No Boot Device Error with Windows 7 Install

[Stuugie]

Hi All,

I have a Dell PC for which I am attempting to install Windows 7 onto a new HDD I bought. However, I am having issues with not being able to Boot the disk that has the Windows 7 iso. What I've done:

1. Seated the new HDD
2. Burnt a disck with Windows 7 iso from here Home Premium 64 - did this with my son's computer
3. Loaded disk into my DVD drive
4. Changed the boot order in the bios so that it reads the DVD drive first and the HDD second
5. Saved bios and attempted boot of computer.

After doing all that, I get a "No boot device found" message (see picture). After using the Googles, the only real answer that I can see is that my HDD is no longer working and it should be replaced. However, as state it is brand new and, for that matter, I can see it in my bios setup so that can't be the issue. I've unplugged all wires, on both ends, from my dvd drives and HDD and still get the same error message. This should be straight forward as I've done it with a reformatted HDD in the past, the only difference now is that the HDD is brand new. Can someone please help me resolve this issue?

[Slavi]

Um, if you want to install it on that hard drive, burn the iso image on a flash stick and then install from flash drive. When asked which drive to install windows 7 on select that drive.The HDD for windows should have NTFS file system. I can give you detailed walk through of doing so if you want to try it( I just installed windows 8.1 on a hard drive that I had Linux only on and it was extremely painful trying to make windows 8.1 to dual boot ..)

[JorgeM]

Hello Stugie...

After doing all that, I get a "No boot device found" message

You are getting this message because the computer was not able to locate any bootable OS, neither on your hard drive, nor any other secondary storage device connected to the PC.

as state it is brand new and, for that matter, I can see it in my bios setup so that can't be the issue.

I can almost guarantee that there isnt any problem with this new hard drive.

Can someone please help me resolve this issue?

The problem is very likely to be that when you prepared the bootable media, it did not burn correctly, or you may have missed a step in making the bootable media, well...bootable.

----

Um, if you want to install it on that hard drive, burn the iso image on a flash stick and then install from flash drive.

You can do this from either DVD or a flash drive. Doesnt matter. The only requirement here is that the computer finds bootable media.

When asked which drive to install windows 7 on select that drive.The HDD for windows should have NTFS file system.

YOu will have a chance to create the partition(s) and format the drive during the installation. There is no requirement to have the drive formatted ahead of time.

I just installed windows 8.1 on a hard drive that I had Linux only on and it was extremely painful trying to make windows 8.1 to dual boot ..)

Dual booting these days isnt worth the trouble (in my opinion). If you want to run multiple operating systems on the computer, install the one that you consider the host on the PC itself, then install a virtualization appication such as VirtualBox and run the other operating systems as virtual hosts. The benefit here is you dont have to deal with the multi-boot complexity and when you are done with one of hte guest OSs, you just delete the config from VirtualBox and delete the handful of files that were used by the guest VM. No need to fuss with the multi-boot config. Also, you can run the VMs all together at the same time. A huge advantage over dual/multi-boot systems where you can only boot one at a time.

Suugie- I am confident its likely an issue with the bootable media or the hardware that you are using for the bootable media (say a bad DVD drive which is unlikely as well).

[Stuugie]

Hi Jorge, I actually have two DVD drives and tried them both to no avail! I also did a system check on them and they passed as did the HDD. So, it's possible it's the iso? Sigh, I need to find a good link then but couldn't find any other links where they weren't charging for the download.

[JorgeM]

I'd say its likely to be an issue with the ISO or the process of making that ISO bootable.

What you can do is download a trial version for free on Microsofts site and try the burning process with that one just to make sure you got it right.

[Stuugie]

Somehow, my boy's burner didn't burn the iso properly. I burned the iso onto a disk with my laptop and now Windows is installing. Woohoo, thanks JorgeM for your insight.

[JorgeM]

Glad to hear. Good news. Thanks.

[Stuugie]

Oh the perils of installing a new HDD. So, my son's burner would not burn the Windows 7 installer properly (as it turned out) and after about 4 disks and a day's worth of trying to load Windows I finally took the installer and burned it from my laptop.
The good news was that it finally started to install (last night). However, the installation would get to about 97% and then it would shit the bed and prompted me that I had corrupt or missing files. I tried for another couple hours to get it right but could not.
After using the Googles and the Youtubes, I had learned that the reason I was getting that prompt was because my RAM was shot! Holy crap I thought, I just bought new RAM last year and was convinced that that couldn't be the problem. So I ran a diagnostics check on my RAM, which is not quick, and confirmed that my RAM was OK.
I then learned that Windows 7 Home Edition installer was compatible with all Hard drives out there. WTF? How could this be? The cure to this was apparently to install Windows 7 Professional. So, I downloaded it, burned it with my laptop and tried again. The odd thing was it finally worked (tonight). However, I was then faced with having a Product Key for Home Edition and not Professional. So now I only seem to have a trial version of Windows.
The only way around this was to go into the Registry, which I absolutely hate doing, and changing some values from Professional to Home and finally, after about 3 fricken days of going nuts, I have my hard drive installed with the correct version of Windows on it.
Seriously though, this should not have been this difficult.