TROUBLESHOOTING - You can’t boot from the Windows 7 DVD

For a bootable CD or DVD to work properly, you must set the boot order in the BIOS so that the drive appears ahead of the hard disk drive and any other bootable media; we recommend setting the DVD drive as the first boot device, followed by the hard disk, floppy disk (if present), and any other bootable devices in whichever order you prefer. The boot options available for every computer are different, as is the technique for accessing the BIOS setup program. During boot, watch for a message that tells you which key to press for setup.If you’re lucky, the BIOS setup program on your computer includes a Boot section where you can specify the order of boot devices; if this option isn’t immediately apparent, look for a page or tab called Advanced CMOS Settings or something similar.

What if your computer lacks the capability to boot from a DVD drive? This problem is most likely to affect you if you’re trying to install Windows 7 on a notebook computer that doesn’t include an integrated DVD drive, or if the DVD drive in an existing system is damaged. Try one of the following alternatives to work around the problem (you’ll need temporary access to a computer with a functioning DVD drive to complete any of these steps):

● Copy the DVD files to a folder on your hard disk, and run the setup program from that location.

● Copy the DVD files to a partition on an external hard disk, set that partition as active, and boot from the external drive. This option might require adjusting the order of boot devices in your system BIOS.

● Copy the DVD files to a USB flash drive, and run setup from that location. The drive must have enough space to accommodate all installation files (2.5 GB for 32-bit, 3.2 GB for 64-bit).The procedure for preparing the flash drive to be a bootable device is cumbersome but straightforward.Step-by-step instructions are in this blog post by Microsoft’s Jeff Alexander: w7io.com/0204.

● On another computer, use a full-featured DVD-burning program such as Nero (w7io.com/0205) or Roxio Creator (w7io.com/0206) to copy the Windows 7 DVD to an ISO image file.Then install an ISO image-mounting program such as Vir¬tual Clone Drive (w7io.com/0207) or Daemon Tools (w7io.com/0208), and point it at the ISO file you created. The mounted image file appears as a DVD drive in the Computer window, and you can run the setup program from that virtual drive.

Any of the preceding options allow you to upgrade the current Windows installation or to install a clean copy on a separate volume or on the same volume, alongside the current copy of Windows. You must boot from a removable storage device (an external hard drive or USB flash drive) if you want to delete the current partition on which Win¬dows is installed and install a clean copy in that location.

Source of Information : Microsoft Press - Windows 7 Inside Out