Trying to fix my m15x, new HDD cant install windows.

Ok so i have plenty of exp with computers but i am stumped.

I am working on replacing some parts on my 4 year old m15x because i want to sell it (i have an m18x i use now)

No kidding 1 week after i ordered my m18x my m15x fell apart hahah (it knew!) my HDD started going terribly slow and my DVD-RW drive died as well as a button on the keyboard stopped working.

This was about 1 year ago, anyway i replaced the keyboard then and ordered a new HDD.

I took the m15x to work and its been there for the past year (i goof off on games on down time at work) I had the OLD hdd in it for the past year and the new one in a box, about 6 months ago i used the new HDD on a different laptop for about a month or so but took it out and back into a box it went. Well last week i went ahead and ordered my CD/DVD drive from Dell.

Long story short today i went ahead and replaced the Optical drive and the HDD but after booting with windows CD i start the installation process and right before i choose a partition i get an error saying there are no drivers for the CD/DVD drive but this is weird to me because my CD/DVD drive is what loaded the windows setup to begin with. So i pop the HDD back out put the original one back in and let windows install drivers.... Ok successful install now i put the new HDD back in and boot by CD, same issue.

I go to dell's website and DL the drivers for what i THINK is my CD/DVD drive but during the driver installation in windows it says its not. I go to device manager and say update drivers but windows says its updated. So i restart my system and try to go into BIOS but for some reason it ignores me pressing F2 and goes right into booting up windows, so then im getting frustrated, i go to flash my BIOS and now i cant even do that, using Dell's Bios you have to create a boot CD using an ISO file well im at work with no blank CD-R or DVD-Rs here.

So now my questions:

A) Can i flash on boot by using a Flash Drive?
B) Anyone know how to fix the issues im having installing windows?

I assume since i used the HDD on a previous computer it has remembered that computers hardware and thats why its giving me a fight...

Any help is appreciated.

Oh and while i have your attention,

What would be a good price to sell it at.

m15x

i7 Q-720
6 gig ram
320 gig 7200RPM HDD
Nvidia 240m

New palm rest
Bottom Cover
Keyboard
Cd drive
HDD

it will work great once i finish all this work on it, i may even buy a newer GPU just to increase the value a little, maybe an nvidia 400 series.

 

105 Views and no one can help? Guess i will try to burn a boot cd at home tonight flash the bios then try the install again.

 

Create a DOS Win98 bootdisc on USB (which you can use for a lot of other flashing/updating) Here, Dropbox link., place contents on USB stick. Bootup and flash, instructions usually included in a .txt

Also, just checked the official Dell bios. Appears it has an option to Install to USB stick.

Use a newer or slipstreamed install for Windows. Or better yet, install off USB also

 

All i saw on dell was the ISO file and the windows/dos installer, where is the option to use a Flash Drive? I assume its in the windows/dos installer somewhere. As far as your link there, im very hesitant to use that, how does that work or is that one you used on your m15x? Sorry, ive flashed many in my time but this is a bit new to me, ive never had to use a flash drive, ive done it in the days of the floppy drive and using the easy flash programs that most companies are using now but never had to use a flash drive.

 

Alright i installed off of a USB drive so the HDD is formatted and installed now. I will work on flashing the bios later.

Thanks

 

That's exactly what I was gonna ask you to do. When things like those happen the best way to make it work is to get an USB drive, download the Microsoft ISO to USB tool and boot from it to install.

 

Yeah ive had to do that to a friends computer before i really didnt want to go out and buy a new flash drive for it because i didnt have one big enough but i didnt know how cheap flash drives were now lol 8 gigs for 10 bucks. Im still very scared to flash the bios using a flash drive, i would love to find a step by step of someone doing this with the m15x. I will probably have to track down a DVD-R or something to do it instead.