Windows 7: Install not happening

I have cleaned up a drive this afternoon - wiped and aligned it etc and am trying to to boot from the 7 OEM CD.

However I am not getting any joy from the CD as I keep getting "Boot manager is missing and press ctrl/alt/del to restart and I wondering why. Normally it would just boot from the optical or so I thought.

I did make a bootable USB from the Dell site and have tried setting the BIOS to boot from the optical and the USB and use the code from the CD case.
Now with the USB set to boot it is showing "Missing operating system"

So any ideas please?

Hello John,

You might create a DVD or USB from an ISO at the link below, and see if you are able to boot from either of them. This will let you know real quick if it's an issue with your 7 OEM CD or not.

Dell Community

You might also scan the drive with something like Seagate Tools to make sure it's not bad or dying.

Hope this helps.

Thanks Shawn that is the site I downloaded the OS from to the stick using your tutorial what I don't get is why it doesn't go into that first window when the boot is set to the optical using the original OEM disk or USB when the first boot device is set to USB.
Or do you mean that the machine "looks" for a HDD to put it on after the CD spins up or the USB light flashes and then goes to that start up window?

It must look for one since usually when I got that error the HDD was toast.

Did you have the HDD formatted and not RAW?

Yes well Shawn I thought that might be the case I did wipe the drive with Partition Wizard then used Wolfgang's tutorial for alignment (put that down to my OCD) and then put it in the machine and just got that message.

Mind you I have never really trusted this drive that much and am currently doing the same with a spare 1TB I have and I am also making a DVD of the ISO too in case the USB download was not so good. I'll kep you posted.

Oh by the way that Ubuntu project I ditched as I found Golden had done an identical thing with the Peppermint software. Plus I was struggling with that BB code too But I will one day do an informational on something probably quite scatter brain LOL!!

The flash stick may not be bootable yet. Set HDD to boot first in BIOS setup, then trigger the stick using one-time BIOS boot menu key at boot. Does stick name show up under USB, Removable or HD's. If so does it load when you choose it?

If none of these then write confirmed ISO to stick using UltraISO Software To Create Bootable USB Flash Drive which always works for me.

Thanks Shawn and Greg have got it fixed - faulty IDE cable. After getting that recurring boot manager missing message I thought that the original disk an ISO disk and an ISO USB could not be all be faulty so thought maybe the drive is not being "seen" even though it was listed in the BIOS.

Had a few spares so what did I have to lose - first time all done Why the thing didn't boot from the USB is a bit of a mystery though - it is an older machine that I am just tinkering with and maybe the USB stick itself was faulty even though it was being picked up in the BIOS ?

Thanks again to you both for the time and patience

You just gotta love those faulty cables.

Yep Shawn though why I didn't twig it earlier - lets just say maybe it was a senior moment or one of those bogus posts to keep you on your toes

Thanks again

John

At least you didn't pull a why doesn't the computer have power, and finally finding out the PSU power switch had been turned off like I did once. LOL