Windows 7: CD installation problem

Hi
I'm trying to install windows 7 on a machine that currently has XP Home on it. I have set the DVD drive to be the 1st boot device in the BIOS, but the machine refuses to recognise the installation disk (Genuine copy direct from MS) - it just skips over it and boots straight into XP. Unfortunately the BIOS does not allow for booting from a USB drive so I am a bit stuck.
I gather from reading other threads that it is possible to boot from a Vista installation disk (yes the machine will recognise this installation disk and boot from it) and then at some point substituite the Windows 7 disk to complete the Windows 7 installation. Can anyone tell me how to do this?
Alternatively is there a way to force the machine to boot from the Windows 7 DVD - it won't run from within XP either. I have tried using an XP boot disk to try and run setup from there but it just comes up with a readme file that says that the O/S needs to support ISO-13346 "UDF" file system.
Grateful for any assistance to get Windows 7 on this machine!

Are you attempting to install a 64-Bit OS on a machine that doesn't support 64-bit?



One thing you can try is extracting the iso from the installation disk and burning it to a new dvd w/ a slow write speed (less than 8x).

MagicISO / Daemon Tools should allow you to create an iso from the DVD
Home page :: DAEMON-Tools.cc
Using MagicISO to make iso from CD/DVD

IMGBurn should allow you to create a DVD from ISO.
The Official ImgBurn Website

Let us know if this works, and/or you need more help.

Thanks - according to Microsoft's system checker the system is OK for 64-bit.
I had a similar problem when installing Windows 7 on my laptop (this is a volume license disk) which I got round by using a USB stick for installation. I tried the same principle by copying the DVD (extracted files and burned new DVD) using Roxio creator - however I didn't go the ISO route - needless to say this didn't work either! What difference does extracting the ISO and then re-burning the image make?

1) Check if your bios has an option called "Enable Boot menu". When you enable this option, you can press a key at startup (It may be F12 or vary with your system), that will let you choose the boot device. Select your dvd drive here.

2) MS has configured Windows 7 install dvd in the UDF format, instead of the standard iso format. Some dvd drives may have trouble reading udf drives, which may be your case. Use a program like ultraiso or the ones suggested by Notsograymatter to save your disk as an iso, burn at lowest speed then try the install.

No - BIOS does not have enable boot menu.
So I made a new CD producing an ISO using Magic ISO and burned it using ImgBurn - but still no go, still won't boot. Anything else to try?

Ok, try this method to install from the setup.exe.

Install Windows 7 or Windows Vista on a Pc Without DVD Media - Tips & Tweaks

Try extracting the contents of the DVD to your hard drive and run the setup.exe from there... Hope this helps..

Now this is really weird.
I booted up the machine using a Vista installation disk, which took me into Win PE. There I was able to use the command prompt to run setup.exe from the sources directory of my Win 7 installation disk. I got the following message:
"This version of setup.exe is not compatible with the version of windows you're running. Check your computer's system information to see whether you need a x86(32-bit) or x64 (64bit) version of the program, and then contact the software publisher"
Now I have already run the MS Windows 7 compatability tool on the system and it confirms that it is OK to run 64-bit on my system (my processor is an AMD x64 dual core 3800+) - so why is it not allowing me to install the x64 version of Win 7?

You cant upgrade from XP 32-bit to 7 64-bit. For that changeover, you need to perform a clean install which will completely wipe out XP and install 7. Solution- Use a Windows 7 32 bit dvd's contents to install. You can use the 64 bit version's key.

Yes I finally cracked it - thanks guys!
Used a Win 7 Home installation disk to get to command prompt then substituted x64 installation disk and it sailed through - it obviously needed a later version of Win PE