Booting from CD problems

[llama91]

Okay, so I purchased a new motherboard bundle yesterday and installed it upon arriving home.
It's an ASUS M4A87TD EVO

The processors a Phenom 2 black edition quad, but I dont think its relevant considering the problem.

The first time i started, It couldnt find any of the 2 operating systems that was already installed, I didnt expect it too, so thats alright, I guess it has something to do with the boot tables or something.
So I installed a spare 32-bit version of Win 7 i had lying around onto the IDE drive, overwriting everything, I didnt have a key for it, it was for the purpose of copying files across from the other hard-drive because i hadnt gotten around to partitioning it yet.

So I copy all my files, and prepare my 64bit Win 7 professional, and I restart and set the BIOS to boot from CD first.
Leave the CD in the CD drive, and wait for the option to boot from CD.
It boots straight into the operating system, with no warning. So I checked the CD from the operating system, the CD drive works fine, just I can't run a 64bit installer on a 32bit operating system. I also tested the CD in my laptop and another desktop, no issues with the CD.

So i go back into the BIOS, and I disable the hard-drive with the operating system on it, leaving my SATA drive and the CD drive fine for an install process. Hoping that not finding the O/S would force it to search elsewhere.

I let it boot, and the operating system still boots from the BIOS disabled IDE drive.
At this point I was wondering what what exactly is going on, so I decide to unplug the IDE drive, as that seemed the only sure way to disable it.

Upon trying to boot, I'm greeted with the error that the device needed to boot is inaccessable, and no other forms of media where checked.


too long didnt read version:
CD drive works fine, but no matter what i try i can't get it to boot from CD drive, the BIOS seems to overide the settings and load the known operating system regardless.


Any help would be greatly appreciated, even if it involves a way of adding the operating system thats already installed on the SATA drive to the boot table or something

[augiedoggie]

Ya, I had issues too with booting from a mixed format environment, in my case it was with an ASUS A8N-E no matter what I did in the BIOS, I was trying to dual boot XP and a Vista beta, always booted to XP on the IDE instead of the SATA HDD which Vista lived on. A BIOS quirk perhaps, I don't know..

I finally broke down after a week of trying and replaced my IDE's with SATA's and everything went perfect after that. Too bad that's the only solution I got for you.


Anybody want an IDE HDD free but for the shipping, give me a shout as they're only taking up space in my 'junk box'.

[cosmicma]

you should be able to press f8 at boot time and select the cd rom drive from a boot menu

give it a try

[llama91]

auggiedoggie: thank's for the input at least =]
i tried taking the IDE out of the equation but it still tried to boot from the IDE... not sure where this leaves me.

cosmicma: Thanks, ill give that a shot now and see what happens

[augiedoggie]

Originally Posted by llama91

auggiedoggie: thank's for the input at least =]
i tried taking the IDE out of the equation but it still tried to boot from the IDE... not sure where this leaves me.

cosmicma: Thanks, ill give that a shot now and see what happens

I edited my post after you saw it and I didn't see yours, take another look.

[plodr]

Just throwing out something here. Win 7 is a DVD, not a CD. (The copy you originally used could have be nlited and fit on a CD that's why you could use it). Is your optical drive able to read DVDs or is it a CD burner? If it isn't a DVD drive, that might explain why it refuses to boot the 7 Pro version.

[llama91]

well thankyou both of you, but F8 was all I needed, which is sort of infuriating after the time i spent on this, but none the less im grateful.
I wish I knew there was a selection other than auto previously ¬_¬,
but im replying to you from the operating system i wanted installed :D

[llama91]

Originally Posted by plodr

Just throwing out something here. Win 7 is a DVD, not a CD. (The copy you originally used could have be nlited and fit on a CD that's why you could use it). Is your optical drive able to read DVDs or is it a CD burner? If it isn't a DVD drive, that might explain why it refuses to boot the 7 Pro version.

Sorry im a little loose with terminology, I installed it on the old machine with this drive ;]

[augiedoggie]

Originally Posted by llama91

well thankyou both of you, but F8 was all I needed, which is sort of infuriating after the time i spent on this, but none the less im grateful.
I wish I knew there was a selection other than auto previously ¬_¬,
but im replying to you from the operating system i wanted installed :D

As simple as that?! So I assume both OS's were recognized in there? Good show llama!