windows 7 - install problem .. (60)

I have 2 laptops .. the one in question is my old one and not the one I use to surf the net with ..

last (academic) year I took my old laptop to uk when I went to visit my family .. when I returned there was a problem with the display - which I think was caused by a loose connection or something from travelling around Europe .. if it had been a pc I could have maybe fixed it as I know basic stuff like installing graphics cards, changing memory and the like .. but cos it was a laptop I was clueless so I took the laptop to a friend whose brother kindly fixed the problem and installed vista onto it as I also wanted .. and all was dandy .. the laptop worked perfectly ...

a little later - after returning from holiday - I booted up the laptop and it said I needed to register vista ... but I didnt have a number to register it with - the guy who fixed the laptop isnt around at the moment .. away from the village ... so I went to buy a vista disc to use the number ... but they didnt have vista .. I bought a windows 7 disc instead and tried to install windows 7 by placing it into the dvd drive and setting the bios to boot from there .. it begins but hangs on unpacking 1% - I left it on all night but it didnt move on from 1% .. it seems to take the files from the disc but then can't unpackage them for some reason (maybe the laptop can't take windows 7 ??)... it has, however, taken off windows vista ... when I boot the laptop now it says something about a missing/corrupt file and asks to put the original vista disc in - which I never had in the first place ...

Charlie's screwed - chapter 2 ... I have downloaded the ubuntu iso file from the net and burned it to a disc ... now I am trying to load ubuntu onto the laptop via the burned disc .. it goes through a couple of screens but then the screen just goes blank and nothing further happens .. (dodgy dvd drive??) ...

I am trying to burn the image to a usb drive - which I've finally unpackaged using a screwdriver - but when I right click the iso file to burn the iso file to a drive there is no usb option to burn it to - only DVD R Drive (E:) - (actually the only burner I have)...

(im not sure about this??) I have manually lifted the files off the burned unbuntu disc onto the usb key and set 'usb key' as the priority boot in bios in the old laptop ... but wen booted the laptop goes straight to the message from the hard drive asking for the vista disc .. it isnt seeing the usb drive at all ..

maybe I need to burn the files onto the usb key somehow rather than lifting them manually off the burned disc but I don't know how ...

using the disks that came with the laptop?

Could be worth trying Conrad as it seems 7 does not do a full format as XP does,see the following link Charlie, though I am getting a bit lost at this stage when they refer to using Disc Wizard Starter Edition by MadMaxData..

If it came with a recovery disc then definitely try using that!! Though I'm pretty sure you'd know to do that anyway..

unfortunately I know very little - I just thought the windows 7 disk would do the necessary formating/disk preping when I asked it to do a clean install ...

the ubuntu disc i burned goes through the motions of install but then the screen goes blank and nothing at all seems to happen ... but maybe it is installing behind the scenes .. just doesnt seem to be doing much and no flickering lights or running dvd noise

Tell us the names of the discs you originally received with the laptop.. (I've no knowledge of Ubuntu)...

Follow my link and down load an earlier version of ubuntu and follow....

I doubt from what you have said your PC will take Billy Boy 7 or Ubuntu 10.04 or 10.10 try an earlier version of ubuntu and follow what I said from installing ubuntu............

Make and model of PC