Mandriva & Windows 7
 

HP Desktop came with Windows v7
2.60GH speed
Athlog II 4x (Quad-core) processor
6GB Memory
1 650GB internal SATA
1 1TB internal SATA

Anything else you need to know?

Assuming you want to install Mandriva with win 7?
If you have been using your win 7 for a time, run disk defragmenter first. Resize your windows partition with the windows tool.
Load the Mandriva disk and before clicking on the Install button, open a terminal and run the "fdisk -l" command to get your partition information so you know how Mandriva views them so you don't install Mandriva on the windows partitiion.

If you were not lucky enough to get a full installation CD of win 7, definitely make a recovery disk before beginning.

Windows 7 and mandriva dual boot installation
 

I have tried to install a dual-boot with windows 7 & Mandriva (all distros). I always get a system crash when I get to where the Linux system actually begins to load.

Also tried installing Mandriva (all distros) by its self. Same system crash.

Could it be that my cpu isn't compatible??

Athlon II x4 (quad core) 2.60GH
6GB memory
1 650GB internal
1 1TB internal
a mixture of 6 different external drives (hd & cd)

What does that mean? Mandriva is a distro. Are you talking about different releases of Mandriva?

Does that mean when the CD is loading into memory? or are you talking about during the installation?

You need to be more specific about what happens and when with specific error messages if any. What's on your drives? Two hard drives? Which one is win 7 on? which one to you want to put Mandriva on? Post the output of the "fdisk -l" command suggested earlier so we can see your partition information.

I doubt very much your cpu is not compatible.

Windows 7 and Mandriva 2009, 2009.1, 2010

Windows 7 is loaded on the first hd. I tried all 3 of the above Mandriva distros (install dvd's).
Tried to install them on both the first AND second drive (both esata).
Same result on all. Get a system dump with a lot of numbers.
Note:
1. Windows 7 is on the first drive.
2. Tried installing Mandriva by itself, first on drive #1, then on drive #2.
Both installs crash during loading AFTER it is loaded into memory.

You did check the md5sum from the download page before burning?
Did you burn as an image? at a low speed?

This means you load the CD, get the Desktop and then click on the Install icon to begin installation and this is where it crashes?

I have installed 2009.1 and 2010 as dual boot with windows 7 so it can be done.
I did have an HP laptop one time that would always crash when I tried to install any OS except for using the restore disk. Even the same version of windows. It looked like a memory problem, but days of googling made it appear to be an hp proprietary issue. I gave up as the laptop was just a free project for someone if I could get it done. I don't know if that was in fact the issue, but I read enough things I didn't like from other people to stay clear of anything hp except printers.