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  • #2266552

    Computer won’t boot from CD drive

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    by simonp101 ·

    Hi all, I’m having a problem and was hoping I might find some help here

    My brother’s computer is basically a dead duck in the water. Its slow, buggy, infested with ads, spyware and full to the brim of absolute rubbish. My parents asked me to do something about it, so I decided to format the hard-drive and re-install windows. I changed the BIOS settings so that it would boot from CD before the drive (at IDE-0), but the computer just continued to load windows. I looked again to see if I forgot to save it the settings or something, but sure enough, the CD was the first priority. I then removed IDE-0 from the list completely, and it told me that it failed to boot, and that it could find no boot record in the CD-Drive

    I thought that it may be my Windows CD, so I put in a linux cd that I happened to have in my possession, but that gave me the same error. I tried all sorts of boot settings, but no result

    Was wondering if anybody had any words of wisdom for me

    Thanks 🙂

All Answers

  • Author
    Replies
    • #2583322

      Clarifications

      by simonp101 ·

      In reply to Computer won’t boot from CD drive

      Clarifications

    • #2583321

      press any key to boot from CD when CD loads

      by thanat0s ·

      In reply to Computer won’t boot from CD drive

      just b4 it says loading windows, did you see ‘boot from CD’ just b4 loading windows? you have to press a key to boot from CD.

      Then it goes into the setup.

      hope this helps.

      Grim Reaper

      • #2555193

        Use a PS/2 Keyboard

        by yoyoson ·

        In reply to press any key to boot from CD when CD loads

        I know this probably won’t help the original poster, but if you get a prompt from your BIOS during boot that says, “Press any key to boot from CD….”

        MAKE SURE YOU USE A PS/2 KEYBOARD. A USB keyboard may not cut it. I just spent 2 hours trying to figure this one out.

        • #2820853

          USB can be enabled in BIOS

          by mcdonger ·

          In reply to Use a PS/2 Keyboard

          On newer BIOS’s USB keyboards may work but need to be enabled in the BIOS. The (USB) keyboard will usually detect you pressing del to enter the BIOS where you can set ‘enable USB keyboard’ (I can’t remember the exact setting name, it’s fairly obvious though).

          Might help if you can’t lay your hands on a ps/2 keyboard

    • #2583315

      I will help

      by userdeletedbyrequest ·

      In reply to Computer won’t boot from CD drive

      hello i see you are in the UK like myself, send me an e-mail and i will be able to help you! my address is zakflemingo@gmail.com

    • #2584563

      Try this

      by nicknielsen ·

      In reply to Computer won’t boot from CD drive

      Press when the BIOS splash screen displays. You should get a menu of boot options. Arrow down to the Boot from CD-ROM option and press

      • #2584370

        Still having trouble

        by simonp101 ·

        In reply to Try this

        I get no message telling me to ‘Press Any Key’ when booting from CD-ROM and F12 in BIOS does nothing 🙁

        The computer’s BIOS is called AMIBIOS Simple Setup Utility version 1.21.12 by American Megatrends if thats any help. Windows will detect CD’s perfectly fine, but it seems that BIOS isn’t interested, or at least can’t find any boot records

      • #2601199

        Try this – Press

        by stupidkanna ·

        In reply to Try this

        Press when the BIOS splash screen displays. You should get a menu of boot options. Arrow down to the Boot from CD-ROM option and press

    • #2601137

      Primary versus Secondary IDE controller.

      by 1bn0 ·

      In reply to Computer won’t boot from CD drive

      Is the CDROM on the second IDE interface?
      If so it is possible the BIOS won’t boot from it. I have worked on motherboards before that would only boot from the CDROM drive if it was connected to the primary IDE connector. If so you will need to move the CDROM to the same cable as the HDD. Make sure you set the HDD to master and the CDROM to SLAVE.

      The HDD should be ide-0 and the CDROM should be ide-1. The secondary controller would IDE-2 and IDE-3.

      With the HDD at IDE-0 removing IDE-0 from the boot list is only telling the bios to skipping the HDD as a boot device.

      ONce you have both drives on the same cable and jumpered correctly you will still have to ensure the BIOS boot order has the CDROM first.

      • #2926758

        cant boot from cd drive either

        by bluzepher ·

        In reply to Primary versus Secondary IDE controller.

        I have changed BIOS to place cd drive 1st. I have a good bootable CD, its a Dell PC. any ideas ?

      • #2977382

        I’m having same problem

        by rhsih ·

        In reply to Primary versus Secondary IDE controller.

        I’m on a Dell D510 Laptop. Attempting to try out linux for the first time, but I can’t even get away from Windows. I think the best idea I’ve seen in here, which I’ve haven’t tried yet is to press F12 a second time, after you Select to boot from CD from the Boot Menu.

