Can't load setup

While my computer knowledge is probably more thorough than most other 22
year-old females', it's still relatively limited, so you're going to have to
excuse my bad vocabulary as I explain the following things/answer your
questions.

I have no idea if it can read other DVDs. I think the answer is yes--the
only other DVDs I have in my posession are movies. I just had to get my hard
drive replaced, and I lost all my codecs (and have no idea how to recover
them; they're probably on some CDs that I can't find). It can read enough to
at least tell me that it can't play my DVD movies because of my codec
problem, so I assume that yes, it can read other DVDs.

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "modular bay." I have interchangeable
CD/floppy drives that I can put into my computer, and since I never use
floppy discs, my CD/DVD drive is in all the time. I've tried taking it out
and putting it back in again, and that doesn't help.

Also, I tried pressing F12 as I was restarting my computer, and when I tried
to boot from the ROM drive, I assume it just failed, because it thought for a
while and then asked me if I wanted to retry or quit.

Thank you for taking the time to help me! Please let me know if you have any
other ideas. It looks to me like my computer is basically failing to
recognize that there is any information on the disc, but as I said, I know
the disc is okay because it will boot on my mom's computer.

If you replaced your hard drive you should just need to reinstall your DVD
ROM driver. This link is for the driver download page on Dell's support site
where you can get the driver:

http://support.dell.com/support/down...&os=WW1&osl=EN

Look under "removable media storage devices". If you don't know your DVD
ROM model, you can find it using Device Manager on your computer.
Right click My Computer>Properties, then from the system dialog box click
the hardware tab, then Device Manager button.

"Kathleen" wrote:

> While my computer knowledge is probably more thorough than most other 22
> year-old females', it's still relatively limited, so you're going to have to
> excuse my bad vocabulary as I explain the following things/answer your
> questions.
>
> I have no idea if it can read other DVDs. I think the answer is yes--the
> only other DVDs I have in my posession are movies. I just had to get my hard
> drive replaced, and I lost all my codecs (and have no idea how to recover
> them; they're probably on some CDs that I can't find). It can read enough to
> at least tell me that it can't play my DVD movies because of my codec
> problem, so I assume that yes, it can read other DVDs.
>
> I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "modular bay." I have interchangeable
> CD/floppy drives that I can put into my computer, and since I never use
> floppy discs, my CD/DVD drive is in all the time. I've tried taking it out
> and putting it back in again, and that doesn't help.
>
> Also, I tried pressing F12 as I was restarting my computer, and when I tried
> to boot from the ROM drive, I assume it just failed, because it thought for a
> while and then asked me if I wanted to retry or quit.
>
> Thank you for taking the time to help me! Please let me know if you have any
> other ideas. It looks to me like my computer is basically failing to
> recognize that there is any information on the disc, but as I said, I know
> the disc is okay because it will boot on my mom's computer.

Who supplied you with the disk?
It sounds as though the burn session closed with PC-specific read options.
If the copy was made on your Mom's computer (or any other PC other than your
PC), you might try burning another copy of Vista and make sure the session
closes to allow the disk to be read from "any computer".
Also select a slow burn rate no higher than 4x.



"Kathleen" wrote:

> I have a copy of Vista on a DVD-ROM that I'm trying to install on my Dell
> Optiplex SX-270. I cannot seem to get the setup to start. It doesn't happen
> automatically, and when I go into My Computer/DVD-CD-ROM, it thinks for a
> while and then shows a completely empty folder. I tried it on my mom's
> computer, and it showed up on hers, so the disc appears to be fine. Any ideas
> on how to solve this?