I’m working on getting the Windows 7 Beta to install on a new Sony Vaio Z. It’s a nice laptop, but I really only need it for testing purposes, and getting Win 7 to install has so far been painful.

First tried a a boot DVD of the 64-bit version. I get all the way to the OOBE screen (setting a password) and then a IRQL bugcheck. Not sure which driver.

So I decided to try 32-bit, but for some reason the system won’t boot that DVD. It’ll boot on other systems, though, so I’m not sure what’s going on. I didn’t try burning another one. I suppose I could have also tried to restore Vista and do an upgrade, but that sounds even more painful than this.

Anyway, I had a spare external drive sitting around, and I more-or-less followed these instructions for getting the installer running from there instead of the DVD. Setup is still running; stay tuned …

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