        • #2980132

          F12 Times 2 works well

          by jwarner01 ·

          In reply to I’m having same problem

          When I hit F12 the first time I got a section to select boot from CD, then when I kept hitting F12 again I got the hit any key to boot from CD and this booted from the CD. Worked like a charm. I spent an hour trying to figure this out before I got here. Amazing!

    • #2555183

      replace cd drive

      by ctmoore1998 ·

      In reply to Computer won’t boot from CD drive

      Probably the CD drive has failed and needs to be replaced.

      • #2784564

        What worked for me

        by cwheit ·

        In reply to replace cd drive

        I was having the same issue with a laptop and then noticed that the “Press any key to boot from CD” message came up AFTER selecting the CD option from the boot menu (F12 during startup). Hope it helps

    • #3011563

      can’t Boot from CD

      by fariba_yoo ·

      In reply to Computer won’t boot from CD drive

      hi, I have just your problem, and mine is also Toshiba, satellite.
      did you find any solution?

      Best,
      Fariba

      • #3011560

        Umm – the answer is already IN THE THREAD …

        by older mycroft ·

        In reply to can’t Boot from CD

        Try reading the entire thread, instead of adding your Bleat to the end of it.

        THAT’S why the threads exist. 😉

    • #3026749

      The Basics

      by gsystems ·

      In reply to Computer won’t boot from CD drive

      Many times, as IT Pros, we take some things for granted. I just dealt with this issue with a PC that I’ve been using for quite a while–and have installed (re-installed) my OS on an innumerable amount of times.

      I came to this thread looking for an idea on what may be causing this installation to be different than the rest.

      Solution: Please check all connections to the motherboard.

      In my case, the IDE connection was just slightly not connected to its jack. The CD Rom showed up wonderfully inside of the previous installation, but it was not connected well enough to be seen by the BIOS.

      It’s definitely an option…

      Hope this helps!!

      • #2863302

        Solution

        by bramimond ·

        In reply to The Basics

        ok here’s how you do

        When you press F2 and go into setup, you of course have already put the CDrom or DVDram in top priority. Then, the thing is you have to go to 2 options to the left, and generally you will find [Quick Boot] option enabled, disable it, and [F12 boot menu] or something like that option disabled, ENABLE it, then exit saving changes, and press F12 like there’s no tomorrow, it will then ask you from where you want to boot, choose wisely, and hallelujah !

    • #2883568

      My Dell Win XP GX270 has same issue

      by tllucero ·

      In reply to Computer won’t boot from CD drive

      Same problem. Hooked in a different CD drive. Same. Checked boot sequence. CD is listed first in boot sequence. Quick boot can’t be disabled. Tried drive cable that takes two drives. Boot sequence only finds one. Two hard drive controllers on motherboard. Each hard drive controller find a maximum of one drive (CD or hard).
      Switched so that CD was plugged into first controller, and hard drive plugged into second controller. Boot sequence found only hard drive. CD works fine once Windows or Linux has booted. Tried CD in USB enclosure. Not found until after boot complete.Tried hard drive in same USB enclosure. Hard drive found during boot. Has to be motherboard/controller/BIOS issue, as OS, hard drive, and cable changes do not fix. Motherboard refuses to boot from CD under any circumstances.
      So original poster is not only one with this issue. I have a Dell with original OS, hard drive and CD. GX270, 2G memory (maxed out).

    • #2436871

      Same Issue

      by mikef12 ·

      In reply to Computer won’t boot from CD drive

      Is that last post from 2012? I have the same issue with a friends Gateway Emachine. Booting from hard drive goes to endless loop. The HD was spinning and I could copy files off it with another computer. Tested for malware from that other computer, found nothing. Set the boot order to the CD first. Wouldn’t boot from an XP install disk. Wouldn’t boot from three different Linux live CDs. Wouldn’t boot from a Hitachi drive diagnostic CD. Wouldn’t boot from a Hiren’s Boot Disk CD. Disconnected everything, same result. Tried different cables, etc., same result. Reset bios to defaults, pulled battery, same result. Got a couple stop errors, all with same explanation: new or incompatible hardware or faulty driver. There was no new hardware, and I couldn’t get at the thing to remove or re-install drivers. Memory tested OK.

      All this argues faulty IDE controller or bad MOBO, but I couldn’t help thinking there was something simple I was missing.

      So I thought I’d post here in case anyone happens to see this and has found a solution.
      Any other suggestions greatly appreciated!

      • #2436862
        Avatar photo

        Reponse To Answer

        by Wizard57M-TR ·

        In reply to Same Issue

        Instead of tacking on to the bottom of an old, zombie question,
        try posting your problem as a new question.

