[Coding in the name of]

Currently I have two hard drives, one for data, one for OSes and programs. The OS disk has Ubuntu (9 or 10) and Windows 7. I'm trying to reinstall Windows 7 as if the disk had never been used before, but I have the GRUB bootloader (i think version 0.95) and it won't boot from CD, just gives me options to boot from the main HDD. I've tried rewriting the MBR with "fdisk /mbr" but fdisk cannot be found. Googling around hasn't helped me much. All I want to do is install Windows 7 to consume the entire disk and rewrite the MBR.

Any thoughts?
Thanks.

[Oler1s]

If you're trying to boot from CD, you have to do this before the bootloader even starts up. By then, it's too late.

There's usually a couple of ways to achieve this. When you startup your computer, you can usually choose what to boot from. You do this holding down one of the function keys, right from the power on. Which ones depends on your BIOS. Sometimes there's a message to that effect shown very quickly at start, or you can just guess by pressing holding each function key at startup and see which one gets you the menu.

If you hit the BIOS setup, you have an opportunity to set the boot order. Set your CD/DVD drive as the first device to check. It's probably set to check the hard drive first right now, which is not what you want.

Rewriting your MBR is pointless.

[Coding in the name of]

Thanks, but I forgot to mention that my boot order is already set to CD > HDD > Floppy. The CD is bootable (according to Magic ISO when it was written) but it jumps straight from BIOS welcome screen to GRUB screen.

[moopet]

Coding in the name of, on 29 July 2010 - 02:51 PM, said:

Thanks, but I forgot to mention that my boot order is already set to CD > HDD > Floppy. The CD is bootable (according to Magic ISO when it was written) but it jumps straight from BIOS welcome screen to GRUB screen.

Then the CD is damaged or not bootable or the CD drive is faulty. If this is an ISO image of Windows 7 you're burning to disk, and it's legal, try it on another machine. Just see if it gets to the setup screen, it won't hurt the other machine. If it's not a legal copy, then you're on your own.

[Autocrat]

Are you sure the CD is not bootable? Or does a black screen does come up before GRUB? I have seen this issue with Windows installations that when a Linux is installed on the HDD, Windows will not install. The CD/DVD will boot but only a black screen is displayed for a few seconds and then the HDD boots.

You can confirm if the DVD is being booted by the sounds and LED on your drive.

However, if this is not the case, then the ISO you have created is faulty. I guess that you used a Win 7 disc and copied it to make another disc using Magic ISO. If you imported all files and folders separately, then that is the WRONG technique to create a bootable CD. Just right click on the original DVD and search for "create an ISO" in the MagicISO submenu. That way, all the files will be imported as they are.

A friend also told me another trick but I doubt if its true. He said that while creating the ISO, give it the same name as the DVD label on the original disc. Like if the disc name in My Computer appears to be 7600.XXX.WIN7 then the ISO you create should be 7600.XXX.WIN7.iso.

As for the bootable/unbootable label in MagicISO, you need not believe it.

[Coding in the name of]

Turned out it was just a faulty DVD. I burned another and it worked without fail.
Thanks all for helping.

Sorry for the non-problem. <: )

This post has been edited by Coding in the name of: 30 July 2010 - 09:58 AM

[Coding in the name of]

Looks like it's not over yet.

When I boot up my PC I get a GRUB screen that says "Unknown filesystem, grub rescue >". But, if I boot with the Win7 DVD in the drive but don't boot from it, Windows loads fine. Googling led me to use the repair utility on the DVD. I opened the command prompt and typed "bootrec /fixmbr" which supposedly removes GRUB and it finished with success, but something to do with GRUB still exists.

Thoughts?

[Core]

Also add bootrec /fixboot and bootrec /rebuildbcd to the list of commands to try.

I remember using fixmbr from the Windows XP Recovery Console.

Details here:
http://www.microsoft...r.mspx?mfr=true

Do you have a Windows XP installation CD laying around by any chance?

[Coding in the name of]

Tried them all, invidually and together. No effect.

Quote

Do you have a Windows XP installation CD laying around by any chance?

Would it be wise to use a Windows XP disk to fix Windows 7?
Either way I don't have one.

This post has been edited by Coding in the name of: 07 August 2010 - 03:56 PM

[tor.ment0r]

Coding in the name of, on 07 August 2010 - 02:55 PM, said:

Tried them all, invidually and together. No effect.

Quote

Do you have a Windows XP installation CD laying around by any chance?

Would it be wise to use a Windows XP disk to fix Windows 7?
Either way I don't have one.

something like that happened to me sometime ago.
try this since you want to erase everything and put win 7 only.

when you put the disk windows tells you if it can find the drive in which you want to install windows 7, if it does not find the drive then ubuntu is your active partition so windows cant see any hard drive.

download Gparted (.ISO) and burn it and boot from it , http://sourceforge.n...ed-live-stable/
and delete the linux partitions
then install windows 7.

[no2pencil]

Coding in the name of, on 07 August 2010 - 04:55 PM, said:

Would it be wise to use a Windows XP disk to fix Windows 7?

If you use it just to boot from & know what to do & have the tools to do so, you'll be fine.