Unable to boot from devices

[smittywits]

Hey guys.

 

A friend of mine recently decided he wanted a custom computer build and I went and found lots of deals and sales in order to keep costs down for them. One of them was a combo of a 6700k and Gigabyte GA-Z170-HD3P. The build itself went pretty smoothly until I went to try and install Windows onto the computer.

 

The specs are as follows.

CPU - i7-6700K

MOBO - Gigabyte GA-Z170-HD3P
RAM - Corsair VENGEANCE LPX @ 2400MHz

GPU - Irrelevant, it's sitting in it's box waiting for the OS to be installed.

PSU - EVGA 500B

SSD - N/A, will be his first choice in upgrade

HDD - WD Blue 1TB

ODD - ASUS DVD DRW-24B1ST

Case - Fractal Design R4

 

I've only used a USB stick to install directly, but I have tried other things in another computer as well. I moved the USB stick between the front and back USB ports as well as USB 2.0/3.0/3.1 ports.This problem has been bothering me for nearly 2 days now and I've been unable to figure it out. It all just leaves me with a message on screen that says: "Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key". The computer POSTs fine and the BIOS works to it's full extent. It just won't boot to anything.

 

Things I've tried include:
Using only one RAM stick

Using different RAM entirely
Moving a hard drive with an existing, working, fresh OS on it to the computer

Installing the OS from another computer then moving it over
Resetting BIOS to default
Unplugging the ODD
Using a different SATA port on the motherboard
Bypassing boot order

I've run out of ideas at this point. Has anyone else had this problem or can think of other ways to attempt to fix it? Thanks.

 

TL;DR: Z170-HD3P won't boot from any devices, error comes up saying: " Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key". Posts fine and BIOS is fully functional.

[paddy-stone]

What version of windows?

[Cralineleader]

What are you trying to load, and in what format?

[smittywits]

I've tried a few different versions of Windows 7, which I have keys for. It would go from there straight to 10.

[paddy-stone]

There, I knew it was going to be that... windows 7 doesn't support USB 3.0 natively, and skylake doesn't support legacy USB 2.0 now.. so you either need to patch the windows 7 you have for USB 3.0 or go with win 8/10

[paddy-stone]

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25476/Windows-7-USB-3-0-Creator-Utility

[smittywits]

I moved the hard drive to my personal rig(sig has it) and after the end of the USB booting phase I moved it to the Skylake rig. The Skylake rig still wouldn't boot from the drive. I've tried both Windows 7 Home SP1 and Ultimate SP1, as those are what I have keys for. It works fine in my rig, hence trying to transfer it over. I think the problem is stemming from the motherboard itself, hence the post here rather than in Troubleshooting. It won't boot from anything.

 

I will try that USB 3.0 creator and follow up with more information.

[paddy-stone]

All you need to do is patch the win 7 that you have for USB 3.0 as in the link I provided above, then insert that into the computer you want to install it on, select the correct drive etc and you should be good... all it does is patch the .wim for USB 3.0 as skylake has no USB 2.0 support and win 7 has no native USB 3.0.. hence the patch.... And you should be OK then.

[smittywits]

That's what I'm doing now. It's cleaning up the mount directory as we speak. Once that's done then I'll try the installation again.

[paddy-stone]

1 hour ago, smittywits said:

That's what I'm doing now. It's cleaning up the mount directory as we speak. Once that's done then I'll try the installation again.

Cool, I must have missed that you said you would try the creator, or you added it, LOL... anyway, please quote me in any follow ups, if not I may miss your replies.. hope it works

[smittywits]

Sounds good. It'll be a bit before it's done.

[smittywits]

@paddy-stone

Windows installation completed, so technically topic closed.

 

I wish I had good news on that though, as the OS won't recognize a USB stick or Ethernet cable. That means I can't add the drivers for anything using a USB stick or by downloading, more fun! Oddly enough the DVD RW Drive is recognized in the OS. That means I'll be using the DVD with the needed drivers on it. Shame I'm forced back to using such a method on the newest platform lol.

[paddy-stone]

11 hours ago, smittywits said:

@paddy-stone

Windows installation completed, so technically topic closed.

 

I wish I had good news on that though, as the OS won't recognize a USB stick or Ethernet cable. That means I can't add the drivers for anything using a USB stick or by downloading, more fun! Oddly enough the DVD RW Drive is recognized in the OS. That means I'll be using the DVD with the needed drivers on it. Shame I'm forced back to using such a method on the newest platform lol.

So, the patching worked? or did you do something else to get the OS installed?

 

[edit] BTW if you use windows 10 instead of 7 you pretty much get rid of all this hassle... network drivers and USB 3.0 get installed by the OS most times, then it's simpler to get the other drivers if you need any.

[smittywits]

@paddy-stone Yeah, that worked. It's funny because Gigabyte's own tool didn't work, which basically did the same thing. I'd wager that had Gigabyte's worked, it'd have all of the appropriate drivers as well.

 

I would have installed straight onto Win10, but I had spare keys for 7 and moving to 10 from there is free. I don't actually own a copy of 10 yet.

[Junior Tan]

On 18/05/2016 at 6:02 AM, smittywits said:

That's what I'm doing now. It's cleaning up the mount directory as we speak. Once that's done then I'll try the installation again.

Mine is stuck on "Cleaning up mount directory" for an hour already.

[smittywits]

10 hours ago, Junior Tan said:

Mine is stuck on "Cleaning up mount directory" for an hour already.

Hey bud, this is an older thread. In the future you should consider creating your own thread if you need help. (:

 

Just let it do it's thing. It takes a while but it should finish up eventually, assuming that your computer isn't frozen.