New Z77 Extreme4: Restarts at "Starting windows"

[perfectblue]

it wont work if your shoving a hdd with another make/model of motherboards drivers on it,you need to do a clean install

try putting the dvd drive sata cable on intel sata2 the last numbered port,and try pressing f8 or whatever button it is at splash screen to bring up the boot menu,put in your windows disk and boot from dvd drive

Trying to do this as well.

I go into BIOS and set the CD as the first boot device. I am presented with a screen that reads:
"Reboot and Select Proper Boot Device. Insert Boot Media in selected boot device and press a key"

I press a key and nothing happens except it repeats the line "Reboot and select proper..." etc

Thanks for the tip on the out of box state, I will just attempt to do a fresh install for now though.

[wazza300]

its not detecting your disc if its saying that,id try other sata ports for your dvd drive see if it sees the disc then

[perfectblue]

its not detecting your disc if its saying that,id try other sata ports for your dvd drive see if it sees the disc then

I attempted to use the CD on my friends machine, and it did not load as well. I set 1st boot priority to CD, last to HDD. It booted into windows desktop, so I assume it did this because it could not read the CD.

If thats the case it seems the CD is not reading correctly for whatever reason. Is it still possible to buy OEM Windows 7 ? Because this was the only copy I have.

[wazza300]

theres various official iso download links for windows 7,just burn to disc

digital river i think,ill try n find the link,try and google it

EDIT:

http://www.mydigitallife.info/offici...digital-river/

heres the link,idk if any are broken but there should be newer links on that site

[perfectblue]

theres various official iso download links for windows 7,just burn to disc

digital river i think,ill try n find the link,try and google it

EDIT:

Official Windows 7 SP1 ISO from Digital River « My Digital Life

heres the link,idk if any are broken but there should be newer links on that site

Downloaded the ISO, failed too boot from it with both systems. My new i5 and an older Quad core / evga 780i board. Not sure whats going on. I can take a picture to show you that CD is set to first boot priority. So not sure why it is not working in both systems when I just mounted win7 from the link you gave me to a new CDR disk.

[parsec]

That Windows download is an iso file, and must be burned to the CDR as an iso disk, not just simply copied.

[wazza300]

you can burn it to cd or dvd with imgburn,burn as an iso file at the slowest speed to avoid errors,you can also copy it over to a bootable usb stick and boot from that

[perfectblue]

Got it to boot, but that has led to a new problem. There is no hard drive listed to install windows on.To clarify these are the hard drives that already have an OS installed, I need to wipe them inside the win7 setup. Tried to fix this by updating asrock board BIOS as well, no luck.

Here is a walkthrough of what keeps happening.

1. HDD shows up in BIOS
http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/152/img3216w.jpg
2. Boot win7 from CD.
3. In menu HDD does not show up in the menu

4. Exit and restart, HDD no longer shows up in bios
5. Have to turn off the computer to get hdd to show back up in bios
http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/2739/img3217jr.jpg


however, when I put the same HDD in my q9550 system it shows up in the windows 7 setup

[parsec]

I suggest that you "wipe", or format one of those HDDs in your Q9550 PC.

My guess is that the Windows installation is seeing Windows is already installed on the drive, and therefore does not allow you to install on top of it.

Another potential issue is your Q9550 PC, is old relative to your new board. The old PC has an Intel 3 or 4 series Northbridge chipset in it, with a separate Southbridge chip. The Z77 EX 4 is an Intel 7 series chipset board (with 5 and 6 series chipsets in between it and your old board), that has many of the function found on the two chips in the old PC, combined into one chipset. Also, some of the Northbridge chips functions are now on the i5 CPU itself. The point is those two systems are very different and incompatible, which is why the Windows installation done on the old PC would not work on the new one. All the drivers are different, the system buses, and the list of differences goes on and on.

OMG, I just noticed the EVGA 780i chipset board! The EVGA chipset is obsolete, no longer made, and not supported. Sorry to say, but it was a terrible product. That may be a big factor in your problems, which are basically compatibility. It would be a miracle if an OS installed on a 780i board booted on a Z77 board! Even if it did, all the drivers would need to be changed, and the registry would be so mixed up, what a mess!

You need to format one of those drives so nothing remains on it, and when installing Windows only put ONE HDD in the PC (besides the DVD drive, if you use it) for best results with Windows 7.

Also, very important, connect your HDD and DVD drive to the Intel SATA ports, not the ASMedia SATA ports. Check the manual to be sure which are which. With the board mounted in a case, the two stacked SATA ports at the top are the ASMedia ports. DO NOT use them during an OS installation, for your HDD or your DVD drive, very important to not use them! The six SATA ports below the two on top are the Intel SATA ports. Connect your HDD to one of the Intel SATA ports just below the other SATA ports at the top, and the DVD drive to one of the Intel SATA ports on the bottom.

You should clear the BIOS/UEFI before trying to install Windows again, since it is likely "confused" after trying to deal with the OS installed on your old PC. You'll need to load the default BIOS settings when you clear the BIOS, which you can do when you check if the HDD and DVD drive are detected.

[perfectblue]

Thanks for the indepth reply parsec.

Here is a hard drive that has been blank from the start, nothing on it. It had been formatted a year or so ago and I never used it since. I booted up this blank hard drive with the windows CD in another system and it was detected fine, but not in my asrock z77 extreme 4.
as seen here: http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/7851/img3219c.jpg

I am only putting in one hard drive at a time.

The HDD and DVD should be connected to the Intel sata ports not asmedia. The manual actually doesn’t seem very clear on which are which, but this video on youtube is. ASRock Z77 Extreme4 Review [HD] - YouTube

Here is an image of the ports I am using which should be intel

I restored to default UEFI settings, but I am not sure how to clear BIOS. Can you clear BIOS by clearing CMOS?