Disk drive works, but won't boot to cd

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
M

maw230

Distinguished
Nov 3, 2010
15
0
18,510
I'm trying to reformat and install windows 7 on a vista machine. I am able to run the windows 7 setup disc when logged in to vista, however I would much prefer to boot to the cd, format the drive, and install win7 from there. Unfortunately, after pressing any key to boot from cd the machine goes to a black screen and nothing happens. I left it in this state over night hoping to get lucky, but that didn't happen.

I'm at work and don't have many details of the machine, but does anyone have any tips on getting this to work? I disabled the main hdd as a boot drive and set the disk drive as the 1st boot
 
Solution
getochkn
Only thing I could think of would be while the disc starts up in Vista, it can read setup.exe, but the boot code off the CD to load up the WindowsPE that is needed for the install, that part of the disc is bad or it can't read it for some reason.

You could rip your disc into an ISO and then use the WindowsUSBTool to make a USB key bootable with windows, or download the Windows 7 version ISO from digital river (it's legit, Microsoft allows them to put out the ISO) and then use the tool to format a USB key for install, and use that and then use your Windows key to install.

I love USB key install, it's so much faster. I have several key's with the common windows 7 version on them in my shop to reinstall customers PC's and then use the...
Sort by date Sort by votes
getochkn

getochkn

Polypheme
Jul 2, 2006
12,407
54
65,040
Only thing I could think of would be while the disc starts up in Vista, it can read setup.exe, but the boot code off the CD to load up the WindowsPE that is needed for the install, that part of the disc is bad or it can't read it for some reason.

You could rip your disc into an ISO and then use the WindowsUSBTool to make a USB key bootable with windows, or download the Windows 7 version ISO from digital river (it's legit, Microsoft allows them to put out the ISO) and then use the tool to format a USB key for install, and use that and then use your Windows key to install.

I love USB key install, it's so much faster. I have several key's with the common windows 7 version on them in my shop to reinstall customers PC's and then use the key on their case. Way faster and no disc problems.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
M

maw230

Distinguished
Nov 3, 2010
15
0
18,510


Well I went through all the effort to create a bootable flash drive before realizing that the mobo doesn't appear to have a usb booting option. I just assumed given its age that it would. Still, it's nice to know how when the next time rolls around.

So, the dvd drive works, but only when im in the existing windows install. I'm given the option to boot from cd, but only a black screen appears after. I've been trying to avoid simply installing Win7 over the vista install, but I'm running out of options I fear. If I format the drive I'm worried I will have no way of installing Win7 on first boot.

Should I just install Win7 over Vista?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom