Can't boot from Win7 DVD after P8Z68-V upgrade

[Katana]

Hi, all,

First, the background...

I just purchased a new mobo, ram, GPU and CPU using components from the TR summer Sweeter Spot build, with the CPU downgraded to the i7 2600. The mobo is the Asus P8Z68-V. I also added a Rosewill RC-212 PCI-E IDE interface card, so I could use my existing IDE-based DVD drive. My old mobo was an MSI P6N SLI Platinum, and I uninstalled the Nforce chipset drivers before installing the new Asus mobo.

After installing all of these components, my Windows 7 (64-bit) OS failed to boot. I proceeded with the Startup Repair option that was offered to me, but after repeated tries, I was unable to fix the problem. So, I figured I would do a reinstall of the OS, following (more or less) the instructions shown here: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/34 ... stall.html. (When I say "more or less" I mean that I planned to boot from the Win 7 DVD rather than starting the repair install from the hard drive, since I can't get the hard drive to boot.)

So, now the issue at hand: I can't get the system to boot from the Win 7 DVD. It will boot from the Asus CD included with the mobo, and it will boot from a Win 7 System Repair disc I made, but when I boot with my Win 7 DVD in the drive, the system doesn't recognize it. The BIOS doesn't even list the DVD drive as a boot option when the Win 7 DVD is in there, even though it does list the DVD drive as a boot option with the Asus CD in there. The Win 7 DVD is definitely a bootable DVD, as I've used it that way before. And if I use the diagnostic menu option to get to a command prompt, I can browse the contents of the Win 7 DVD, so it doesn't appear to be corrupted. I can even launch setup.exe on the Win 7 DVD from the diagnostic command prompt, but running it in that manner doesn't give me the install options I require.

I've reached that level of frustration that says, "screw it, do a clean install," but I can't even do that since it won't boot from the hard drive or the Win 7 DVD.

So, any ideas as to why this configuration won't boot from the Win 7 DVD? At first I thought it might be missing drivers for the RC-212 IDE card, but since the system will boot from the Asus CD and my System Repair disc, I assume that's not it. Anyone seen this behavior before? Do you think I would have better luck if I replaced the IDE DVD drive with a SATA-based one?

Thanks...

[JustAnEngineer]

This IDE to SATA bridge works for my old IDE DVD-ROM.

Have you checked the boot order that you have set in the BIOS?

[bluepiranha]

This IDE to SATA bridge works for my old IDE DVD-ROM.

Have you checked the boot order that you have set in the BIOS?

QFT. Checking the BIOS boot order would be the easier and cheaper thing to check before moving on to any hardware swaps.

I made this simple mistake quite a few times myself.

[Katana]

Thanks for the replies, JustAnEngineer and bluepiranha. Turns out it was an even simpler problem, a raging case of PEBKAC.

The SATA ports on the new mobo default to AHCI mode, but the SATA ports on my old mobo were set to IDE mode. once I changed that setting in the BIOS on the new mobo, the hard drive booted normally. Sigh...

Yes, let the derisive laughter begin.

Let my embarrassment be a life lesson to you kids: never assume anything and take note of all BIOS setting before replacing your motherboard.

Thanks.

[emorgoch]

I'm more worried that not only are you using an old IDE DVD drive, but you felt compelled to spend $15 on the PCI-E card to connect it, rather than spending the $20 to just replace the drive. I feel like this is one of those scenarios where the additional complexity and headache is not worth the money spent...

[Katana]

I'm more worried that not only are you using an old IDE DVD drive, but you felt compelled to spend $15 on the PCI-E card to connect it, rather than spending the $20 to just replace the drive. I feel like this is one of those scenarios where the additional complexity and headache is not worth the money spent...

You are right and I agree completely! Stupid move on my part, and another life lesson for the kids. Not worth the trouble for the $5 difference that I saved.

[Flying Fox]

With modern hardware (anything post Core 2 Duo was my bottomline, and it can go back further), I just make a bootable USB disk and use that to install Win7 these days. Before I used a spare stick but eventually I bought a 4GiB one on sale just for that purpose.

[DancingWind]

With modern hardware (anything post Core 2 Duo was my bottomline, and it can go back further), I just make a bootable USB disk and use that to install Win7 these days. Before I used a spare stick but eventually I bought a 4GiB one on sale just for that purpose.

Yep
fast USB + fast PC = OS install in ~10min.
... of course then there's the little bits of drivers and software n games and updates that eat up the rest of the evening ...

[Airmantharp]

With modern hardware (anything post Core 2 Duo was my bottomline, and it can go back further), I just make a bootable USB disk and use that to install Win7 these days. Before I used a spare stick but eventually I bought a 4GiB one on sale just for that purpose.

Yup. Even on USB2, it's so fast. Now I don't try to fix installs if something goes wrong early on; I just start over. I can have it up and running, fully driver-ed and patched in under 2 hours.

[Flying Fox]

With modern hardware (anything post Core 2 Duo was my bottomline, and it can go back further), I just make a bootable USB disk and use that to install Win7 these days. Before I used a spare stick but eventually I bought a 4GiB one on sale just for that purpose.

Yep
fast USB + fast PC = OS install in ~10min.
... of course then there's the little bits of drivers and software n games and updates that eat up the rest of the evening ...

On a 4GiB disk, there should still be a few hundred megs for the really critical drivers. If you have an 8GiB disk then you can pretty much get all the hardware drivers for multiple systems, plus a few critical "system apps" (like CPU-Z, Prime95, etc.).