Changing boot order in windows 7 home premium

Thank you very much Gregrocker.
I will go back and give your suggestions a shot.

I have run across numerous machines with CD/DVD drives that will not read a bootable disc, even though the disc will work in another drive/machine. I would suggest checking the disc in another computer that you know will boot from the optical (CD/DVD) drive. If it works there and the computer you want to clone won't boot from the F12 menu, the optical drive has problems. Sometimes it just needs to be cleaned, sometimes it needs to be replaced.

Booting from optical drives has become sufficiently troublesome for me that I have migrated nearly all my bootable utilities and installers to flash drives.

gregrocker said:

This is why its best to use the F12 one-time BIOS boot menu key. What happens when you choose CD drive on F12 menu?

If media won't boot but boots in other PC's then reset the Dell BIOS to defaults, after taking note of the SATA controller setting (IDE, AHCI, or SATA?). Save and exit. Try f12 again.

If that fails run the Dell Diagnostics from F12. There may be two ways to do this, one listed as Diagnostics and the another fuller suite listed as Utility Partition. You want everything so it tests the condition of the OD.

Clonezilla should have a flash stick alternative to try. If not try another imaging option like Win7 for which you can use the Win7 installation DVD or its flash stick alternative, which can be created from the links in Windows 7 USB-DVD Download Tool.
You can also create the image or backup from Windows:
Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup
Backup User and System Files

Where is the response to these steps I wrote out for you? We need detailed results of each step so we know what you've done so we can suggest others.

This may be a mystery to you but we've dealt with the same exact problem thousands of times before here and almost always solve it providing the steps we provide are followed closely and nothing is skipped. Time and again a step which was ignored is the solution.

This is by far the top tech forums in web history because we do not give up, but we need cooperation to assure it gets solved.

Ok, I will try to comply. It will be days before I can go back to my friends home and accumulate
to data you need. I am not able to do this from memory. In the meantime I will try to create
a stick with Clonezilla-live on it and see if I can boot my computer from it.
Thanks for being patient with me.

Dell Inspiron 560s 64-bit - Celeron chip - windows 7 pro 64-bit - bios a04
Hope this is the info you need Gregrocker. If not I will try to give what's needed.
#1 - I have attached a view of the BIOS. I get this when I hit f12.
#2 - Can't find this one
#3 - Ran the Diagnostics. Took about 2 hrs. Everything passes.
#4 - Loaded a flash stick with Clonezilla-live .
I tested it in my HP Pavilion 64-bit and it ran fine.
Tested on my Dell t3400 32-bit and it did not run.
Tested it on my friends Dell Inspiron 64-bit and it did not run.

Did you arrow down to the Lexar flash stick? It is detected and determined by the BIOS to be bootable or it would not appear. What exactly happens when you choose it?

Then the question becomes if the stick is written correctly. I would test this with the Win7 ISO for your version from Windows 7 USB-DVD Download Tool. If that fails then I'd write the confirmed (by size and/or HASH) ISO to stick using UltraISO Software To Create Bootable USB Flash Drive which never fails. If these fail try DVD and if that fails try stick with DVD drive unplugged (it can interfere to block flash media boot).

Did you reset the BIOS to defaults? Are all USB settings in BIOS enabled? Let us see pics of any in question.

Is the issue only that you can't boot Clonezilla in case you want to reimage? Did you try Win7 backup imaging or Macrium as first suggested? Do you have issues with Win7 or have less than the perfect install compiled in Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 so that you might want to go ahead and reinstall? If so wipe the HD of boot code first with Diskpart Clean Command

Thanks guys.
I will have to go back to my friends home to try some of these suggestions.

I have not tried the Lexar flash usb. Will do so.

The stick loaded Clonezilla-live on my HP Computer, so I feel the stick is working
properly.

Will set the BIOS to defaults. Not sure if all USB settings in the bios are enabled.
Also not sure how to check that, but will investigate.

I would like to stay with Clonezilla-live because I have had success with it and am
somewhat familiar with it. It backs up to an external HD and not one in use in the
computer.

Working