Help with booting windows 7

If you have access to another machine you can try booting with a USB key instead.

Microsoft Guide

Not sure why even a very old CD/DVD drive wouldn't work properly if plugged in correctly. I'd double check all your connections of both the HDD and CD/DVD.

Also, are you selecting the boot drive or just letting the POST finish and go into the system. If your motherboard thinks the HDD is primary, for some reason it may not be checking the CD/DVD for boot media. If you haven't, use whatever key corresponds to the Foxconn motherboard's boot menu and select the CD/DVD yourself.

If you go into the BIOS settings make sure you can see each device as well.

@lilhippo9

Please verify that you actually have a CD/DVD drive and not just a CD drive.

-Wolf sends

i actually have a CD/DVD drive but it will not boot the Windows 7 OEM. all i want is to install it into the computer. the harddrive is brand new and has nothing on it. and i also wanted to install my old HDD from my old computer which only has vista. i dont want to lose my old data.

Ok. When you boot up your system with the Windows 7 DVD in the drive, do you ever see a message which states, "Press any key to boot from DVD" or something similar? If not, then it might be that you need to change the boot order in BIOS; setting the DVD-ROM drive first.

-Wolf sends

nope it just says insert proper media drive then press any key. which continues to appear when i press a key.

update on my situation is i now installed my old HDD into the new build to see if at least windows vista will boot. but to no aviel, now windows vista will not boot. and ask me to repair the system. so i leave it to repair it's self but that doesnt solve any problems. still cant boot windows 7 in the CD. and cant get into windows vista either. BIOS still work though. i put cd/dvd drive first as my primary boot drive.

thank you, but ive tried that. funny thing is i put my old drive in and the new HDD but now it will only recongize my old drive idk whats wrong.

Ok. You said that this was an old CD\DVD drive. Is it a SATA drive or an old IDE drive? If it's an IDE drive, you may need to change the jumper settings on the rear of the drive to Master or Cable Select.

-Wolf sends

its a SATA drive. i put one sata cable to the motherboard.
both hard drives sata cables are in the motherboard also.

can anyone offer anymore advice im really getting worried i got some work that needs that data. would buying a new CD drive be the solution. although that is something i rather avoid

bump

You mentioned you tried using the USB install option. If that also didn't work then it is not an issue with your CD/DVD drive, but with your HDDs or how you are connecting and setting them up.

If they are plugged in properly to both the sata on the motherboard and the sata power from the PSU, then that leaves some sort of setup issue withing the motherboard BIOS.

If you have access to a linux live CD, try booting that to make sure the motherboard, CPU, PSU, GPU are functioning properly. When booted into the live CD check if you can see your HDDs or not.