mikepw78

Yeah have tried the wintoflash tool and made a bootable usb but when i try and boot from usb it just hangs at exactly the same point. I think something else you referred to could be my problem. I didnt know i had to format and partition it myself. I just thought put the drive in and try and boot windows 7 from disc and it would install. I have spfdisk (Special fdisk) on ultimate boot cd. How would i go to prepare my hard drive so i can install an operating system on it?

Hi Thanks For Quick Reply Windows 7 is a new full install cd. (Ultimate) Vista is a Reinstallation cd which came with laptop. Have tried loading defaults and setting Bios to boot from cd, saved and still only boots to logo screen (different logo screens for vista and 7) so i know the cd drive is booting the disc. Have even tried using the windows 7 (wintoflash) on a usb and tried booting from that and gets to exactly the same point.

Hi There I own a dell inspiron 6400 and my initial problem was that my laptop couldnt get past the boot screen (where the windows logo appears). The first thing i tried to do was install a copy of windows 7 onto it booting straight from the cd. However, again the different windows 7 logo screen appeared and seem to crash at exactly the same point as when i tried to boot it straight from my hard drive which has Vista on it. Next thing i did was run a Diagnostics test on my system and all kinds of errors appeared which basically said your hard drive is knackered. (All tests had big red crosses with failure next to them) So i thought, need a new hard. So I ordered a new Samsung 320gb SATA hard dive to replace my Western Digital 80gb SATA drive. My hard drive arrived today so i took the old one out and replaced it with my new one. I loaded up my BIOS and it shows up there all ok. I then ran the Diagnostics tests again and it breezed through them no problems. (Excitement slowly building) . I then boot from the cd with Windows 7 in it and it again stops in exactly the same point as it did before i had replaced my hard drive.(Excitement quickly dies and is followed with a blood vessel nearly pooping in the side of my head). I tried a Re installation CD with my vista home basic addition on again booting from cd. And it hangs in exactly the same place. If i just leave it to boot through the hard drive it comes up with the message. No Boot Sector on internal hard drive. I have made a bootable usb device with Windows 7 on it and when i boot from usb it loads and hangs at exactly the same place.. I also have a disc called ultimate boot cd this boots up ok if am booting from my cd drive ( i dont really know how to use but have been able to run more checks on my new hard drive and everything appears ok). So that tells me there is nothing wrong with my cd drive either if i can boot this up. I dont know what to do next and my head is sore please help me.