GA-P35-DQ6: booting from DVD and USB

[rainiere]

Who can help me with the following problem?

My GA-P35-DQ6 rev 1.0 will not boot from the (SATA) DVD Drive.
Booting from an USB stick also does not work (A disk read error occurred. Press Ctrl + Alt + Del to restart).

I have tried different BIOS (version F9) settings: Fail-Safe and Optimized Defaults, AHCI disabled, Native IDE mode off etc.
The boot sequence has been set correctly. Choosing the boot disk after pressing F12 also does not work.
The board is not overclocked.

Just to be clear: the DVD and USB really are bootable; this has been verified using another PC

Am I overlooking something? Starting to feel desperate about this...

[absic]

Hi,

Had similar issues once, when trying to install Windows 7 onto a different mobo (AMD platform) and had to finally install from an old IDE DVD/CD drive I had knocking around!

However, a couple of things that you could check before pulling your hair out completely would be:

Make sure the Legacy USB Storage Detect is enabled within BIOS

If you are not using RAID or AHCI make sure that:
SATA RAID/AHCI Mode is set to Disabled
SATA Port 0-3 Native Mode is set to Enabled
Onboard SATA/IDE Device is enabled and that Onboard SATA/IDE Ctrl Mode is set to IDE

If DVD Drive is SATA try changing the SATA port that it is connected to.

Hope this helps
ATB

[rainiere]

Make sure the Legacy USB Storage Detect is enabled within BIOS

If you are not using RAID or AHCI make sure that:
SATA RAID/AHCI Mode is set to Disabled
SATA Port 0-3 Native Mode is set to Enabled
Onboard SATA/IDE Device is enabled and that Onboard SATA/IDE Ctrl Mode is set to IDE

If DVD Drive is SATA try changing the SATA port that it is connected to.

I've tried that, still no luck with DVD booting.
USB boot still yields the error "A disk read error occured. Press Ctrl + Alt + Del to restart".

Pulling my hair out is beginning to sound like an appealing option.

[absic]

Pulling my hair out is beginning to sound like an appealing option.

That's why I cut my hair very short!!  Computers...... don't you just love them!

Which OS are you trying to install? From what you are describing I am guessing at Windows 7 but can you confirm this.
Also are your HDD's and DVD being recognised in BIOS?
Which SATA channels are you using?

Lots of questions but no answers yet..... sorry!

[rainiere]

Which OS are you trying to install? From what you are describing I am guessing at Windows 7 but can you confirm this.
Also are your HDD's and DVD being recognised in BIOS?
Which SATA channels are you using?

Lots of questions but no answers yet..... sorry!

Yes, I am trying to install Windows 7, preferably from USB, but right now I won't be able to even (re-)install Windows XP

You ask good questions!
So here goes:

There are six SATA channels controlled by the ICH9R chip.
The two (SATA types) HDD's are on SATA channels 0 and 1.
These are configured as AHCI.
Both HDD's are recognized in BIOS.

There are two SATA channels controlled by the GIGABYTE SATA2 chip.
The DVD (also a SATA type) is connected to one of the GIGABYTE SATA channels.
These are configured as IDE.
The DVD is also recognized in BIOS.

Legacy USB Storage Detect is enabled. I suppose my board supports USB booting?

Thank you for taking the time!  

[absic]

OK
To be honest I am not too familiar with the Intel Mobo's but this is what I would do...............

Try setting the ICH9R SATA ports to IDE not AHCI (If you can get the OS to install without enabling AHCI you will have another issue to deal with which is enabling AHCI after install but I think the priority is getting the system running first)

Move your DVD from the GSATA port to one of the other ICH9R ports.

If the HDD's are new try formatting them in another PC (if you can).

If this still doesn't work, do you have a copy of Vista? If so try installing that.

These are all steps I have had to do in some of my previous builds to get Windows 7 to install.

[rainiere]

As it turns out: my DVD writer is defective. Bought a new one and no more boot problems.

I still can't boot from USB, though. I had to install the freeware PLoP Boot Manager http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager.html to be able to boot from a USB flash drive.

Only then was I able to install Windows 7.

Anyway, thank you for asking the right questions.
They certainly steered me into the right direction!