Problem booting from disk (Sager np8662)

So I just recently reformatted and reinstalled win7, booted from disk no problem.

Now I'm trying to reinstall win7 again, today, but Im not able to boot from disk. In fact i've removed my hdd from the boot order, and it skips right to it.

This is the same disk I just installed win7, so nothings changed. My dvd drive reads things fine, so thats not the problem.

What is there for me to do?

 

So what happens when you go through the boot option menu during POST (not the bios setup) and choose your disk drive? Have you used that disk before? It may be a damaged disk.

You could also try creating a bootable USB stick for Windows.

Microsoft Store Online

 

Could you explain the "during POST" method? And yes, I just intalled win7 from this disk a few days ago.

Yeah, I was going to try to boot from a usb stick as a last resort, but I'm hoping to figure out whats wrong.

 

Hold F8 during boot. It should give the option to run setup if the dvd is in the drive (if I recall correctly).

 

Yeah, I tried that too. I briefly saw a screen flash and then it disappeared.

edit: Turns out I wasn't holding f8 down long enough. But either way I never saw booting from disk in the list of options.

 

Try the options listed here, just disregard the linux stuff, but the tips on forcing a boot from the dvd may help.
Beyond that, you have removed the win7 dvd and rebooted before putting it back in the drive, right?

 

Yeah, I've taken it out, rebooted, and put it back in. None of those are the problem, unfortunately.

-The dvd was used to install win7 a few days ago, no problem.
-I've actually removed everything other then the dvd-drive in the boot list and it still boots from the harddrive.
-I didn't have to hold a key down the last few times I've booted from disk.
-Only 1 dvd drive.

One thing I do see however is the "...." that shows when its starting to boot from the dvd, but it doesn't show "Hit key to boot from dvd" and goes straight to win 7 loading screen.

 

hit a key as soon as you see that ..., timeout may be too fast.

Also, you could make a bootable usb key with a format utulity and format the HDD.

 

Yeah, I'm spamming as soon as I see the .... but no luck.

How do I make a bootable usb key with a format utility?

And for clarification, the problem lies in my hdd right? If i grab a new hdd, then the problem should be gone?

 

No, I think your hdd is fine, the bios shouldn't be looking at the boot manager on the HDD before the other devices listed above it in the boot order. If anything, your dvd-rom is to blame.

The Revelator posted a nice guide to make a USB boot key here,

 

I've been trying a number of different ways to boot from usb, but none of them have worked.
Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool : Bootsect failed when attempting to make bootable.
Use a USB Key to Install Windows 7?Even on a Netbook : Didn't work
Kevin’s Blog

The last one where I try to run bootsect on my flash drive gives me an error:
"This tool can only be run on systems booted using a PC/AT BIOS. This was booted using EFI or some other firmware type."
Google'ing didn't help with this error.

So did something screw with my BIOS? HDD problem? Im so confused =(

 

My thought was, just using the HP usb boot key tool, you could make the boot key, get the command prompt, and run fdisk to format the HDD. When there is no bootable os on the HDD, the computer would be forced to move down the boot list.

You will have to update the boot order settings (in F2) to place the USB device above the HDD.

You could attempt to reflash the bios before doing any of the above... Just go to sager's site, get the iso, and burn a cd. (This might be a good test of the dvd-rom as well, to rule out the win7 dvd as the culprit.

 

Its not the win7 dvd, I just tried a win xp disk, that didn't work either.

Just tried it, it didn't work. The bootable flash drive that is. It all installed correctly, but when I tried to boot it, just went straight to win7

 

What version is your bios? 0.17 added support for win7, so if you are using an earlier version this may be to blame.

Use the HP usb boot key tool w/ windows 98 dos files (from the above link) and the files from here (scroll down a bit) to update your bios

(you should reflash even if you are current, running out of other options).

Remove the HDD for the bios flash.