Solved Unable to boot from disc

[Tomtom111]

Sorry. I want to be sure. Anyway its done now. Should I try to boot form the disc now?

 

[karlsnooks]

follow the instructions given by Greg and you can not go wrong.

 

[Tomtom111]

Tom -

Remove EFI listing from BIOS Boot Order by moving the DVD drive into first position and the HD into second position, so that EFI listing falls to third or lower. You will see which keys to use to move the devices up or down nearby. Once it is correct, save and exit.

Next if the HD is GPT disk, run the Clean command followed by command to Convert MBR as suggested. If you're not sure if it's GPT or MBR disk run the commands anyway.

You can find your Manual at any time on the computer model's Support Downloads webpage if you need help or to understand better how it works.

Have you tried setting SATA controller to IDE setting?

On such modern hardware I'd get a perfect Win7 installation and then virtualize XP.

I've finished theses instructions. I can't see any more after those.

 

[gregrocker]

So what happens when you boot XP disk to install?

Full format an NTFS partition during install.

 

[Tomtom111]

It won't acknowledge the disc.

 

[gregrocker]

Do you have CD drive set first to boot in BIOS setup, or are using the one-time BIOS Boot menu key at boot and it clearly provides a choice for a CD (not DVD) drive?

If you are selecting this choice correctly and it doesn't prompt to "Press any key..." then it is a problem with the CD or burn. Did you use nlite to slipstream the IDE and/or SATA driver correctly as shown in SATA Drivers - Slipstream into Windows XP CD ? Did you burn CD with that tool or ImgBurn?

 

[Tomtom111]

Yes it is set as the first to boot, and on a side note I can't get W7 to boot, it just comes up with the 'reboot and select...' even when I select a differnet boot device. Yes I did use nLite to slip in the drivers just for the sata drive. It never comes up with the 'press any key to boot from CD' thing.

 

[Tomtom111]

The program my mate is trying to run doesn't work on W7. No idea why, it just doesn't. Also, he's just said that the W7 partition can be deleted so it doesn't need to be recovered right now. Do you think its just a badly burnt disc, and that's all?

 

[Tomtom111]

Could any of the files on the disc be disrupting the boot up process?

 

[gregrocker]

The disk isn't even prompting to Press Any Key to Boot Disk so it's either the ISO integrity or the CD burn.

Has your friend tried installing the program in XP SP2 or earlier Compatibility Mode?

 

[Tomtom111]

I may not have explained it very well. The program appears to install correctly, and open correctly, but when a file is opened in the program it crashes. There are no signs that anything is wrong with it, but the program runs fine on other systems running XP. That's not the only reason my mate wants XP though.

 

[Tomtom111]

Going back to the disc, I tried another installation disc and that one booted absolutly fine, and that didn't come up with 'press any key to boot'. Also still can't boot to W7.

 

[gregrocker]

You wiped the HD so Win7 is no longer there.

Seems you've confirmed the XP CD is bad.

 

[Tomtom111]

Yes sorry, I wasn't sure how to do that without booting into the OS, mark the partition as active that is. Could you please tell me? And I presume I do the system repairs from the installation disc.

 

[Tomtom111]

Whoops didn't notice the colour change, thanks for that. I'll try to re-burn the disc and get the existing OS to boot later.

 

[Tomtom111]

Um, there are apparently no partitions. Does that W7 has gone?

 

[F5ing]

Do a detail disk at the Diskpart command prompt.

 

[Tomtom111]

Ok, disk check... The first photo sort of proves that the OS is gone.

 

[Tomtom111]

As long as I can reinstall 7 even after installing XP, there's no real need to worry right now, but it is puzzling...

 

[gregrocker]

Did you follow the steps exactly in SATA Drivers - Slipstream into Windows XP CD ?

NLite will pick up the drivers needed once you identify which are the SATA and IDE storage drivers and point to them. You don't have to do anything else.