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Windows 7 will not boot from hd, will not boot from dvd after f12

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My laptop seems to have a bad HD, windows will not boot, it tries to repair and at some point the drive activity stops. Tried alt f10 – recovery, get the please wait recovery screen, HD activity stops, Tried to boot from the recovery disk, DVD is 1st on boot option, F10 to boot from HD, machine keeps trying to boot from HD. Any clues? I’d replace the HD but if I can’t boot from the DVD, why bother.

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Clarifications

In reply to Windows 7 will not boot from hd, will not boot from dvd after f12

Clarifications

got any other bootable CD to try?

In reply to Windows 7 will not boot from hd, will not boot from dvd after f12

Assuming the DVD is not scratched or smudged, then a faulty DVD drive could be the only culprit provided it is selected as the boot device. Try resetting the bios to defaults and making sure the laser lens of the drive is clean. If the drive been exposed to smoke, the lens may be dirty.

Reponse To Answer

In reply to got any other bootable CD to try?

I looked at the cd with another computer and it looks good. When I select boot with CD, it does not seem to try, goes right to disk.

Then it sounds as if

In reply to Windows 7 will not boot from hd, will not boot from dvd after f12

The disc you are trying to boot from isn’t a Boot Disc and you need a Boot Disc to boot off.

Col

Reponse To Answer

In reply to Then it sounds as if

It’s the recovery disk. It has a boot folder on it.

Try a Linux Live CD

In reply to Windows 7 will not boot from hd, will not boot from dvd after f12

Try a Linux Live CD to ascertain if the CD boot problem still occurs. Remembering the problem can be with one of the following. 1) CD content, (Working Live CD should help identify this) 2) CD/DVD drive fault or BIOS not being correctly set-up or selected to boot from CD/DVD.
Next stop is to try boot of a Live USB boot disk, or USB DVD drive if available.
The linux live CD may help identify if the fault with the hard disk can be fixed, or al least get you data off it.
As already mentioned, a lense clean on the CD/DVD drive may sort that problem too.

I had a similar problem-

In reply to Windows 7 will not boot from hd, will not boot from dvd after f12

My pc would only boot from the hdd-except it would get stuck & no OS ever appeared.
The optical drive was ok, and it wouldn’t boot from the USB either.
I reset the boot order in F12 and F2-pc only started booting from the hdd and croaked.
I tried booting from Ubuntu and micro Knoppix- no luck.
I tried resetting boot order from the BIOS using the F2-didn’t work.
I flashed the BIOS & looked for a motherboard update. didn’t work.
I finally used the BIOS jumpers on the motherboard, and then the computer booted from an optical disk. The hdd was hopelessly corrupted. I ran a nuclear wipe of the disk, and then, being obsessive, I did a second complete wipe. Hirem’s recovery disk is good, lots of apps to help clean the disk. I was suspecting malware. People said malware in the BIOS is rare, it probably wasn’t malware. I still think it was malware in the BIOS.

Anyway, I reinstalled the OS. The pc has worked fine for a year now. The hard decision was what to do with the backup files, not knowing if they were corrupted.

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