Installing Windows 7: Booting from the CD Drive

Some computers will boot from the CD if you put one in the disc drive automatically, but others won’t. If you’ve never installed an Operating System before you might be wondering how to do so.

First of all, shut down your computer, now boot it up. Before Windows even starts there should be a brief moment where some text on the screen says “Press -key- to enter setup”, or something similar. Press the key that it tells you to and you should enter the BIOS setup. Now here is where things get vague as the BIOS for computers varies, but here’s what I had to do (Also yes, my camera does suck):

Scroll down with your arrow keys and select “Advanced BIOS Features”. Hit Enter to confirm your selection.

Scroll to “First (or primary) Boot Device”, hit enter and then scroll down the list of options until you get to CD ROM Drive. Also, then set your Second Boot Device as your Hard Disk. This is necessary for the installation process of Windows.

After doing this, hit Esc until you’re back at the main menu. Go to “Save and Exit Setup”. Ususally it’ll ask you to confirm this, so just press Y and then press Enter. Your computer should restart itself.

If you’ve got the Windows 7 Disc in the computer already, sometimes it’ll ask you to press any key to boot from the CD Drive. Press the any key (I had to put a Simpsons reference in somewhere) and the computer will boot from the CD Drive.

~ by pokeh on May 5, 2009.