Won't boot from ISO files

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SphincterBoy

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 24, 2005
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I returned from vacation to find my Win 10 system would not boot. It went to a blue screen that included the error code 0xc000000e. Research led me to download the Media Creation Tool, which placed ISO files on a DVD (using second PC). Problem is I can't get the system to boot from the DVD. Looking in the BIOS I can verify that the system sees the DVD drive, SSD with the OS, HDD with data and games, etc., each identified by brand name. Any idea why it isn't booting from the ISO disk?
 
I personally use Rufus. Gives two options for bootable media. When one doesnt work for me on older systems I use the other.
 
Rufus or Universal USB Installer or YUMI always work for me.

The MS Media creation tool make sure you format the drive in FAT32, not NTFS or it often wont boot.

Also are you choosing the USB drive as the primary boot device?
 
Make the ISO, use the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool - gotta love that name - and you should be good to go. Never had one issue using that tool for as long as it's existed (7+ years now), never had one failure, and it always works in my experience.

When I saw the thread title I was thinking that (perhaps) somehow the actual ISO file itself - which is between 2.6 and 3.5GB in size depending on whether it's the 32 bit or 64 bit version - has been copied/burned to the DVD but that's somewhat unlikely I suppose, I've seen stranger things happen. It's possible the burn of the DVD was not done properly and if that's the case the disc may simply not be bootable.

Try making another burn, or do what I just suggested: use the Media Creation Tool to make the ISO (which you can then keep stored someplace safe so you don't have to do that a second time), then use the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool to transfer the ISO contents to a USB stick (faster and more efficient than using optical media these days) and see what happens.

It can't hurt to test another bootable disc of any kind you might have whether it's another Windows disc (any version of the OS) or a Linux distro of some kind to make sure the machine itself is still able to boot from optical media or USB ports as expected.
 
Make sure secure boot is as disabled as it can be, make sure you're using USB 2.0....
 
The system won't boot from a Win7 installation disk. Secure boot is disabled. Ideas? Please be specific since this is somewhat new to me. Thanks!
 
Is the particular boot device order favoring you booting from an optical drive, or a USB stick or does it offer you a particular key to press to get a one-time boot device menu so you choose the device specifically?
 
How are you creating the boot media?

When you view the boot media in Windows, what does it show as the content of the media? (USB or DVD )
 
Most recently, since I was trying to boot from a Win7 install disk, I selected UEFI CD/DVD as #1 and UEFI USB CD/DVD as #2.

I previously tried creating boot media (see above), but just now using a Win7 install disk just to verify the system can read a CD/DVD. Perhaps the drive is bad on top of the issues with the Win10 boot record?
 
Tiberian said:
Make the ISO, use the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool - gotta love that name - and you should be good to go. Never had one issue using that tool for as long as it's existed (7+ years now), never had one failure, and it always works in my experience.

Try making another burn, or do what I just suggested: use the Media Creation Tool to make the ISO (which you can then keep stored someplace safe so you don't have to do that a second time), then use the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool to transfer the ISO contents to a USB stick (faster and more efficient than using optical media these days) and see what happens.

It can't hurt to test another bootable disc of any kind you might have whether it's another Windows disc (any version of the OS) or a Linux distro of some kind to make sure the machine itself is still able to boot from optical media or USB ports as expected.
Click to expand...

OK, I used the tool at the link you provided and copied the Win10 ISO onto a USB stick. I changed the boot order to simply USB Key. Upon rebooting the black screen shows a simple white MSI logo while the Win10 waiting animation (five dots moving clockwise) cycles repeatedly at the bottom of the screen. And nothing...

WTF
 
Hence me recommending using a USB stick and not an optical drive. The machine does have accessible USB ports, right?

Errrr... we submitted both these posts at almost the same instant, DOH! :D

Can't say what might be causing the issue but if it's showing the Windows 10 logo and the dots at least it's accessing the USB stick to some degree(s), now you've got something to at least work with.
 
I tried the DVD method first, then the USB. It wasn't a logo, just the dots that have replaced the old hourglass. Nonetheless, I came back to find it had finally advanced to a screen to select language, etc. Advancing past that I selected "
repair computer". That screen disappeared and nothing has replaced it for more than 30 minutes. Ugh...

Update: the screen finally progressed to present choices. I chose Troubleshooting, Automatic Repair. Waiting through another blue screen again. This has been progressing much slower than I've ever experienced.
 
