Can't Install Windows

[Chappie]

Cross posted from the Win 7 Forum where I couldn't get any traction:

I am upgrading an old 60GB SSD to a 240GB SSD, and am basically just trying to do a clean install of Windows 7. I have it set to boot from the CDROM, and it fires up and looks like it is going to work for several minutes, but eventually the CDROM stops spinning, and I am stuck on the Windows logo screen.

Here's what I have tried:

Win 10 disc - it did the same thing, only the windows logo is different.
Tried to install from USB drive - the BIOS sees the USB stick, but offers me no options to boot from it (this is a BIOSTAR tz68A+ mobo. I also have been unable to update the BIOS to see if that helped)

I have only the new SSD and the CDROM plugged in. Don't know if that helps or matters. They are both visible and boot options in the BIOS, but the SSD is new and blank.

I was expecting to get into the windows set up and simply install it on the new SSD. It seems straightforward and I've done it a handful of times over the years, but something is stumping me here.

 

[skywalkerqq]

Did you have windows on the old SSD? You should be able to install windows from the old to the new. They both have to be plugged in, you enter safe mode and find where to boot windows from the new drive. I'm unfamiliar with windows 7 so this might not be the best way. It seems your usb isn't bootable, thats kinda sad. You can pick up a 16gb usb from best buy for like $12.

 

[Chappie]

So this is where things get weird. This system is basically my old gaming rig that is going to be my son's gaming rig with a few new parts in it.

Originally, it had the 60 gb SSD with Win 7 installed on it, a 1gb HD for applications, and a 2 gb HD that backed everything up.

When I built my new rig, I took the 1GB drive out of the old rig and plugged it into the new rig to copy over a bunch of pictures and such. At no time did I copy anything to that drive, and bear in mind that it never had any OS files at all on it.

When I plugged it back into the old rig, suddenly that one booted up as a Win 10 machine. I never did an upgrade or anything. I just turned it on and suddenly the 60 GB SSD that 20 minutes previous booted up as Win 7 was now a Win 10 machine. I know, it doesn't make any sense at all.

I used Rufus to make the USB stick bootable and copied the Win 7 ISO on it, but for some reason I can't choose it as a boot option even though in the USB page of the BIOS it is listed.

 

[skywalkerqq]

This is a thread I found from a post on TomsHardware in 2014, the user who posted it is named "Ironsounds"

"Hello... there is a box you have to check in the Windows 7 USB/DVD Utility? to make Bootable... Did you do that?
1.When the Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool formats the flash drive during the process above, it does so using NTFS, a file system that some UEFI systems won't boot from if on a USB stick.

To get the USB drive to boot on these computers, you should copy the data from the flash drive onto a folder on your computer, then reformat the flash drive using the older FAT32 file system, and then copy that same data back onto the drive."

 

[Chappie]

ok worth a shot, thanks.

 

[Chappie]

This is a thread I found from a post on TomsHardware in 2014, the user who posted it is named "Ironsounds"

"Hello... there is a box you have to check in the Windows 7 USB/DVD Utility? to make Bootable... Did you do that?
1.When the Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool formats the flash drive during the process above, it does so using NTFS, a file system that some UEFI systems won't boot from if on a USB stick.

To get the USB drive to boot on these computers, you should copy the data from the flash drive onto a folder on your computer, then reformat the flash drive using the older FAT32 file system, and then copy that same data back onto the drive."

This was actually part of the problem. By formatting the drive to FAT32, my BIOS recognizes it as bootable, but Rufus wouldn't let me install the iso on a FAT32 partition so I was stuck again. The solution seems to have been to remove one of my sticks of RAM. I read this elsewhere but failed to try it because it seemed non-sensical, but it worked.