Won't boot from Vista DVD - Non system disk error

[Eskareon]

Newegg copy & paste specs, weeeee:

GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

XFX PVT88PYDD4 GeForce 8800GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler - Retail

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor Model BX80562Q6600 - Retail

Microsoft Windows Vista 32-Bit Home Premium for System Builders Single Pack DVD - OEM

COOLMAX CW-650T EPS12V 650W Aluminum ATX v2.01 APFC Power Supply w/ "SLI" - Retail

Acer X203Wbd Black 20" 5ms DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor - Retail

Patriot Extreme Performance 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model PDC22G6400LLK - Retail


Alrighty, that's out of the way. Hooked everything and first boot seemed to be working like a charm. Looked over the Bios settings and set everything to run safely and unstressed so I could easily install the OS. Trouble is, I put the Vista DVD in and when I boot, it recognizes a DVD is present and asks to boot from the CD/DVD drive. I don't even need to hit any key, it'll just start to read the DVD for a few moments before skipping past it, checking the floppy drive, and then giving me the non-system disk error.

I've tried lots of different settings in Bios, from IDE to SATA and all the standard stuff. The Bios recognizes my DVD drive as well. I was just wondering if anyone has heard of this problem or has a good idea what it may be - I've searched these forums and Google and haven't found anyone with the same problem. Typically, everyone else is at least able to get to the Vista installation screen.

I'm crossing my fingers and hoping it's simply my DVD drive. It's old. I believe it's a 2001 model I purchased when I built my first rig, and I've actually had problems in the past with it reading or recognizing DVDs. So I was planning on picking up a new drive on the way home from work, but wanted to hit these forums first to see if anyone had a good suggestion.

Thanks in advance.

 

[rgeist554]

I had a problem similar to this at work yesterday. Do you have any USB storage devices attached? (Flash Drives, External Drives, etc.) The culprit to my problem was a USB flash drive preventing a proper boot. Disconnect anything that isn't absolutely necessary and try again.

 

[Eskareon]

The only thing I can disconnect is the floppy drive. I didn't think to disconnect it mainly because it doesn't attempt to read the drive until after it fails to boot from the DVD. Everything else that's connected is a must - HD, Fans, DVD drive, graphics card.

 

[rgeist554]

I'd try the DVD drive on another computer, and (if the DVD drive works) try to just boot with the CD to make sure either one isn't the culprit.

 

[Eskareon]

Problem is, I don't have another boot disk. The Vista disk is a DVD, so I wouldn't be able to tell if the CD drive suffered the same issue. I did actually hook up just the CD drive, it appeared to read as normal, and the bios detected it properly. Wish I had an old XP boot CD to test it out, but, alas.