Unable to Boot from Disk

[eyeCpc]

You can have only the hard drive enabled in the bios and press a preassigned F key on many boards to bring up the boot device menu. There you first choose from the catagory of drive whether floppy, hard drive, or optical and then select the drive or from the more then one drive in order to boot from that.

Once you select the optical drive you generally see the press any key now message for booting with or it goes to the default drive/device set in the boot order. If you have that option then by setting only the hard drive as the first and only device you force the system to boot from that unless selecting an alternative in the boot device menu.

If you have more then optical drive make sure no disk is in the other one when trying to boot from the Vista disk. On a Vista system the method of repair is either the automatic repair startup problems tool or selecting the command prompt option to use the bootrec.exe commands available.

The "bootrec.exe /fixboot" and "bootrec.exe /fiixmbr" commands would be used there. Dos boot floppies won't work for Vista while you could create a boot disk for XP. You are working with a totally new type of boot loader in Vista.

 

[artyziff]

Well, I switched the order, tried to hit keys, nothing happens but the .....
and than I get the "disk error occurred" press ctrl alt del to restart.


Any thoughts?

 

[eyeCpc]

One way to force boot from the optical drive would be to set cd rom as the only device enabled in the boot order section in the bios. You would still have to press the enter key once past the post tests to answer the press any key now to boot from cd/dvd type message.

Another thing to note is that Vista now comes on a dvd-r not cd-r meaning the optical drive has to be at least a cd/dvd rom combo if not a dvd burner. You can't boot with the dvd in a cd rom or cd writer type drive.

 

[artyziff]

I will definitely try that method tomorrow morning. For some reason though, it seems the boot up does not respond to me pressing "any key" on the keyboard. And yes, it is a combo cd/dvd drive. I used this optical drive to install vista over three weeks ago.

 

[eyeCpc]

The dvd burner here while normally doing everything right will be stubborn when going to boot up with the Vista disk as well. Reboot after reboot and even shutting the system off entirely until finally you readh the option for repair tools.

With two optical drives here I keep a few lens cleaning kits onhand and still run into this. The dvd drive is a sata model ruling out a problem with the flat ribbon type data cable. But once you get to to the repair tools and that goes to work reset the boot order to hard drive instead once the auto restart is seen. That will tell you right away if the boot repair was good.

 

[artyziff]

That is helpful advice. I have access to a second dvd-rom drive. Should I install the second one in too, to give myself another option for loading the vista start up disk?

 

[eyeCpc]

It might hurt especially if you are seeing any other problems with the current drive. A replacement cable if running an ide model there could also see if that's where the problem is.

I've run into cable problems were you suddenly start seeing problems suspecting an ide drive when a new cable worked. If you have another bootable disk just to see if that will load that can save you some time however while the extra drive shouldn't hurt.

 

[artyziff]

Well, it is looking like the hard drive might be the problem. I ran the utility on the Vista CD and it said "bad hard disk". Is there something I can run in dos to fix the disk, or do I need to contact the manufacturer at this point? It is barely over a month old.

 

[artyziff]

Update: Just wanted to let you know where I am at:

I changed some things around, new keyboard and minor stuff. The Vista DVD was finally able to boot up with the hard drive connected. However, the auto repair function on the startup disk fails, citing a bad hard drive. I have read some things on the Vista 64 platform having some issues with the Western Digital Hard Drive I have. So, I have a co-worker bringing in an external Sata enclosure, so I can plug it into another system and I can run the tech tools from western digital. If that does not fix the problem, it is under warranty and I will file a RMA with WD.

Thanks for the help so far.

Kevin

 

[eyeCpc]

If that seems to be the problem with that message being seen. With a working drive you will see the restart button if the repair went normally.