Can't install 7os. DVD drive wont work,bios doesnt support usb drive.

max989 · 27 Oct 2013

I everyone!! thank you so much for having me on this forum. I usually do everything possible before asking for help and this problem Im really out of ideas

( I have a compaq presario f700 laptop that im trying to do a clean install in. It initially had vista but i decided to put win 7 over it through my usb portable drive (inside vista). It installed but I think it would be best to do a clean install cause vista hade soo much crap and info that i suspect is making win 7 slow.. and there is where I ran into problems.....

The dvd drive inside the laptop doesnt work at all and the usb portable drive only works inside the os but cant boot through bios. The bios doesnt give me an option to boot the dvd drive and make the clean install. The bios only has options like , "usb floppy" usb hardrive", usb diskette" but no "usb rom" option" and yes, I have tried every combination possible with no luck. The usb drive only works inside of windows so i have no idea why I can't boot with it.

I have read many hours on this issue but the main consensus i find is that my laptop just doesnt have that option to boot my usb drive. If this is the case, how am i gonna do a clean install aside from buying a new dvd drive for the laptop(which may not work) please any ideas would be greatly appreciated:):)

The laptop has 3gb of ram and a turion 64x2 so it shouldn't be taking me a minute to startup after installing a fresh win 7(through vista). This is why I want to do a clean install.

gregrocker · 27 Oct 2013

Are you under the impression you can't clean install over an old installation by running a Custom install from the old OS which will overwrite C? This is pretty close to a clean install in the sense it isn't an inferior Upgrade install which carries over Vista programs and settings.

However I'd first try to boot the installer. After writing the ISO to stick using a reliable app like UltraISO Software To Create Bootable USB Flash Drive did you expand the USB Hard Drive choices to see if the stick is listed there as it often is? Did you try setting the HDD as first boot device in BIOS setup and then use the ESC key to display a boot menu, look for flash stick there, or expand USB HD choice there to see if USB is under that?

Did you try booting the USB DVD drive using the ESC menu, even trying the USB diskette choice to see if it will work?

If none of these work even after verifying the stick will boot successfully in another PC, then I would run the installer from the OS you have on there now, choosing C partition to do a Custom install. Afterwards your old OS will be stuffed in a C:\windows.old folder which you can save long enough to make sure you have everything then delete using Disk Cleanup.

Other tips here are the same for retail to get and keep a perfect Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7.

max989 · 27 Oct 2013

gregrocker said:

Are you under the impression you can't clean install over an old installation by running a Custom install from the old OS which will overwrite C? This is pretty close to a clean install in the sense it isn't an inferior Upgrade install which carries over Vista programs and settings.

However I'd first try to boot the installer. After writing the ISO to stick using a reliable app like UltraISO Software To Create Bootable USB Flash Drive did you expand the USB Hard Drive choices to see if the stick is listed there as it often is? Did you try setting the HDD as first boot device in BIOS setup and then use the ESC key to display a boot menu, look for flash stick there, or expand USB HD choice there to see if USB is under that?

Did you try booting the USB DVD drive using the ESC menu, even trying the USB diskette choice to see if it will work?

If none of these work even after verifying the stick will boot successfully in another PC, then I would run the installer from the OS you have on there now, choosing C partition to do a Custom install. Afterwards your old OS will be stuffed in a C:\windows.old folder which you can save long enough to make sure you have everything then delete using Disk Cleanup.

Other tips here are the same for retail to get and keep a perfect Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7.

thanks for the reply!... Im not under the impression I can't do a clean install on top of an os(vista desktop) i am however under the impression that wiping out everything and installing 7 will get a faster boot. The problem here is the boot time. Everything else runs smoothly after it boots. Im thinking being ontop of another os will cause the boot up time to slow down a bit cause there is no way a 3gb fresh install(that i did) should be bootting up in a minute. It should be under 40 seconds i mean its clean install.

the ugly part is that im actually on top of two os's now. On top of the orginal vista and and a 32 bit win7. I am currently on a 64 bit win 7 as i thought it would improve the boot time.

Yes, I have tried all of the and possible combination(usb disket,usb hardrive,all of them) of the boot up menu but still nothing and the boot list doesnt give me a sub menu so that is all i can try. should I consider your last advice?? I would be ontop of three os's.

gregrocker · 27 Oct 2013

Does the flash stick boot on another PC, so you know it works for sure? This could be the reason it doesn't show up.

Check for a BIOS update on the PC's Support Downloads webpage which may enable Flash or external DVD drive boot.

You need a way to boot a disk in case of repairs. Can you boot a System Repair Disk CD from the external OD which sometimes on older PC"s will only boot CD's? If so run a few Startup Repairs to see if it finds any boot issues. If no CD then try booting into System Recovery Options via F8 to try Startup Repair.

If you can't get flash stick or external DVD drive to boot then you can also move the HD to another PC with it plugged in alone, to wipe it with Diskpart Clean Command which removes old boot code that can interfere and gets it cleanest for reinstall, then follow the same steps to Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 to get a perfect install.

Then before moving it back either SysPrep to move HD to another computer on the install PC, or once you move it back if it won't start due to hardware change boot freeware Paragon Adaptive Restore CD
to P2P adjust the install to start up on the new hardware, monitoring all of the drivers being swapped out from System Tray animation, doing reboots as requested, then enabling Automatically deliver drivers via Windows Update (Step 3) to install all rounds of Updates with reboots, keep checking for more.

max989 · 29 Oct 2013

gregrocker said:

Does the flash stick boot on another PC, so you know it works for sure? This could be the reason it doesn't show up.

Check for a BIOS update on the PC's Support Downloads webpage which may enable Flash or external DVD drive boot.

You need a way to boot a disk in case of repairs. Can you boot a System Repair Disk CD from the external OD which sometimes on older PC"s will only boot CD's? If so run a few Startup Repairs to see if it finds any boot issues. If no CD then try booting into System Recovery Options via F8 to try Startup Repair.

If you can't get flash stick or external DVD drive to boot then you can also move the HD to another PC with it plugged in alone, to wipe it with Diskpart Clean Command which removes old boot code that can interfere and gets it cleanest for reinstall, then follow the same steps to Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 to get a perfect install.

Then before moving it back either SysPrep to move HD to another computer on the install PC, or once you move it back if it won't start due to hardware change boot freeware Paragon Adaptive Restore CD
to P2P adjust the install to start up on the new hardware, monitoring all of the drivers being swapped out from System Tray animation, doing reboots as requested, then enabling Automatically deliver drivers via Windows Update (Step 3) to install all rounds of Updates with reboots, keep checking for more.

bios update did it!! thank you so much!!

gregrocker · 29 Oct 2013

Glad to hear it.

Enjoy Win7!