Windows 7 Upgrade

Not sure whether I should be posting here or under the Windows section so have done both.

I am trying to upgrade my son's laptop (HP) from Vista 64 bit to Windows 7 Pro 64 bit.

But I am having trouble getting the dvd reader to load the Installation. I can get it to load some other cds/dvds but it refuses to load the Windows disk - I have tried my own Windows CD but no luck there either. Annoyingly it is quite happy to read a Digital Camera freebie. You can hear the computer trying to read the disk and whirring away at great speed but zippo.

Any ideas? All gratefully received.

Apparently I have unwittingly caused confusion by posting in both fora - my apologies to all. Replies here only please

In reply to a post by lenaspell:

Apparently I have unwittingly caused confusion by posting in both fora - my apologies to all.

No problem, it's not a hanging offence .

It is covered in the bbs rules though, you might like to re-acquaint yourself with them:

http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/faq_english.php#rules

ignore billford, anyone would think he is a mod and knows the right rules!!!!


so, we shall assume i have not been banned by him for that last comment and get back to the issues
i cant say what might be going on, apart from the fact your dvdrom is dying so we shall look at this from 2 routes as possible solutions, take what you want from both or either to sort it out....

1) your dvdrom is on its way out, if a desktop machine buy a new one, they cost pennies now compared to what they used to - just re-read your post, laptop option will be a bit more expensive and fiddly for internal drives..
2)your dvdrom is still dying but you have no cash to spare - do you have access to another machine? if so you could make a bootable usb stick using your own media with help from any number of programs to do this (or use http://store.microsoft.com/Help/ISO-Tool if you dont want to try third party programs and want the microsoft tool) if your machine is running vista then i doubt it will have trouble booting from usb

option 2 - if you have a 4gb usb stick is quite good as it should install faster than dvd and be cheaper than option 1.

hope that helps.......?

In reply to a post by The_Jimster:

ignore billford, anyone would think he is a mod and knows the right rules!!!!


so, we shall assume i have not been banned by him for that last comment and get back to the issues
i cant say what might be going on, apart from the fact your dvdrom is dying so we shall look at this from 2 routes as possible solutions, take what you want from both or either to sort it out....

1) your dvdrom is on its way out, if a desktop machine buy a new one, they cost pennies now compared to what they used to - just re-read your post, laptop option will be a bit more expensive and fiddly for internal drives..
2)your dvdrom is still dying but you have no cash to spare - do you have access to another machine? if so you could make a bootable usb stick using your own media with help from any number of programs to do this (or use http://store.microsoft.com/Help/ISO-Tool if you dont want to try third party programs and want the microsoft tool) if your machine is running vista then i doubt it will have trouble booting from usb

option 2 - if you have a 4gb usb stick is quite good as it should install faster than dvd and be cheaper than option 1.

hope that helps.......?

Many thanks I do have both a 4Gb and 8 Gb USB stick so will try that solution tomorrow or Wednesday once I have read up on how to achieve. Will also explore the cost of a replacement dvdrom for his American bought HP laptop - it's a HP Pavilion dv7 whatever one of those is! Think I will have to purchase for him as he is still looking for a pilots job having recently qualified as a commercial pilot. The airline industry wasn't in quite the same dire straits 20 months ago when he commenced his training as it is today!

But good idea - so thanks. Best re-acquaint myself with the rules before looking up how to achieve the solution I posted about