Windows 7: Windows 7 won't boot after installation

hi,

well I'm having a bit of a problem. I got Windows 7 Pro 64bit installed on my computer but it won't boot up into it. It just sits at the screen "Loading Operating System." and does nothing.

I'm at a loss at what I need to do. I can reinstall 7 if needed which will get me to the desktop but once I restart, it doesn't boot into it (ok I haven't tried a second time but I will in a sec).

So does anyone have any idea on what I need to do?

My motherboard
Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-880GM-UD2H AM3 AMD 880G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

I have an old 80gb hdd as my main drive. Brand: Seagate

I don't know what else information you need.

Well I found this link
Windows 7 won't boot after install

Basically it says that I should try burning a new disc and reinstalling. I can do that.

I don't know if it makes a difference, but I burnt the DVD at 8x speed. I was meaning to do it at lower speeds (3x is the lowest for me) but I skipped ahead by accident. Do you think it makes a difference?

Oh and I was installing using the student upgrade version made into bootable (don't have an older OS on the HDD)

Verify your DVD using ImgBurn: load ISO to see that it says "bootable" in text, then load DVD to Verify. Burn another at 4x speed with Verify if necessary.

See if it will boot into Safe Mode to change out the display driver.

Try also resetting the CMOS: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/tp/clearcmos.htm

What is the SATA controller setting in BIOS? You may need to change it.

Try wiping the HD first to get a cleaner slate: SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

Well I looked in the boot order section and for some reason it was set to USB first. And so I switched to HDD and it worked.

I'm currently able to do updates so everything seems to be working fine! Thanks for the help gregrocker!

Likely you had something plugged into USB which won't boot, or it should have skipped to next device in boot order.

Best to set it with DVD drive first then HDD in case you need to do a repair with DVD.

Glad you got it sorted.

Well I would set it as DVD drive but it wasn't present. So I'll have to boot manually into the disk drive if needed in the future.

ps - this is typed in Win 7 so it's all good!!