Can't boot from Win 7 media

[strollin]

I have an old Dell (1Ghz P3, 512M RAM, 20G HDD). I was bored one day so I decided to install Win 7 on it just to see if it would work.

The machine only had a CD-RW so I installed a DVD-ROM drive. It wouldn't boot from the Win 7 install DVD but booted fine from a Win XP install CD. I got the latest BIOS from the Dell website, still wouldn't boot the Win 7 DVD. Tried a Vista install DVD and it booted that fine. The Win 7 DVD works fine on other machines. I also tried to boot from a Win 7 System Repair CD but it won't boot from that either.

I have eliminated the media as the problem (media boots on other machines), eliminated the drive as the problem (works fine on another machine, boots other DVDs and CDs) and it's not that the machine can't boot a DVD at all (boots from Vista DVD).

I got Win 7 installed on the machine (another story) and Win 7 boots fine from the HDD. It's amazing that Win 7 runs at all on this machine, it's no speed demon but it runs fine.

It boots every other bootable optical media I've tried except for Win 7 media. Anybody care to venture a guess as to why it can't boot the Win 7 media from the optical drive yet can boot Win 7 from the HDD?

 

[Styxbound]

You asked for a guess so here's one: I seem to recall once reading that early DVD roms would not read all dvd's. I do know that I've occasionally run into various drives which just wouldn't play certain disks, though others would.

 

[strollin]

That sounds like a good guess but the DVD ROM drive I put in it is less than 1 year old so I don't think that's it. I find it really weird that it has no problem with a Vista install DVD but can't handle a Win 7 install DVD.

 

[PC Ops]

Nice project

Install XP first and then from within XP install Windows 7.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com...e/thread/c421c152-6c62-4363-b2bd-1b85a7cc1bbc

Good luck

EDIT: I'm sorry, I've re-read your post and clearly I misunderstood... So you did find a way but the question remains why it doesn't boot Windows 7 media while it does Vista. That is strange...