Solved Win7 OEM disk will not boot

[Dolfan]

I have tried to boot my OEM Win7 disk but it is not recognized.

This is a rebuild of a machine, new Anthlon X2, new Biostar MB, 2Gb RAM, new WD 500 STAT HD, new 430W PSU.

I tried several times to get the OEM Win7 disk to boot but nothing. To test what was wrong I inserted my XP home disk and that booted fine? I went ahead and did a base install of XP and it worked fine.

I installed my previous IDE HD and moved data to and external HD, but now I want to do a clean install of Win7 to the SATA HD and remove the IDE HD, but the OEM disk doesn't boot. From inside Windows Explorer if I view the D: (DVD) I see it has a disk but when I explore the disk it show no files? Is this normal? Is it an image that will not show the files?

Any help would be appreciated

 

[mitchell65]

Did the Win 7 disc come pre installed on the machine that you have just updated?

 

[DocBrown]

Was it as specific Brand OEM disc ? Dell, HP, etc ?

 

[Dolfan]

No, machine is an old XP machine that I rebuilt with new components. Purchased the Microsoft OEM Win 7 Premium based on recommendation from store, this is an official Microsoft disc not a third party.

Both my OS discs are official Microsoft, the XP fires up but not the Win7.

 

[DocBrown]

Will the Disc boot on any other computer ?

 

[mitchell65]

No, machine is an old XP machine that I rebuilt with new components. Purchased the Microsoft OEM Win 7 Premium based on recommendation from store, this is an official Microsoft disc not a third party.

Both my OS discs are official Microsoft, the XP fires up but not the Win7.

OK, So as this disc has not been used before if your new PC doesn't recognise it then it looks as if it is a faulty disc. See what Doc Brown says?
You say you can't open the disc to see the files in it. In Windows Explorer when you right click on the disc and click open you should see this folder structure:
View attachment 90699

 

[DocBrown]

Is your optical drive a CD drive or DVD drive ?

 

[Dolfan]

No the drive is a DVD drive, burned several DVD's myself. As for trying in a different computer I'm short on another Windows box, I've got a MacBookPro but that won't help me. I might be able to see if my neighbor would let me put it into a machine and at least see if it reads it?????

Mitchell65 - I don't see anything, when I open the D: drive I just see a blank folder with no files???? That is what puzzles me as well, figured I should see a setup.exe and other stuff at a minimum.

 

[mitchell65]

If you are opening the D drive but you can't get the OEM disc to be recognised what OS have you got on the machine? I gathered you were trying to install Win 7!
No forget the above. I see you have XP installed.
I can't think of anything else other than a duff disc. Testing on another PC will confirm, I think!

 

[Dolfan]

I have a IDE HD with XP installed that I plugged in. It was the C: drive and then looked at the disk in the DVD. This is a "clean" install scenario to the new SATA drive that is installed. Once this is working I will pull data from the IDE drive and it will go away.

 

[DocBrown]

So, this is basically a brand new OEM disc. Therefore you or nobody else has booted it or viewed it on any computer ?

 

[mitchell65]

Post back when you have tested on another machine. Take it back to the store if necesssary!

 

[Dolfan]

Brand new purchased from retail store Monday off the shelf in the sealed box. I just ran and got it from my car, I'll look for a machine hear at the office to test, not sure we have anything as we are a Mac shop.

Thanks I'll report back what I find.

 

[Dolfan]

OK, well the OEM disc appears to be OK, I was able to view this on my MacBook, image below show what I see.

So the question now is why I didn't see anything at home when it was in my DVD?????

 

[DocBrown]

Do you know the make & model of your DVD drive ? Is it IDE or SATA ?

By any chance do you have a 4gb or larger USB Flash drive to make a win7 USB Flash install ?

 

[Dolfan]

DVD drive is for sure a IDE, I think an older Optowrite. Funny thing is I purchased a new Samsung SATA DVD drive but didn't install as the XP disk could be read OK. If needed I could install the new SATA DVD to see if that changes something but I was going to save the $35 and return it.

 

[DocBrown]

DVD drive is for sure a IDE, I think an older Optowrite. Funny thing is I purchased a new Samsung SATA DVD drive but didn't install as the XP disk could be read OK. If needed I could install the new SATA DVD to see if that changes something but I was going to save the $35 and return it.

At this point, it would probably be worth the $35 to try installing with the new SATA DVD drive.

 

[madtownidiot]

since you're on a mac that can read the disk, why not copy its contents to a 4 GB flash drive? You should be able to get your computer to boot from that.

 

[Dolfan]

since you're on a mac that can read the disk, why not copy its contents to a 4 GB flash drive? You should be able to get your computer to boot from that.

That will be my backup plan! I'll see how things go tonight.

 

[madtownidiot]

if you've got one handy, why not try it first? installing windows from a flash drive always goes much faster than from a DVD and is less prone to disk read errors during the install itself, which have a nasty way of not making themselves apparent until after the install is complete.. either way.. good luck