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Can't boot from windows 7 CD


czGLoRy

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Hello, I have been trying to reformat for a while with a frustrating problem. I am able to open the windows 7 (64bit) setup CD while running windows, but I cannot boot from it. The "press any key to boot from CD" prompt never appears. I am booting first from CD, then it boots straight to windows. I use F12 to select boot manager/boot from CD, it gives me the advanced options like system restore, etc, or boot from windows 7, but there are no options to setup windows, or wipe my partitions.

 

I have three HDs, I tried to install windows on a seperate drive while inside of windows and it works fine, but I cannot wipe my other drives for a clean install now, windows is giving me the error message that the drive cannot be formatted/in use (whereI had my previous windows installation I would like to wipe now), even in safe mode.

 

Now I have a mostly broken windows setup installed on two drives and neither can be formatted, what can I do? :doh:

 

Thanks

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I haven't tried that no, but I fear that is no longer possible.

 

 

wiped my windows installation and now when I try to boot via CD it just gives me a BOOTMGR is missing control+alt+delete to restart

and I can't do anything.. I couldn't have really messed this up any worse

Edited by czGLoRy

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If you have another system available (b), disconnect all the drives, and remove the one you want to be primary, and connect it to the spare port on system (b), format the drive you took from the other system (a), NOT THE C DRIVE on system (b), and replace it in the system you have the issues with (a), connecting this drive ONLY, then try to boot from DVD

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If you have another system available (b), disconnect all the drives, and remove the one you want to be primary, and connect it to the spare port on system (b), format the drive you took from the other system (a), NOT THE C DRIVE on system (b), and replace it in the system you have the issues with (a), connecting this drive ONLY, then try to boot from DVD

 

Hopefully this works, but it sounds like a problem with the disc or the drive to me.

 

Edit: It sounds like a problem with the DVD or a problem with the optical (DVD) drive to me, is what I meant to say.

Edited by rivalary

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"From microsoft's webpage"

 

To install Windows 7 using the Custom option and formatting the hard disk

 

To format your hard disk during Windows 7 installation, you'll need to start, or boot, your computer using the Windows 7 installation disc or USB flash drive.

 

1.Turn on your computer so that Windows starts normally, insert the Windows 7 installation disc or USB flash drive, and then shut down your computer.

2.Restart your computer.

3.Press any key when prompted, and then follow the instructions that appear.

4.On the Install Windows page, enter your language and other preferences, and then click Next.

If the Install Windows page doesn't appear, and you're not asked to press any key, you might need to change some system settings. To learn how to do this, see Start your computer from a Windows 7 installation disc or USB flash drive.

5.On the Please read the license terms page, if you accept the license terms, click I accept the license terms, and then click Next.

6.On the Which type of installation do you want? page, click Custom.

7.On the Where do you want to install Windows? page, click Drive options (advanced).

8.Click the partition that you want to change, click the formatting option you want to perform, and then follow the instructions.

9.When you've finished formatting, click Next.

10.Follow the instructions to finish installing Windows 7, which include naming your computer and setting up an initial user account.

 

If your disc is not working you can borrow a friends (if its the same os you are installing) you just said it was win 7 64bit, if its home then you need another home disc. But you can install of that one and when prompted to just use your cd key to finish the install.

Edited by olokul

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Cz - boot into your BIOS menu. Go to the boot option section. In there you'll have 4-6 options for boot devices / boot order. Disable ALL boot devices except for your CDROM drive (and I'm assuming that you mean your DVDROM drive). Reboot. Now your W7 installation disk should boot. Your hard drive will be visible, can be formatted and a fresh installation of Windows installed.

 

At some point in the future you might consider creating a bootable USB thumbdrive with the W7 installation files on it. Much faster than reading from a disk :)

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I don't have another system to try the installation out on.

 

 

Edit: It sounds like a problem with the DVD or a problem with the optical (DVD) drive to me, is what I meant to say.

-It could be a problem with the drive. It was making a whirring noise yesterday, but it did work fine for a windows installation yesterday.

 

1.Turn on your computer so that Windows starts normally, insert the Windows 7 installation disc or USB flash drive, and then shut down your computer.

2.Restart your computer.

3.Press any key when prompted, and then follow the instructions that appear.

 

-I would jump up in excitement if I saw the press any key prompt :P

I do think my disk / drive are working but I am not positive.

 

Cz - boot into your BIOS menu. Go to the boot option section. In there you'll have 4-6 options for boot devices / boot order. Disable ALL boot devices except for your CDROM drive (and I'm assuming that you mean your DVDROM drive). Reboot. Now your W7 installation disk should boot. Your hard drive will be visible, can be formatted and a fresh installation of Windows installed.

 

This was a genius idea, I had not thought to disable all the other boot devices (I had even set 1-4 boot devices all being CD/DVD but I did not know there was a disable option). Unfortunately, it still gave me the "BOOT MGR is missing CTRL+ALT+DLT to restart" message.

 

 

 

At some point in the future you might consider creating a bootable USB thumb drive with the W7 installation files on it. Much faster than reading from a disk

-and I will definitely be doing this in the near future.

 

I don't think I have any choice now but to take my computer to a repair shopl, don't know of anyone with a windows7 installation CD that is legit.

 

I got the same error as well with my 32 bit CD, so perhaps it is my optical drive

Edited by czGLoRy

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Cz - before you go to the expense of paying someone to fix the problem (even if you have a bad optical drive) you can try to install W7 using a USB thumb drive as I mentioned before. If you have access to another computer just copy all of the contents from the W7 installation disk to a folder. Create a bootable USB thumb drive (the HP Drive Key Boot Utility is great for this; http://h20000.www2.h...TX-UNITY-I23839)

 

Once you've created the bootable thumb drive - just copy ALL of the W7 installation files that you extracted earlier over to the thumb drive i.e. drag the individual files out of the folder you created and move them over to the thumb drive. Boot into BIOS and make sure that the USB drive is the first and only boot device. Reboot and you should be good to go.

 

It's possible that your optical drive is bad, but you can deal with that later. Fortunately they are inexpensive these days. Another thing you might want to do before replacing the actual optical drive is replace the interface cable between the optical drive and your motherboard. It may be bad or going bad.

 

One other thing you might consider doing before anything else is to grab a bootable copy of SeaTools (it looks like you have a Seagate drive based on your sig). Run disk health checks from Seatools and format your hard drive from there too.

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