Cannot boot from DVD or USB

[nfhopmike]

I am trying to do a custom install of Windows 7 Professional (DVD genuine original from Microsoft). At present I have Vista Home Premium installed on Dell XPS M1530 laptop. I have set the BIOS to boot from 1)USB drive 2)CD/DVD Drive 3)HDD. I have tried to boot from the DVD but it will not boot from the DVD, it just skips straight over to the HDD and boots up into Vista.
So I tried copying the files from the DVD to a USB drive. This time it recognised the drive on bootup, but said that there was no boot sector on the drive. Is there something in Vista that is preventing it from recognising the boot sector on the Windos 7 boot disk? Or is there some other way I can get a custom installation to work?

 

[pebbly]

try this link http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2432-usb-windows-7-installation-key-drive-create.html

 

[Jonathan_King]

Try manually booting from the drive, through use of the popup boot menu (often F11 or F12).

Use this tutorial to create a bootable thumb drive, just to eliminate all factors.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2432-usb-windows-7-installation-key-drive-create.html

 

[SIW2]

Can you boot a Vista disk OK?

If so, you could remake the 7 install dvd.

Put it in the drive, rt click the dvd drive select copy, then paste it onto your HD.

Rt click RUN AS ADMIN on BootIsomakerV2.cmd.

Select Vista bootsector.

View attachment BootIsoMakerV2.zip

 

[gregrocker]

Another option for running Custom install is to run the DVD from Vista. The only functions you will lose are the ability to format your HD before install.

If the disk will still not run from Vista, then extract the files to the desktop and run Setup.

 

[SIW2]

I expect nfh would like to have some kind of bootable media for repair /reinstall.