No dvd rom boot when hard drive connected

[SimY76]

I'm really hoping that someone can help me on this.

 

Ive been trying to install windows 7 on a older pc with IDE hdd's and for a reason i cant really remember, i mucked up the install.

I half installed win 7 over the top of xp and i think the power was cut to the computer, so now i have 2 windows at boot with it asking do i want win 7 or older versions of windows. The xp was still worked but the win 7 needed repaired which wouldn't work so i was trying to get a way of formatting the hdd for a clean install.

I downloaded easy bcd to delete the win 7 boot to get rid of win7 at boot and proceed with a clean install. Now with my bios set to dvd rom first i can only get the windows boot manager saying it failed to start and to put your win installation disk and restart computer. The problem is, even when i set boot sequence correct with disk in it, always goes back to this screen. When i disconnect the hdd it boots from cd no bother.Really dont get it.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]802.vB5-legacyid=1592[/ATTACH]

I know there's probably a easy explanation for this so, if you can help me would be much appreciated.

 

SimY76

[KenB]

Hi and welcome to ExTS

 

Silly question - when you alter the boot sequence ..............do you Save and Exit from the BIOS ( usually F10 )

[Plastic Nev]

Hi, and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help.

 

Only a guess but wondering if whatever is now on the hard drive is causing this, so suggest that the hard drive is reformatted.

There are al least two ways to do that after taking it out, if you have another computer that is also IDE based, you can connect the hard drive into it, then use that PC to format the drive. If no IDE PC available, then an IDE to USB adapter or external hard drive caddy could be used.

 

Nev.

[Synapse]

I wonder why the install DVD is not booting. In theory, it does not matter what is installed on the hard drive, if the DVD is bootable, and the DVD drive is set to boot first, the hard drive won't boot.

 

Can we check your drive settings, is the hard drive the primary master, and DVD secondary master, set using the jumpers on the drives, and assuming both are IDE.

 

If your setup is different, can you explain how it is setup.

[SimY76]

I wonder why the install DVD is not booting. In theory, it does not matter what is installed on the hard drive, if the DVD is bootable, and the DVD drive is set to boot first, the hard drive won't boot.

 

Can we check your drive settings, is the hard drive the primary master, and DVD secondary master, set using the jumpers on the drives, and assuming both are IDE.

 

If your setup is different, can you explain how it is setup.

 

Hi there and thanks for the speedy replies.

 

Yes, the hdd is set to primary mater and the dvd is set to secondary master. I originally had a second hdd which i installed win 7 on it no bother only to realize that i had left my other hdd connected and it, resulting with the win7 install using the xp boot file on the other disk. that Now hdd has a bad connection on the back because i was trying to get into xp to format it. Not had much luck ! every thing ive tried doesnt work. I have even bought a ide to usb conection adapter to use with my laptop but im sure its a bit temperamental . It does the connection sound with nothing showing up in my computer. you can see how its easy to get away from what im trying to fix. Im now trying to fix the things that are meant to help me fix the original problem.

[SimY76]

Hi and welcome to ExTS

 

Silly question - when you alter the boot sequence ..............do you Save and Exit from the BIOS ( usually F10 )

 

Sorry ken, yes I do save after bios :)

[SimY76]

I have another IDE hdd drive on its way to see of that helps

But I'm thinking I'm still going to have the same problem.

 

Has anybody got any other idea on why the DVD drive is only

Booting when hdd disconnected. As others have said, it shouldn't

Matter what's on the hard drive.

 

Really stuck on this.

 

Cheers simon

[KenB]

Hi Simon

 

You could try Cable Select.

 

This is assuming 80 way IDE cable.

Set both HDD and DVD Drive jumper to CS.

 

Position the HDD in the middle of the IDE cable and the DVD Drive at the end.

The DVD Drive should be looked at first.

 

Give this a try.

If no go - it is a simple job to revert to the original settings.

[SimY76]

Gave it a try. Just not happening.

Could this be a bios problem?

[KenB]

When i disconnect the hdd it boots from cd no bother.

Try disconnecting the HDD - switch on.

 

Let the system find the CDROM

 

Then [without switching off] - carefully - reconnect the HDD