Solved trouble booting from USB, start up is corrupted. Win 8 CP setup.

[Duncan]

Hey good people of seven forums!

Asus P7P55D motherbord
Win 7 - main OS

I am trying to install the new Windows 8 Consumer Preview. I have used the install wizard to setup the usb memory stick so that I can install Wni 8 CP on a seperate partition to Win 7 running the setup from the usb memory stick. However my machine is not booting from the usb memory stick even though I have set it as the first device to boot from in BIOS.

There is more to the story though... My machine's startup is corrupt. I previously had the Windows 8 Developer Preview installed on a partition. Somehow the startup of Win 8 Developer Preview became corrupted and it stopped booting (I think it was possibly around the time I upgraded the BIOS).

So as Win 8 DP was broken, it couldn't be repaired, and my machine was constantly trying to boot to it instead of Win 7 I decided to get rid of it. So I just formatted the partition it was on.

I is now easier to get into Win 7, I just get this screen during boot up saying that it looked for win8 and couldn't find it and press F9 to boot to Win 7.

I am hoping that if I can run the Win 8 Consumer Preview then this will overwrite the startup and the problem will be solved.

So at the moment I don't know the exact reason I can not boot from the usb. I'm not sure if the windows startup should be preventing it from booting from usb or if there could be another reason?

I have tried running Win 7 startup repair and this failed to fix it.

I have also tried disabling all other boot devices leaving just 'Removable Device' as a boot option and I got this screen..

I tried plugging the usb in different ports and pressing a key to try again with no luck.

What should I try in order to get my machine to boot from usb?

Unfortunately I do not have the Win 7 installation disk (it is at my parents house) and I would prefer it if I could remidy this without a fresh installation. Although A system repair / roll back is probably also out of the question as it was a long time ago that I installed Win 8 DP. And in anycase doing a repair on Win 7 is not going to change the fact that I have formated the partition that Win 8 DP was on so it will still be missing during start up. If it comes to it I will have to get the Win 7 disk from my parents house and do a fresh install.

But if there is a way I can get my machine to boot from usb then I think attempting to install Win 8 CP and seeing if that will fix the problem is worth a try.

Any Ideas on getting the usb boot to work? or suggestions on fixing the start up?

 

[AddRAM]

Do you have it listed 1st in boot disk priority ? This is different then the boot sequence order. You should find it on the same page in the BIOS.

Did you actually like using W8 ?

 

[gregrocker]

I just installed Win8 CP on a second partition using USB flash, which always works when writing the ISO with Universal USB Installer with Win7 in dropdown menu. Be sure to get the latest download off the web.

It should reconfigure the Dual Boot for you during install but let's see a screenshot of your maximized Disk Mgmt drive map and listings to see if there are any unknown factors. Screen Shots

You might also need to be able to knock out the dual boot residue by entering msconfig>Boot to delete anything other than the Win7 listing.

 

[Duncan]

@gregrocker Thanks for the expertise. The first thing I did was to try out your msconfig>boot suggestion and it worked a treat. My machine then booted to Win 7 without any problems.

@AddRAM On my motherboard I don't believe there is a difference between priorty and sequence, in fact the list is called 'Boot Priority Sequence' and yes 'Removable Dev' was No 1.

I still wasn't managing to boot from USB then I realised I could press F8 at startup to choose what to boot from.

I did this. I got half way through installing Win 8 CP. Then just after the machine had resarted it broke again just like it had with the Win 8 DP.

It starts to boot, I get this screen with the dots going around in a circle..

Then the screen just goes blank. I try it a few more times and the same happens. Then I start getting an error screen. I boot up the Win 8 setup again and go into the advance settings and try to repair the startup but it says it couldn't fix it.

What do I do, is there a way I can fix this? Is there a similar known problem with previous windows versions?

Or do I just have to format the partition again and remove Win 8 from msconfig>boot again?

 

[gregrocker]

You may need to take this to www.eightforums.com where they are already gathering the expertise on these Installation workarounds for the OS.

But for this type of failure during Win7 install I would enter Device Manager during install to uninstall any Devices in error - most often Display driver - to see if installation will complete and then update driver from Desktop. Device Manager - Access During Windows 7 Installation

If this fails I would confirm the ISO integrity, burn another using ImgBurn at 4x speed or write to flash stick using Universal USB Installer with Win7 in dropdown. Delete and reformat the target partition during booted install.

There may be something obvious so please post back a screenshot of your maximized Disk Management drive map with listings using the Snipping Tool in Start Menu.

 

[Duncan]

SUCCESS!!!!

Thanks for the help gregrocker!!

I followed the instructions in the link you gave. I disabled the graphics card. Win 8 finished installing. I discovered NVidia had recently released new drivers for my 8600 GT that covered Win 8 so I installed them.

Then I thought it was failing to boot again. Which was not the case, instead after the post screen had been displayed Win 8 was switching to displaying on my TV which is hooked up to the HDMI out on my graphics card. So I entered Win 8 and set it to display on my second screen only.

It's a bit annoying that windows thinks my main monitor that is on my DVI is the second screen. It was the same on Win 7 and as far as I know there is know option either in windows or in NVidia settings to assign alternative IDs to displays.

But thanks again for the help!

 

[gregrocker]

This may be a setting in your BIOS or on the card.

Having video outputted to a projector or TV is the occasional cause of the screen going black during install, although we haven't seen it too much lately so it didn't ring a bell.

You can mark the thread Solved at top if you're good now.