can't boot from cd after OS install.

[benhamean]

Hey i'm the dude from the thread "DIY Graduation PC under 1000". Just got it up and running with no problems! except this one. I was waiting for my 64 bit windows 7 to download so i decided to install my 32 bit dvd to see if it works. I installed 32 bit windows 7 and that worked, but now as I try to insert my 64 bit boot dvd, the disk is never detected and it boots straight to my 32bit OS. I checked, and yes CD-ROM is first in boot order. Besides that what detail could I have missed? The 64 bit dvd does work in my laptop.

[Jeri]

I am *not* a guru – but I did recently build a PC, so perhaps I can “try” to help. :-)

Even if you have the boot order correct, you have to watch the screen as the machine is booting. It will say something like “to boot from CD hit any key now” and if you do not hit the key fast enough, it will continue to boot from the HD.

Have you seen this message?

I also had a case just last week where it was not working! So, I switched out my DVD drive and it worked. The DVD drive had been working – this was an existing PC I wanted to upgrade to Win 7 on. Don’t know what happened to that DVD, but after exchanging it, it worked as expected.

[glc]

If you "downloaded" 64 bit and then burned a DVD, you got a bad burn or the download was fake. "Downloading" a Microsoft operating system is generally illegal unless it's specifically allowed in your case, so I do have to suspect where you downloaded it from.

There is absolutely no difference between a genuine 32 bit or 64 bit Windows 7 DVD, it's the key code that you use that determines what installs.

Note that if you are "downloading" a version that's not genuine and not allowed, we can't help you with it, as that would violate forum rule 9. Allowed downloads would be from your school or if you have a MSDN account.