Bootable Floppy to Allow Booting From DVD?

[Compeek]

Hello,

Here's my situation. I have an old eMachines eMonster 600. I'm going to attempt to install Windows 7 RC on it, just for fun and everything. I put a DVD drive in it, but I am not able to get it to boot my Windows 7 disc. It can boot CDs fine, but it will not boot any bootable DVD I have. I know the Windows 7 disc works because I used it in another computer.

So it seems the PC simply doesn't want to boot from a DVD. Is there some sort of bootable floppy I can create that will let me run the setup program from the DVD to get the installation going? Or maybe there's a bootable CD that I can boot and then switch to the DVD?

Thanks!

[iamtonsoffun247]

What OS, if any, do you/have you had installed on the machine? If you there is another OS on the machine, boot into it and see if the drivers are up-to-date, and also see if the computer recognizes the disc. You may also have to go into your boot menu and make your cd/dvd drive the first thing to boot from.

[Compeek]

Thanks for the reply, but I think you're misunderstanding. The disc works for sure, and the DVD drive works for sure. I can boot from a CD just fine; however, when I use a DVD, it does not work. I have tried a bootable DVD+R and a bootable DVD-R. It simply appears to be a matter of computer not reading the DVD as bootable.

There is no OS on the computer right now, and the boot order is set up correctly. I just need to find a different way to boot that will let me then start the setup process on the DVD.

Thanks!

[JJ 3000]

Are you sure that the DVD drive is functioning properly?
Have you tried swapping out the DVD drive for another known good one?
Do you have another computer in which to test that DVD drive?

[Spoiler]

Try the DVD in another computer to see if it boots. You don't have to do the install just see if the DVD works as a boot disk.

[Compeek]

Look, I appreciate everybody's help--I really do--but you guys aren't listening. There are no problems with anything. I have tested the drive, the DVD, other DVDs, other computers with the drive, etc. My only problem is that my old PC doesn't seem to be able to boot from a DVD. So I'm just curious if anybody knows of a way to boot from a floppy and then be able to boot from the DVD.

I don't mean to come off as rude or anything, but believe me: everything works fine. My disc and my drive are not the problem.

[truenorth]

Compeek,Given your suspicion that the problem is the optical medium (DVD disc) not being recognized by the computer is it possible for you to change the data file  format of the original disc and then put it on a series of CD +- discs and try booting in sequence from those. By the way i am assuming that the aspect of the DVD not being recognized is unique to the Win 7 disc and that you are able to use the DVD aspect with other DVD data. truenorth

[Dias de verano]

CD +- discs

What are they?

[Dias de verano]

So I'm just curious if anybody knows of a way to boot from a floppy and then be able to boot from the DVD.

Doesn't make sense. Once you have booted from a floppy, you have booted. If the Windows 7 disk contains an MS-DOS executable installer program then you could use a DOS floppy with CD support and see if you can install that way.
 

[Compeek]

truenorth, I have a Slackware DVD as well that will boot in other computers, but not this one. It is on a different brand of DVD. So I believe the only problem lies with the PC itself. I used the same DVD drive to boot these DVDs in another computer, so the drive is not the problem.

Dias de verano, by CD +- discs, I would assume he means CD+Rs and CD-Rs. Anyway, I tried using a DOS bootable floppy, and I got the drive to show up, but the only file it found on the disc was a Readme.txt file. Is there some floppy I could get that would make it compatible with the Win 7 disc so I could see everything and try to run the setup.exe file in the command prompt?

Thanks for the help guys.

[Dias de verano]

Dias de verano, by CD +- discs, I would assume he means CD+Rs and CD-Rs.

No such animal. Only DVDs have plus and minus types. There are CD-R and CD-RW types of recordable CD.

Is there some floppy I could get that would make it compatible with the Win 7 disc so I could see everything and try to run the setup.exe file in the command prompt?

Doubtful. Sounds like a bad burn.

[truenorth]

Should have said "CD-R".That's what happens when you are thinking "DVDs"  and advise on Cd's.However back to the real issue --it does seem most likely that it is somehow a compatibility with the software associated with the computer that you are trying to install the Win 7 O/S on. I wish i could give you the answer that would work.It may just be that the computer you are trying to use is too old in technology to relate to what you want it to do. As this is Microsoft's latest O/S it's backward compatibility may be limited to relatively recent computers.For instance is this machine even capable of the minimum RAM requirements of that O/S? Playing with the O/s is a great idea but perhaps in order to derive the maximum benefits from the experience you may need to install it on a more current machine. As an example i recently acquired a Compaq Presario CM2010 laptop for the sole purpose of WIFI portability. It does that function well but now that i have it i am trying to get it to do other things and the max RAM potential of it is severely curtailing my efforts. I hope that you can overcome your dilemma with your computer and the win 7 but it is beyond my pay grade as to how you can achieve it. goodluck,truenorth

[Rob Pomeroy]

Is this a SATA DVD drive by any chance?  Your BIOS may have an option to "downgrade" the SATA mode a little.  Vague I know, but I've only come across this once, and it was a while ago on an older Fuji machine.

[Compeek]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Dias, thanks for pointing out that there is no such thing as a CD+R. I guess I'm so used to the deal with DVD+Rs and DVD-Rs that I forgot.

Anyway, it is not a bad burn. Like I said, it works in other computers. There is nothing faulty about the disc or the drive.

truenorth, you're probably right. There's a good chance the technology is just too old and I'm not going to get it to work. I beleve it has 768MB of RAM, but it's not with me at the moment so I can't verify that. It should at least run 7, but probably not well. I've installed 7 on my modern computers, but I just thought it'd be interesting to try it on this thing.

Rob, it is an IDE drive. I have a USB enclosure for it, but the BIOS doesn't seem to support booting from USB either.

Oh well. It was worth a shot. Thanks for the help, everyone.

[Rob Pomeroy]

We've not exhausted all possibilities yet. 

It's not the 64-bit version of 7 is it?

When it only found a Readme.txt, what did that file contain?

Have you tried booting from a different DVD drive?

Are you SURE you want Win7 on this machine?!