[geno368]

I was trying to boot a Windows dvd and the system states that the boot device was not available.  I put in a regular dvd and it worked fine.  I checked all my bios settings and tried several times with same results.  I then replaced the drive with another one I had and it worked fine.

My question is; do I need to trash this drive or can it be repaired?

Thanks

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Hello geno368,

 

Do not discard the drive if it is only the one disk that you having this issue with, optical drives can be picky when it comes to certain brands of disk and/or in the case of burned media some will not read the data on the disk if it has been burned faster than X4, the latter problem is often associated with Windows ISOs which by the information that you have provided it would appear is the type of media you are having the issue with, is that correct. 

[phillpower2]

Hello geno368,

 

Do not discard the drive if it is only the one disk that you having this issue with, optical drives can be picky when it comes to certain brands of disk and/or in the case of burned media some will not read the data on the disk if it has been burned faster than X4, the latter problem is often associated with Windows ISOs which by the information that you have provided it would appear is the type of media you are having the issue with, is that correct. 

[Facedown98]

Hey geno368,

 

How interesting that replacing the drive resolved the issue. Have you booted with this drive previously? Are you able to read other DVDs using this drive within Windows? I feel like the issue is more closely related to the BIOS failing to recognize the drive, perhaps due to a lack of support. It's hard to say. Is this a genuine copy of Windows? Did you extract from an ISO as phillpower2 mentioned?

[geno368]

Thank you both for the replies.  I tried 2 different burned ISO's with same results.  I also tried an AVG boot disk as well.  I went to disc management and it showed "no media"  I put in a music cd and it played fine.

[Plastic Nev]

Have you tried a DVD video, or other media that is actually on a DVD disk rather than the CD that you know is OK?

 

Nev.

[geno368]

No, nev I did not try that before swapping out the drive...I probably should have...Thanks

[phillpower2]

Do you still intend troubleshooting the device or are you leaving the replacement drive in place, I ask so that we know what if anything can be done to test the drive.

 

Can I ask what OS the ISOs are.

[geno368]

I gave the pc back to my sister and am through with it's reformat.  I was just wondering if cleaning her old drive would make it bootable again. I plan to install it laterr into another pc to see if it would play a movie.   BTW they were win 7 h prem

[phillpower2]

Honest answer is that we cannot say whether or not the drive will or will not read bootable media after being cleaned, if you try the device with a game or a video and it works ok it suggests that the drive does not like the ISOs or the disks that the ISOs have been burned to, were the ISOs all burned to the same brand of disk.

 

JFYI: it is not uncommon for only one laser on an optical drive to fail, this can result in it failing to burn, be unable to read either a DVD or a CD or it will play one but not the other.

 

RE cleaning the drive, optical drives are relatively cheap to purchase and you can if you are not careful pay more for a DVD/CD cleaning kit than it would cost for a new drive, example drive here DVD cleaning kit here

[geno368]

Thanks again...it was a pata drive and they can also be bought reasonably....

[phillpower2]

If the drive is the PATA type it may be quite old and so could be flaky.

 

were the ISOs all burned to the same brand of disk.

 

[geno368]

I don't know how to conclude the post

[phillpower2]

I don't know how to conclude the post

 

If you no longer require assistance with a thread let us know and the topic can then be marked as resolved   

[geno368]

Please mark it as resolved....

[phillpower2]

As per your request geno368 tis done   and thank you for letting us know