, tell it to install on C: and the installer will have no choice. The end result is that you will have only a single partition for the system to backup by imaging. This drive only should be connected during the installation and neither should any peripherals (USB-devices like printer, scanner, etc.) be connected.

Create the first image more or less immediately, no tweaks or anything else apart from temporarily connecting to the internet to activate Windows 7.

Stay disconnected from the internet as much as possible during the installation. Disable Windows Update and reenable when you want to run it for the first time.

Create the next image after you have done the basic tweaking and subsequent images "step by step" so to speak. This way, if something goes wrong, you only have to restore the most recent image, rather than uninstalling a program (which always leaves debris) or even starting over from square one.

Building your own systems, a good imaging/cloning program is the most important program to get ... ... !

When you get around to it, start a new thread in the Windows 7 forum.

 

You're welcome ... ... !