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Can't boot from CD?

rppa

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Joined
May 14, 2004
Messages
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This is probably an easy problem. I have a system which is just limping along, needs Windows and a bunch of stuff reinstalled (I'm running out of a small Linux partition). But I can't install anything that requires booting from the CD drive. I can read the CD drive, but supposedly bootable CDs (like my Windows and Linux install CDs, and Partition Magic, and a bunch of other crucial stuff) won't boot.

Does anybody have any clue what might be wrong?
 
Usually, you need to enable booting from CD from the BIOS. When you boot, you should get a message like "Press {F1, Alt-F2, ESC} to enter BIOS settings". Do that and check to see if you can change boot order to boot from CD first.
 
On a lot of systems you can boot to CD by holding down the left shift key while the PC starts up. Try that. :D
 
I should clarify.

I know about setting the BIOS. I've got my BIOS set to boot from CD. The problem is that when I've got a supposedly bootable-CD in there, it doesn't want to boot. Just chews on it for awhile then spits out an error message.

Otherwise the CD-R drive seems to work fine for reading and writing CDs, though I haven't tried to make a *bootable* CD with it. Hmmm.

I'm limited in what I can do on this system because of the booting problem. Basically I have an unusable Windows partition I haven't been able to reinstall, and a barely functional Linux partition I can't modify for the same reason.
 
How old is the CD-ROM drive itself? If it's "vintage", your problem may be there.

Edit: scratch that --- you say it's a writer too, so it can't be old enough for the problem I was thinking.

What is the error it spits out?

Make sure it has the Master/Slave jumper set correctly...it you have it jumpered as Slave and there is no Master, it can behave as you describe.
 
Also, related to my post above, if the drive is jumpered to CS (cable select), and the drive is alone on an IDE cable in the Slave position, it has the same effect as incorrect jumpers.
 
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