PC build help - Windows boot

roundthebend

Son got some components for Xmas - CPU, mobo, RAM, SSD. I have Windows 8.1 ISO on a DVD via my MSDN subscription.

We've hooked everything up and inserted the DVD. When we fire it up and enter the BIOS setup it says it can see the DVD drive. It whirs and then reports that no boot media is detected. I'm stumped on how to diagnose the fault. I'm also such on what options I have to use a different drive for the boot - I've got a portable hard drive but can't get the iso onto it because I have no machine with usable USB sockets.

Any ideas guys?

Headphones

In some BIOS designs you've to set the boot order in one of the BIOS option screens; if it's only looking at your HD to boot from it won't see the DVD.

Alnico

^
What he said.
We had the same problem with a pc build and that was how we fixed it.

RedRabbit

If the DVD is spinning it's probably trying to boot from it.  How have you put the ISO file onto the DVD?

If the iso is just a single file sat on the DVD it won't work.  You'll need an image burner to create the bootable DVD.  Windows 7 has one built in but I'm not sure about older versions.

Emp_Fab

RedRabbit said:

If the DVD is spinning it's probably trying to boot from it.

Not so I'm afraid.  The DVD will spin up on boot regardless.

As others have said, you need to change the boot priority in the BIOS screen (don't know what key it is - look in the motherboard manual - or try one of these:- http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/a/biosaccess_pc.htm )

I'm presuming you have used a suitable programme to create the DVD from the ISO image, rather than just burn the ISO image file onto a DVD (if you put the DVD into another machine, can you see loads of files or just the one big ISO file ?).

roundthebend

I've disconnected the HD to force the boot sequence to only try the DVD.
The iso was burned to disc with PowerISO and it shows up as a proper disc image and not just a collection of files.

dafuzz

If you've done it wrong it looks like a single iso file - a collection of files etc would usually indicate you've done it correctly

Can you burn a linux live disc? Try booting into that so at least we can eliminate some factors

strumjoughlamps

yeah sounding a bit like you have copied the ISO image to disc and burnt it rather than create a disc from the ISO

roundthebend

Indeed, that crossed my mind but having checked I'm pretty sure I've done it correctly.

RedRabbit

What files are showing on the DVD in file explorer?  If it's a copy of the ISO file then you'll need to burn it again making sure you burn the image.

I've not used PowerISO but I'd think double clicking the ISO file will prompt you to insert a blank disc and burn the image - it's how the windows image burner works anyway.

Danny1969

You can hit F12 to bring up a list of devices to boot from. If you can't boot from the DVD drive when you select it from the F12 boot menu then it's probable the ISO didn't work properly and the DVD isn't bootable

If you have another machine running 7 double click the ISO like Rabbit said and it should prompt you to insert a disc. Make sure the disc you burn can be read by the drive in the new machine, I imagine it's a multidrive rather than - or + R exclusive but worth checking

roundthebend

It's weird, sometimes the machine sends to try booting from DVD but fails and then shows a BIOS screen telling us that it couldn't find bootable media. Other times it quickly tells us to insert a bootable disc and press any key.
In the BIOS it sometimes says it can see the DVD drive, other times it can't.
It's that unreliable behaviour that makes this hard to understand. I'm downloading a Linux ISO now, but my internet connection is shocking.

Danny1969

Normally the SSD should be connected to SATA 0 the DVD to SATA 1  Make sure both have secure power connections. Is the PSU up to spec ? If the 12V rail dips the drive won't be recognized. 

Headphones

A quick check/wiggle of the connectors to check they are seated wouldn't hurt.

meltedbuzzbox

I haven't build a new pc for some time but back in the day the first thing you did when you powered it on was to put the motherboard disk in the drive and let it update/flash the bios. 

Failing that check under security and removed security boot if it is enabled and check the boot section (Boot mode I think) Sometimes you see UEFI only. Change that to Legacy then UEFI

roundthebend

OK, just tried the mobo's DVD and got the same behaviour. So, I suspect the DVD drive itself is the problem.

When plugged into SATA #0 i get a blue screen saying "Gigabyte - UEFI DualBIOS. NO bootable device is detected".

When plugged into SATA #1 I get a black screen saying "Reboot and Select pepper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press key"

I have had some trouble with the drive before but assumed it was the aging machine that was the root cause. I think we'll try a new one - they're cheap enough.

roundthebend

Is it possible to boot from an image on a portable drive? I guess it is, but I wouldn't know how to mount the image so it's recognised at boot time.

holnrew

Yeah, you have to make it a bootable device though. I'm not sure how it's done these days as it's a while since I put Windows 7 on my netbook (remember those?)

Pretty sure the Microsoft website helps.

RedRabbit

If you've got a big enough USB stick then you could try installing from that.  I've not done it for Windows but have created several bootable USBs for Linux.

http://www.computerperformance.co.uk/win8/windows8-bootable-usb-drive.htm

roundthebend

Gah! Bought a new DVD drive and it seems to be able to start booting from the windows disc. I know it's ding something because with another disc in the drive it keeps telling me to insert boot media. With this one the screen flicks to an all black one and spears to be working away. But it stays like that for ages then seemingly crashes with a yellow screen with vertical white lines down it.

I'm getting a touch pissed off with it. Shouldn't be this hard.

holnrew

Sounds like the disc isn't bootable for some reason.

This is a good guide for USB installation.

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/windows-8/a/install-windows-8-usb.htm