Can't boot from a DVD or CD/R drive?

[Thanh-BKK]

Hello :)

Recently i was running into some problem which had Windows freezing upon start, so i decided to give it a go and reinstall from the CD.

I set my CD/DVD-Rom drive as first boot device in the BIOS, inserted the Windows XP CD and restarted.

It came to "Press any key to boot from ATAPI CD-ROM" which i confirmed by pressing the enter key, and there it went - the CD started spinning, but all i got was a black screen with a blinking cursor. I waited for several minutes, the CD eventually stopped spinning and nothing else happened, so i repeated the procedure by pressing the "Reset" key.... same result, so i tought that maybe a DVD-Rom drive just can't be used to boot. No problem, i got a second drive, here a CD/R. In the BIOS i set THAT one as first boot device, inserted the CD in it, restart.... and.... SAME RESULT.

I ended up in opening the machine, disconnecting the DVD drive, plugging in an antique 4x CD-ROM that i still have and that still works (they just made them better quality back then) and bootet from that one - no problem whatsoever. I didn't bother to install from it, but after booting i got the option to "repair previous installation" which did the trick.

However now i want to know - how to get the PC to boot from a DVD or a CD/R drive? The drives in question are a SAMSUNG SW-208 CD Re/Writer and a ASUS DVD drive, but i can't remember what model precisely. The mainboard is a ASUS a7a-133, CPU is Duron 1000 running at 1.200 MHz, PSU is Enermax 380 Watts. RAM is 3x 256 MB INFINEON SD. Harddisks are Maxtor 40 GB and Seagate 40 GB.

Kind regards.....

your Thanh

[Sphyenx]

After 2000 billi gates made it so the computer will bood from the harddrive first. Your going to have to edit your bios, to allow your computer to boot CDROM1 on boot. What you do is start up the computer and hit either F8, or delete on start up when the mother board begins to work. Then view boot setting's and change that process, Then try again. If this doesn't work. Let us know.

[TheOgre]

From what you stated, you did everything properly, but it's weird that you had that issue with both drives. I've seen times where you have to boot from the master (CD/DVD) drive when there are 2 installed, but never had both fail to spin up before. Luckily you solved your problem :)

[FYI: The operating system has absolutely NOTHING to do with which drive your system boots from. Pressing "F8" on a Windows-based O/S enters a boot menu for choosing Safe Mode and other options, not for entering the BIOS setup.]

[Sphyenx]

wrong key, my bad. Yes it is delete.
note* i didnt say it had anything to do with any operating system.

[TheOgre]

note* i didnt say it had anything to do with any operating system.

After 2000 billi gates made it so the computer will bood from the harddrive first.

'nuff said.

[Sphyenx]

ok you win (=, my bad.

[Thanh-BKK]

Hello :)

Thank you for the replies :) However my actual question remains unanswered.....

I DID have each device set in the BIOS as first boot device (on my machine i have to hit "delete" to get into there, right after pressing the power button because the machine boots/post's a hell fast) and i am presented with three "boot devices", as there are "Harddisk" (which i can select the first or the second HDD, if i have the second one mounted since that one is in a removable frame), "Optical Device" from which i can select either of the CD drives (here in my case either the DVD, which is master on IDE2 or the CD/R which is slave on IDE2) and the third choice are the floppies, again i can chose between two because i have indeed two 3,5" floppy drives installed.

What did puzzle me is the fact that either optical drive does start to spin the disk, as if it would be reading - the screen then says "booting from ATAPI CD-ROM" with either drive - yet nothing else happens, it will go to a black screen with just a blinking cursor and the booting process sort of stops there. After a while the CD will stop spinning and the computer will not react to any input from either keyboard or mouse. When i press the "eject" button on the respective CD drive, it will eject the CD, if i close it again it will briefly spin it up as if readinmg it but again, the booting process will not continue.

In the meantime i did some research and found that i need to "boot" from a floppy disk which includes a specific driver for either drive - CD/R or DVD - in order to "load" data from those. It looks like i am screwed, having TWO non-ATAPI compatible devices in my machine. I did try with the floppy disk that was included in the package of the DVD drive, and indeed it works - it boots into DOS and gives me a command prompt from which i can chose the DVD drive (in that case "D:" because neither the partitions of the HDD nor the second HDD nor the CD/R drive are detected!) and THEN it will allow me to run "setup" from the Windows XP CD, which in turn will well detect all the partitions and physical drives. A bit confusing, but it does work.

I remember that the CD/R drive, when i bought it three years back, came with such floppy disk as well, i guess that one served the same purpose. I don't have it anymore, because i never used it - either drive, once physically mounted in my machine, was immediately and correctly identified and installed by XP and was working from the very first start without any extra drivers.

Maybe what's causing me a bit hickhack is the fact that both of the HDD's are using NTFS exclusively? It would at least explain why the startup disk from the DVD drive will not detect any of the partitions. I have four identical partitions on either HDD since the second one serves as a 1:1 backup of the first, which i update once a month or so, enabling me in the case of a total HDD loss to still have fairly recent data content available. I once fried a HDD and know what it means to lose everything.

Still my original question remains - is there a way to "trick" the PC into booting from a DVD or CD/R directly, without needing a driver floppy first? I am thinking of machines without floppy drive, as they are more and more common nowadays.

Kind regards.....

Thanh

[TheOgre]

It looks like i am screwed, having TWO non-ATAPI compatible devices in my machine.

Are these drives SCSI?

[Thanh-BKK]

Are these drives SCSI?

Nah.... no SCSI in my machine. Again my configuiration here:

IDE1: Master device: HDD Maxtor, 40 GB. Slave device: HDD Seagate, 40 GB, removable via frame (normally NOT present, only during backup process)

IDE2: Master Device: DVD drive ASUS (16x). Slave device: CD Re/Writer Samsung SW208.

The comment "non ATAPI compatible" was because i tought that a CD writer or a DVD drive normally should be able to run in ATAPI mode and function as an ordinary CD drive at least - in a case such as mine, where a "boot from CD" is required without a chance to load a driver first. (imagine i would not have a floppy drive!)

Kind regards.....

Thanh

[speckr]

Thank you, very much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[anusha11]

i am tryng to clean my system from previous installations,so tried to boot from dvd.i am getting a message ""press any key to continue to boot from cd/dvd"".The problem is my system simply stops while loading files screen which comes just after i press any key.

please help me.
thanq
anusha