Windows 7 Home Premium OEM Bad HD - Failing to boot from DVD

Hi all, I'm having trouble installing windows 7 x64 from an iso burnt to a dvd on an Asus K-53E laptop. After selecting my boot options from the bios to load from DVD, it just keeps asking me to insert proper boot media. I've read some of the threads about similiar issues to mine but haven't been able to make anything quite work.

Purchased a laptop with a broken HD for $50 since a new HD was only about $45 and it seemed worth it. There are product keys on the bottom.

Booted the laptop to find the original HD was, indeed, failed and refused to boot. From what I understand, this means I can't recover the hidden OEM key on the original HD and I'll have to call MS to help me activate it or purchase a new one. That's okay, but I'd like to be able to get it to recognize the DVD. If i can't get it to work in a day or two with the DVD, i'll buy a USB Flash Drive and try that way.

I have some ideas, anyone have some input?

1. Perhaps the DVD drive is bad.
-If it's bad, is there any way for me to test it?
-The DVD drive does show up in the bios boot loader.
-I popped the "bootable dvd" I attempted to make into my working computer and it does seem to be able to boot from it, however, I'm not convinced the DVD drive is bad yet.

2. Perhaps I have the wrong ISO?
-I torrented a "Win 7 Home Premium with SP1 x64 dvd" iso and when i right click on the setup file and check the details tab in properties, it says "File Version 6.1.7601.17514" -
-Do I need to get a specific manufacturer's restoration disk?
-How can I "check" my iso (something about a checksum or comparing some hash or something?) to make sure I downloaded the correct one?

3. I burnt the DVD incorrectly or the type of DVD is wrong?
-I'm using Maxell DVD+RW 4.7GB - Are DVD-RWs a problem?
-On my 5th trial here, I used UltraISO per some other similiar posts and just burned the ISO directly to the disc as an image.
--I'd read about extracting the boot file from the ISO and using it to create a new ISO but... I started thinking "Why would I extract the boot file from the ISO and then add it to the original files to create a new ISO --Wouldn't I just get two copies of the boot file?" --It seems to me I should get the boot file from a different disk and then combine it with the files in my current ISO into a new one.


Again, my goal here is to get any install of Windows 7 going so I can have the computer in marginally working order when I call MS to see if they can help me activate this OEM key or just buy a new windows key. Please halp!

No, you'd use the Product Key on the COA sticker on bottom of PC, not the one from the hard drive.

Read over the other steps to get and keep a perfect Clean Reinstall Windows 7.

Does the PC have UEFI BIOS? Look in BIOS setup on all tabs for settings for UEFI, EFI, CSM, Legacy BIOS or Boot, BIOS Boot order and report back present settings. Pictures can help; attach using paper clip icon in reply box only.

If no UEFI present, then how did you burn the disk and where was the ISO from? Read in Reinstall tutorial Step 1 about confirming install media ISO and burning or writing it properly. It must be precise.

Thank you very much for the reply! It took me some time before I could look at the laptop again, but I've attached pictures of the bios settings.

I acquired a backup ISO from a torrent which hosted the old digital river ISOs. I installed HashTab and it seems the SHA1: 6C9058389C1E2E5122B7C933275F963EDF1C07B9 does match MSDN's SHA1 for Windows 7 Home Premium with Service Pack 1 (x64) - DVD (English). -- The Product Key on the back says Windows 7 Home Prem OA.

I used IMGBurn and chose to write image to disc at 4x speed.

I tried yet again after confirming the SHA1 code and reburning at 4x and I still get Reboot and Select Proper Boot device or Inset Boot Media in selected Boot deveice and press a key.

Now you must boot the DVD as a UEFI DVD drive not the plain old Matshita.

First in BIOS setup highlight the First Boot device to see what other options are available to report back.

Then trigger the one-time BIOS Boot Menu key at boot to see if it offers a UEFI DVD drive choice. If so select Drive Options at the Drive Selection screen to delete all partitions to reset formatting, create and format a new partition for install or just click Next to let the installer do it and begin.

If these fail then disable UEFI boot and try booting DVD as a plain DVD drive, try same procedure.

If this fails, look for a BIOS update for your laptop model on Asus Downloads page and research the options for installing it.

I'd also test the hard drive with HD Diagnostic CD scan then format a full disk Active partition using commands in Troubleshoot Windows 7 Installation Failures to run a full Disk Check from the installer's Command Line.

I only have the DVD drive and HD to select from. I tried disabling UEFI and restarting, no dice. I started researching how to update the bios and am running into a similar issue as I couldn't seem to get the flash utility to recognize the new bios. I then tried making a bootable bios utility cd with Ultimate Boot CD but screwed up before I could finish.

There were two passwords on the bios, apparently. The admin password I know as the seller gave it to me, but apparently there was a different user password as well. When i cleared the admin password as blank, next time i booted the computer, it demanded the user password! I'm asking the seller if he knows it but I'm not sure if he'll get back to me...

At this point, am I going to have to remove the CMOS battery from the mobo to clear the user password before I can even proceed trying to flash the BIOS?

If the remaining password is for Windows then you just reinstall over the old installation, deleting all partitions during the booted install.

Its unlikely a BIOS password or you wouldn't have been able to enter BIOS. I've only seen other BIOS' pw for hard drive.

You should get UEFI DVD choice if boot from UEFI is set

The hard drive is new and blank, I just installed it. There's no OS on there or anything... that's what I'm trying to do here is install W7 on this new hard drive, so it can't be a user account password. The old HD is badly damaged.

Under the security tab of the bios, there were two options:"Admin Password" and "User Password". They were both enabled, but I only ever had to enter the "admin password" before I could press F2 to enter the bios. I then decide to delete the admin password (by replacing it with a blank) and now the "user password" comes up before I can even hit F2 to enter the bios. --This password should be able to be cleared by taking out the CMOS battery for a while, right?

UEFI had been set to enabled, but it seemed like my only choices were SATA HD or SATA DVDD(abbreviated) --No mention of UEFI anywhere other than enable/disable. Do you think it's likely/possible that updating the BIOS would fix this?

I just want a little confirmation because taking the CMOS battery is much more difficult than replacing the HD was. I'll have to carefully remove the keyboard and everything. 4 types of screws... about 25 screws. A bit of a pain hehe, but I've already invested enough time in this project, I wanna see it through.

Would clearing CMOS reset that password?

OK you're gonna have to research that yourself because we don't know where you got the laptop and for $50 it sounds like it could even be stolen. Normally it's only businesses who lock down the BIOS since it's asking for trouble for consumers to do so. So we won't run a seminar on how to crack BIOS passwords mainly used on business laptops.

You just have to find out how others did exactly what you need to do by asking Google. It will have the answer if asked the right way. Or maybe the seller can give you the password to assure the authorities he didn't sell you stolen property.

I'm sorry but the forums rules are strict and being here since day one I have a sense about what will be tolerated. Our reputation is partly based on this.