    • #2435473

      Help Please?

      by pashakitty ·

      In reply to Computer won’t boot from CD drive

      I’m new here and sad to say not very tech savvy. I’m having this problem as well, but don’t know how to swap the cords around to check if that’s it and I’m kind of scared to try just mucking about with it. I have tried everything that I know how to do, setting the boot sequence in the BIOS, changing which disk drive I have my Windows XP start up disk in, (I have two disk drives one is a regular CD drive the other is a DVDRW drive).

      Putting the CD in the regular CD drive and booting up gives me the boot from CD screen for maybe half a second then it skips to starting windows normally. Putting the CD in the DVDRW drive gives me the boot from CD screen for roughly 30 seconds then it skips to starting windows.

      I have tried to hit a key during the few seconds that it’s on the boot from CD screen but it does nothing. This is a very old machine (over 15 years), and it’s been reformatted before without issue. I really don’t know what kind of system it is either because it’s been rebuilt a couple of times.

      I know that the motherboard has been replaced at least once, and the power supply has been replaced twice since I’ve had it. I don’t know what any of the system specs are and I’m really not sure how to find out. So if anyone could help me out here it would be greatly appreciated.

      I run my own business from home, (just starting out) and I can’t afford to just go out and buy a new system (no matter how much I would love to) so this old POS is pretty much all I’ve got. Thanks much.

      • #2435459

        Reponse To Answer

        by purpleskys ·

        In reply to Help Please?

        you should repost this as a new question. Most folks would totally miss this posting and there are quite a few qualified people that search out this type of question.

    • #2426829

      computer wont boot from cd/dvd drive

      by columbianshark ·

      In reply to Computer won’t boot from CD drive

      I don’t normally post like this cause I hate creating accounts all over the freaking place and unfortunately the original question poster from 6 years ago will probably never see this but I figured it will help someone else for sure.First let me start off by saying that I have been building computers for years and have never ran across this particular issue before.I had extra cables and drives lying around so I began experimenting.My drive is connected via sata and the original bios detection sees the drive and the drive works under windows xp management but when i go to the boot menu the drive is not there and if I let the computer boot up it just bypasses the drive and loads from the hard drive.I tried changing the sata cable,changing the sata port and even the drive itself with no luck.At this point I am scratching my head and contemplating flashing the bios when I decided to clear cmos and voila.I unplugged the computer and took out the battery for about 1 minute and then re-booted,set the clock and date and now I am installing windows 7.There must have been some setting in the bios preventing the cd drive from booting.Hope this helps you:)

    • #2426818

      can’t Boot from CD drive?

      by das-9 ·

      In reply to Computer won’t boot from CD drive

      well the reason may be the autorun of the windows may be corrupted…..
      it happens improper burning of OS in a Disc.
      better to burn with nero updated version by mounting the copied disc image of actual OS in to a new DVD disc by the process of copying from virtual disc to original disc.
      to access disc image go for a virtual drive using DAEMON tools software….
      I hope this may helps you better to boot from DVD drive 🙂

      • #2426817

        Reponse To Answer

        by das-9 ·

        In reply to can’t Boot from CD drive?

        forget to say! that if does this really works, when U load your boot disc to ur computer/labtop, it asks like “press any key to boot from CD”

    • #2902180

      painful realization

      by allthunbs ·

      In reply to Computer won’t boot from CD drive

      I’ve just spent the last two days trying to get a “utility” system to boot. In the past, I’ve always selected ATAPI CD-ROM as the boot device and it worked perfectly. I guess I’m not using an ATAPI CD-ROM device any more. It has DVD capabilities so it wasn’t until I figured out that the boot list was showing me the model number of the DVD and not one of the Hard drives that it finally boot properly. the moral of the story, jot down all of the model numbers before you hard install them into the system. It’s also handy to note which is master, slave etc.

      Allthunbs

    • #2427507

      Not able to boot from CD

      by dennae ·

      In reply to Computer won’t boot from CD drive

      I have been struggling to reinstall windows xp for days now. I tried booting from floppy disks, cd-rom and a usb drive. I stumbled on this thread 10 minutes ago and realized that I am trying to install from my 2nd cd drive because the first has not opened for whatever reason in a very long time. After reading this thread I popped off the front of the computer, vacuumed out all of the dust, gave the top of the cd-drive a slight whack and voila it opened and I am now installing windows xp from the original cd-rom. Thanks guys, appreciate the help.

    • #2432361

      keyboard not responding when booting from cd rom

      by jcv777 ·

      In reply to Computer won’t boot from CD drive

      I spent hours on this before coming up with the solution. It ended up all I had to do was disable support for usb devices in my bios, saved, restarted and boot from cd worked. I guess as long as your not using a usb keyboard, or some kind of usb rom device, or installing from usb your good to go. With usb keyboard support enabled in my bios, my ps/2 keyboard must have still been able to function? That’s probably why someone elses solution was to reset the cmos, it reset to default? Don’t know don’t care all I know is that it was my solution. It makes sense now that I think about it.

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