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SphincterBoy said:
The system won't boot from a Win7 installation disk. Secure boot is disabled. Ideas? Please be specific since this is somewhat new to me. Thanks!
Click to expand...

Perhaps the system won't boot for the same reason you bluescreened. Time to troubleshoot your hardware. Rip all but 1 memory stick and crucial hardware out and try rebooting.
 
yup time for trouble shooting. is it your sig system? first thing I would try is disconnect the hdd/ssd and see if setup will boot to eliminate an issue with the drive. next I would check your ram voltage as every crucial kit ive ever used needed extra voltage. so if its rated 1.5v bump it to 1.6v. also test you cmos battery, should be 3.2v. a dying battery can cause all sorts of weird issues.
 
B00nie said:
Perhaps the system won't boot for the same reason you bluescreened. Time to troubleshoot your hardware. Rip all but 1 memory stick and crucial hardware out and try rebooting.
Click to expand...

I'm going to try this now.

frankmansal said:
Why don't you use https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10/ - windows 10 download tool and it will create a bootable iso. Then set your bios back to default setting and then try and boot to usb.
Click to expand...

How does this differ from what I've tried already (see above)?

pendragon1 said:
yup time for trouble shooting. is it your sig system? first thing I would try is disconnect the hdd/ssd and see if setup will boot to eliminate an issue with the drive. next I would check your ram voltage as every crucial kit ive ever used needed extra voltage. so if its rated 1.5v bump it to 1.6v. also test you cmos battery, should be 3.2v. a dying battery can cause all sorts of weird issues.
Click to expand...

Yes, the system in question is in my signature. I've been running this system since July, first using Win7 (problem free), then I upgraded to Win10 on the last day it was free. The upgrade did not go smoothly, but once it was completed it ran fine. I play BF4 and Overwatch without a problem, though it's possible RAM could be an issue. I'll check the CMOS battery, too.

Thanks all!
 
I've stripped the system down to just one SSD w/Win10, the video card and two sticks of RAM. (For what it's worth, I did discover I had the RAM in slots 1 and 3 rather than 2 and 4.)

Win10 still doesn't boot, so I booted from the ISO file on the USB again. While it processed much more smoothly and timely, it was unable to complete Startup Repair. I then tried the Bootrec commands suggested on a website, but /rebuildbcd was unsuccessful - said there were 0 installations.

At this point I'm leaning towards a fresh installation of Win10 unless someone has a better suggestion.
 
Failure. The closest I've come is with a Win7 disk. The system recognizes it for what it is, let's me choose language, etc., proceeds to a black screen with a progress bar showing installation progress (or something), but then the Windows logo appears on a blue screen and never proceeds. The logo is kinda pulsating, it's not a freeze frame.

If I drop to a single stick of RAM I don't get that far. If I try with a different SSD I don't get that far. "don't get that far" is a black screen with white and yellow text talking about Shell:\ or something. At one point, I think trying to boot from the Win10 ISO on USB, I got a message about the SSD "Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style". (I've run into this before, but I don't recall if it was this system upgrading from Win7 to Win10 or when I put Win7 on the older system's SSD. Nor do I recall how I resolved it. From what I've read it's a newer way to format boot disks that is compatible with UEFI, which my mobo supports.)

I've tried so many combinations and failed I don't know where to go from here. I've also replaced the CMOS battery, though the older one was less than two years old. Maybe it's the mobo?
 
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if there is no info on the drive then during setup when yhou get to the disk selection highlight you drive and erase any existing partitions then just click next and let windows format it how it wants to. the will get rid of the gpt error. have you tried swapping sata cables yet?
 
If I can get it back to that screen I will try to do so. Hindsight says I should have taken notes on every combination and its outcome...

I have not tried swapping SATA cables, but I will do so.
 
Last night I tried a more methodical approach to ensure I'd tried everything and to make a long story short, found the problem. Whenever the newest SSD (Samsung 850 less than two years old) is attached it fails immediately. So, with just the original SSD attached I tried booting from the USB with Win10 ISO and I was successful. The OS is loaded and running normally. Neither this system nor my older system can read or initialize the other SSD. It appears it is corrupted to some extent. Which I find odd considering it only held my games which functioned perfectly fine. I guess I'm SSD shopping now.
 
If the drive is less than 2 years old the failure should be covered under the warranty which appears to be 5 years, can't hurt to see what Samsung might be able to do about it. The 850 EVO series has a 5 year warranty and the 850 EVO Pro is 10 so, check with Samsung and see what's up.
 
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