Problem installing any OS on laptop

[Tmt97]

I put this in general since I'm not sure wether or not this problem is with windows or the computer. I got an older laptop from a friend of my grandmothers. She asked me to fix it after she had attempted to upgrade to windows 10, and it stopped working. I erased the hard drive, then I used unetbootin to put a windows 7 on a flash drive. (Keep in mind that I have succesfuly installed windows 8, and ubuntu on my current PC using the same flash drive, so it's probably not a problem with that.) I plugged the flash drive into one of the laptops USB ports, and when I tried to boot from it. I got this message:

 

PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable

PCE-M0F: Exiting PXE ROM.

Operating System not found

 

I then tried putting linux mint on there to see if I just had a bad iso file or something, and I got the same message. I also tried it with another flash drive to be extra sure it wasn't the flash drives problem. Any idea what the problem is here? Anything else I can try to get windows 7 installed? I was paid $20 for this, and I'd really prefer not to have to give it back because I couldn't get it working.

[Mycrafter5]

Check bios boot priorities settings please.

 

[VoyexTech]

Forget that

[NumLock21]

HDD is missing or dead.

Install OS from a CD.

[Tmt97]

26 minutes ago, VoyexTech said:

Forget that.

Forget what?

22 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

HDD is missing or dead.

Install OS from a CD.

Why can't I use a flash drive though? I don't have easy access to anything that can burn a CD... They are kinda obsolete lol.

28 minutes ago, Mycrafter5 said:

Check bios boot priorities settings please.

 

What am I checking for?

 

[Mycrafter5]

5 minutes ago, Tmt97 said:

Forget what?

Why can't I use a flash drive though? I don't have easy access to anything that can burn a CD... They are kinda obsolete lol.

What am I checking for?

 

Check if you are loading legacy or uefi, or legacy+uefi, also state the options that appear for boot priority please

[VoyexTech]

7 minutes ago, Tmt97 said:

Forget what?

Why can't I use a flash drive though? I don't have easy access to anything that can burn a CD... They are kinda obsolete lol.

What am I checking for?

 

I suggested reinstall windows 10 also you can use a flash drive

[Tmt97]

13 minutes ago, VoyexTech said:

I suggested reinstall windows 10 also you can use a flash drive

This is an older laptop, it cannot handle windows 10. The previous owner updating to windows 10 was what caused the problem. Your not making much sense... Your first comment was "forget that" with no context to what I should forget, and now your saying I can use a flash drive. Your right, I should be able to, but it doesn't seem you read the original post, as I explained its rejecting every flash drive I put in...

13 minutes ago, Mycrafter5 said:

Check if you are loading legacy or uefi, or legacy+uefi, also state the options that appear for boot priority please

Well all I can find in bios is "boot" nothing named "boot priorities". The options are the following: USB Storage Hard Drive, CD/DVD/CD-RW Device, Removable Devices, Network.

[Mycrafter5]

16 minutes ago, Tmt97 said:

This is an older laptop, it cannot handle windows 10. The previous owner updating to windows 10 was what caused the problem. Your not making much sense... Your first comment was "forget that" with no context to what I should forget, and now your saying I can use a flash drive. Your right, I should be able to, but it doesn't seem you read the original post, as I explained its rejecting every flash drive I put in...

Well all I can find in bios is "boot" nothing named "boot priorities". The options are the following: USB Storage Hard Drive, CD/DVD/CD-RW Device, Removable Devices, Network.

If your bios has a option for secure boot or the like, turn that off and try again

[Tmt97]

12 minutes ago, Mycrafter5 said:

If your bios has a option for secure boot or the like, turn that off and try again

I don't know where I would find that in bios if it did. That list I gave you is literally all there is under the boot tab. Just: USB Storage Hard Drive, CD/DVD/CD-RW Device, Removable Devices, Network.

[Mycrafter5]

First, try to see if you can swap priority 1 with a option to boot off of HDD, hitting ENTER should do this, try different USB ports, put either Removable Drives at the top, or USB Storage Hard Drive, then the alternate.

[Tmt97]

13 minutes ago, Mycrafter5 said:

First, try to see if you can swap priority 1 with a option to boot off of HDD, hitting ENTER should do this, try different USB ports, put either Removable Drives at the top, or USB Storage Hard Drive, then the alternate.

One step ahead of you. I put USB at the top, and I've tried all 3 USB ports.

[Mycrafter5]

Just now, Tmt97 said:

One step ahead of you. I put USB at the top, and I've tried all 3 USB ports.

No option for HDD?

 

[Tmt97]

11 minutes ago, Mycrafter5 said:

No option for HDD?

 

Well yea, theres an option for it, thats what it started on before I changed the top to USB. But I'm trying to boot off of the USB flashdrive, not the HDD.

[Mycrafter5]

Just now, Tmt97 said:

Well yea, theres an option for it, thats what it started on before I changed the top to USB. But I'm trying to boot off of the USB flashdrive, not the HDD.

What program are you using to make the bootable flash drive?

 

[Tmt97]

12 minutes ago, Mycrafter5 said:

What program are you using to make the bootable flash drive?

 

Unetbootin I'ts worked fine for me before... Used it to install windows 8 and Ubuntu on my desktop computer.

[Mycrafter5]

1 minute ago, Tmt97 said:

Unetbootin I'ts worked fine for me before... Used it to install windows 8 and Ubuntu on my desktop computer.

Did you follow this from the FAQ?

Spoiler

"

My USB stick isn't booting, what should I do?

Reformat the USB drive as FAT32, then use UNetbootin again to put your distribution on the USB stick.

My USB stick/hard drive isn't detected, what should I do?

Reformat the USB drive as FAT32, then use UNetbootin again. If it still isn't showing up, use the targetdrive command line option.

"

 

[Tmt97]

Yes, I must've reformatted and started over 4 or 5 times now.

[Mycrafter5]

can you descibe the bios options under the other tabs?

2 minutes ago, Tmt97 said:

Yes, I must've reformatted and started over 4 or 5 times now.

 

[NumLock21]

Just now, Tmt97 said:

Why can't I use a flash drive though? I don't have easy access to anything that can burn a CD... They are kinda obsolete lol.

 

 

But they're not obsolete yet. It's much easier to install and less hassle. And not all old laptops play nice with booting from usb drives.

[Tmt97]

I think I got it guys. Looks like windows 7 is installing now.

[Mycrafter5]

1 minute ago, Tmt97 said:

I think I got it guys. Looks like windows 7 is installing now.

Just so people could also solve their problem, what you do?

 

[Tmt97]

11 minutes ago, Mycrafter5 said:

Just so people could also solve their problem, what you do?

 

I did some research and found out that my macbook pro actually can burn a CD, and that I just didn't know how. So I used disk utility to burn my windows 7 ISO on the disk, and booted from that. Never could get it to play well with flash drives...

[NumLock21]

22 minutes ago, Tmt97 said:

I did some research and found out that my macbook pro actually can burn a CD, and that I just didn't know how. So I used disk utility to burn my windows 7 ISO on the disk, and booted from that. Never could get it to play well with flash drives...

So disc aren't obsolete as some make them out to be.

[Tmt97]

35 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

So disc aren't obsolete as some make them out to be.

Well no, they kinda are lol. Problem was the laptop I was putting windows 7 on was obsolete as well... So obsolete technology to make an obsolete computer work. You do what you gotta do lol.