Toshiba laptop wont boot from Win7 install disk!

I have a Toshiba C55t-A5123 that had a Windows 10 upgrade installed on to a wiped hard drive. (No going to Settings to revert back to previous OS.)


The CD/DVD drive,(I had changed boot order to look at the Optical drive first), with a Win7 install disk was not recognized at boot up to facilitate a complete new Win7 install over top of the current Win10 OS.



I re-wiped the hard drive and formatted it to NTFS, and then used the disk manager from another laptop to change it to GPT!


When I tried to use my Windows 7 Ultimate DVD to re-install (changed boot order so OD CD\DVD was first) but this C55t wont boot from the DVD! Now this is the same DVD that came with this unit but yet it wont boot the Win7 install DVD!!



I read where THIS Toshiba model (because Toshiba was in cahoots with Microsoft) has no provision in BIOS to switch to from UEFI to CSM, UNLESS the bios was updated to v 1.03 (I think that is the latest version)! I did disable "Secure boot" which was the only associated option!


I then created a GPT UEFI USB memstick with Win7 Ult ISO, which booted fine and installed Win7 Ultimate to the re-GPT'ed 500gb SATA hard drive.


But on reboot after Win7 Ult install the ONLY bootable media device found was the USB Win7 memstick???


This C55t-A5123 will only boot to the memstick and completely bypasses (changed boot order to make HDD first) the GPT HDD that has just had Win7 Ulitmate successfully installed!


If I let it boot to the USB MEM stick it starts the Win& installation all over again!


If I remove the USB MEM stick, I get "Checking Media" and then "No bootable Device -- please restart system" !
It completely ignores the Win7 install on the 500gb GPT SATA hard drive!


Apparently I still need to update BIOS so I can change UEFI to CSM. But how do I do that when there is no bootable device that contains the "scjev130.exe" executable file?


Is there a way to load/install this BIOS upgrade from a USB memstick?


I find it really reprehensible that such an option was deleted from BIOS choices, just to make it difficult for a Toshiba user top revert back to windows 7! That is what I have read anyway!

Thanks in advance for ANY input on how to get this Toshiba to recognize the install and/or how to upgrade the bios from memstick.

If I understood well, you have a HDD on your C55t-A5123 that you want to install Win 7 Ultimate, that came with Win 7 installed on and then was upgraded to Win 10. Correct?
If there is a new BIOS version I'll recommend that you do the update.

You can install Win 7 as Legacy - MBR or UEFI - GPT. As Win 7 isn't compatible with secure boot it has to be disabled on BIOS. Then, if there is an option to CSM set the options under it to UEFI.
Set boot priority to the HDD.
To install as UEFI you have to boot your DVD as UEFI. To do so, place your DVD on the case and when it starts POST press F12 repentantly. The boot menu will open. Choose the DVD under UEFI boot. Go to install, advanced, delete all partitions and create new. Win 7 installation will create 3 partitions: UEFI partition - 100M - Fat32, MS reserved - 120M RAW and a big partition, NTFS where you install windows.

If you want to create a USB installation disk, you don't format it as GPT. Format it to default and use Rufus. There is an explanation on this post:
Windows 7 installer stuck at "Setup is starting"

Hi

Has you consider this Optical drive is not working.
Either find an external optical drive &or replaced it with a working optical drive.

When you boot, are you booting by restart or after shutdown.
By restart, even if you press F12, it would not boot to Optical drive, as it go straight to HDD.

If laptop is start after shutdown, it should boot is you use F12 to boot using Optical drive.

If all else failed, then the problem is the Optical drive.


I have 3 Toshiba laptops, did encountered this booting to Optical drive issue.

megahertz07, yes i have a toshiba C55t-A5123 that I want to re-install win7 on that previously had windows 8 and then was upgraded to win10.

There is a new bios version, this unit has version 1.10 and the latest is 1.30 (that includes the option to change (uefi back to csm or legacy)

I disabled secure boot, and win 7 would not install from the DVD drive. Yes it maybe a bad drive even though the unit is not that old I will remove it and check it with another laptop.

If DVD drive is good I will try your F12/DVD UEFI installation method.

The USB mem stick installation, using the Rufus program, would NOT boot to allow loading of the windows7 install when formatted to anything but GPT-UEFI! I had three choices for partitioning scheme and system target type when using Rufus 2.11.995...
1) MBR part. scheme for BIOS and UEFI
2) MBR part. scheme for UEFI
3) GPT part. scheme for UEFI
. . . the number 3)choice above is/was the ONLY recognizable boot media that the Toshiba would allow!

And it did allow the installation of Win7 Ulitmate, but upon reboot the laptop completely ignore the win7 install on the 500gb drive and went to the USB install memstick and started the win7 install all over again. Even with the boot order changed with HDD first and even with the USB stick removed it still failed to boot into the win7 install from USB memstic "Disk"! ("No Boot media")

eric 3742 I'll check the CD/DVD to see if is good, I "ASSUMED" it was and maybe that was an incorrect assumption!

thanks guys will get back to you ASAP

I made some changes and tried to reload win7 from a bootable memstick as above . . After a failed boot the the error message i get is: Windows failed to start . . .
File: EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD
Status: 0xc000000d
Info: Error occurred while attempting to read the boot configuration file

btw megahertz ther is no uefi option for the dvd after pressing the F12 key just ODD

I tried multiple choices under "Repair your computer" and none worked

eric haven't checked the CD/DVD yet thats next

First of all: Win7 only install as UEFI if it is 64bit version. Win 7 32bits only install as Legacy. Is your Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit?
Lets try another approach:
- On a USB flash disk, bigger than 4G, format it as default (FAT32 or NTFS)
- Copy all files and folders from your Win 7 64 installation DVD to the USB flash disk.
- Add the \efi\boot folder as described on my post 12 - Windows 7 installer stuck at "Setup is starting". This will make the USB flash disk bootable under UEFI. There is a Boot.zip file at the post. Download it, unzip and copy it to the \efi folder.
- If your Bios has an option to disable secure boot and fast boot, do it.
- Put the USB flash disk on the USB port. When the laptop starts POST press F12 repentantly. The boot menu will open. Choose the USB flash disk.
- Go to install, advanced, delete all partitions and create new. Win 7 installation will create 3 partitions: UEFI partition - 100M - Fat32, MS reserved - 120M RAW and a big partition, NTFS where you install windows.

OK problem solved, I downloaded the Toshiba BIOS updates (1.30,1.40, and 1.50) for my C55t-A5123, and used the Toshiba "launcher.exe" utility (part of the expanded files) that are in a folder created by the download.
There is an option, in that launcher utility, out of 4 choices to create a bootable CD/DVD for updating the BIOS. I thought I would use a newer BIOS update (v1.40) but that didn't work.
So I created a second DVD using the v1.30 update (the first update to add the UEFI/CSM option) and that worked perfect. I rebooted, pressed F2 and went into "ADVANCED" BIOS settings and there it was! An option to change UEFI to CSM! I set it to CSM and rebooted.
After that it was all downhill! My Win7 install DVD was recognized, the install went perfect and it has rebooted to the HDD!

Download link for the BIOS update that worked . . .
BIOS version 1.30 for Satellite C55/C55t (PSCJEx)

Well done !
Good job in your troubleshooting.

Maybe i may take a look at that website, if my laptops do encountered this issue.
Thanks for the link.

Don't forget to mark your thread as solution solved.