Windows 10: Boot from CD, how in Windows 10?

Hi

Thanks for looking, I'll try this and let you know!

 

Hi there

If Boot freezes from the CD my reading on this is that the CD isn't properly bootable (not finalized when creating a Windows ISO for example).

Note that a Windows Bootable CD is actually a "DVD" since a CD can have around 600MB as max - Windows "CD's" generally have around 3.5 GB's on them.

When you created the ISO did you select CD or DVD in the main menu (assuming you used something like NERO) .

The best way IMO would be to download the W10 media creation tool from Ms and create the ISO - then burn it to DVD with your burning software.

All this UEFI / EFI talk is a RED HERRING at this stage -- first see if the ISO BOOTS !!!! then we can go into other options for getting W10 installed.

I'm always amazed at how people don't follow problem solving in a logical fashion
1) see if DVD is bootable
2) Boot it
3) if no installable HDD's then we can look at the other options.

Do ONE thing at a time !!!!!!!! (from an old fashioned Engineer here - I'm afraid most modern education systems don't teach people enough BASICS !!!!!).


You will need to disable SECURE BOOT to boot from anything other than the HDD - that's different from EFI etc.

Also remove any other "spurious peripherals" such as SD cards, Mobile phones, external USB HDD's etc.

Cheers
jimbo

 

Thanks

Yes, the DVDs are fine, we tried 4 of them and they've been used to install many other PCs with Win7, but not so far with a Win10 PC.

We did disable Secure Boot, but this didn't help.

Could try to download Win7 to USB, perhaps that'll help, have to try to find this, thanks

 

@jimbo45, I appreciate your education and basic problem solving, but...
He is trying to install Windows 7 not Windows 10.
The DVD has booted successfully in other machines, so it is bootable.
If UEFI is a 'Red herring' why advise to disable Secure Boot which is only applicable in a UEFI install.

 

Hi there
SECURE boot limits booting to the HDD.
Legacy boot allows boot whether UEFI or not. W7 / W10 DVD's will boot regardless of UEFI or non UEFI. Now some versions of W7 will only boot if the HDD is MBR -- W7 will recognize GPT HDD's but won't necessarily allow the boot HDD to be a GPT drive -- It's been a while since I tried to install W7 but there is stuff on that on the net -

W10 on the other hand doesn't have those problems. Normally the boot menu will show both the EFI and the non EFI boot when you boot say a W10 USB stick. You then choose whether to boot the UEFI or standard model.

SECURE BOOT gets in the way of this stuff -- IMO it's always better to disable the wretched thing -- why it was ever invented in the first place I don't know --causes no end of hassle,

I'd always enable LEGACY boot too -- that gives the most flexibility -- you can of course install a UEFI OS even if booting in "Legacy mode".

Cheers
jimbo

 

I did disable secure boot, but will enabling Legacy Boot.

Thanks!

 

Hi,

That's correct for machines that support both legacy bios and EFI and are set to CSM in bios.
If that's the case then disabling secure boot should allow a cd/dvd or whatever bootable media that is EFI agnostic to boot.

In case of an operating system it will then also configure the system as MBR if the chosen destination disk is within MBR limitations.

IOW, if the bios is set to use EFI then it should come to no surprise that media created to boot in legacy bios mode won't boot at all regardless of how secure boot is set in that bios.
Of course you can create media that can boot both ways but not with optical media that already exists.
USB sticks are so much easier and faster than optical drives even USB 2.0

So, yes, changing the bios to legacy or CSM and disabling secure boot ( you can re-enable it again after the install has finished) will allow to boot from these media.
However, there are some caveats if OP has other media that is EFI boot only as these now won't boot either unless the bios is set to compatibility mode (AKA CSM) and so on.

Also, if OP later on upgrades to W10, after all MS is shoving it down your throat anyway, he'll end up with a MBR install once again which definitely has it's restrictions.

The workaround is then to make install media and do a clean install in EFI mode, convert the HD to GPT etc.

Either way, there are n variations on this theme thinkable but, and this is just IMHO, I'd install W7, upgrade to W10 asap and then do a clean install in EFI mode and forget about all the old stuff.

I'd advise OP to dig in some literature on EFI/UEFI and CSM which makes it much easier to understand all these kinds of little problems that are easy to solve once you understand how it all works.

Hope this helps, *Wink

 

If you set Secure boot to disabled and CSM to Auto, it will boot either. I used to boot Windows 10 in UEFI and Windows 7 in MBR. However, you are correct if you choose UEFI DVD/CD it will install in UEFI Mode. If you boot the DVD in just the name of the DVD drive it will install in MBR Mode. At least that's the way it is on my Asus X99 board.