Member Avatar for sweetczz

I want to make a CD boot disk but my boot sequence in bios needs to show this. I could use some step by step instructions. I think I start with f8 - GO INTO BIOS and i guess there is a check off where I click boot look for cd or something? I dont have a floppy drive (yea strange) but tons of other hard drives like flash disks etc that only take so much memory

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A few clarifications and practical steps that build on 's good points and should get a CD to boot reliably.

Most motherboards do not use F8 for setup (F8 is Windows' Safe Mode). During the initial power-on (POST) watch the screen for a brief message such as "Press DEL to enter Setup" or "Press F12 for Boot Menu." Common setup keys are Delete or F2; common one-time boot-menu keys include F12, Esc or F10 (varies by vendor). If the keypress is missed, reboot and try again.

Step-by-step (safe, minimal changes):

  1. Power on and press the setup key shown on-screen to enter BIOS/UEFI setup.
  2. Find the Boot, Boot Order or Boot Device Priority menu. The BIOS UI varies, but the goal is the same: set the optical drive (CD-ROM / DVD-ROM / USB-CD) as 1st and the hard drive as 2nd, or use the one-time Boot Menu to choose the CD for this boot only.
  3. Save and Exit (usually F10). On a successful bootable disc the system typically pauses with "Press any key to boot from CD..." — press a key while that message is visible.

Notes on making a bootable CD and troubleshooting:

  • Burn the ISO as an image (use the "burn image" option); do not simply copy the .iso file to the disc. Finalize the disc and burn at a moderate or slow speed for compatibility.
  • If the BIOS/UEFI does not list the optical drive, check power and data cables (IDE/SATA) and whether the drive appears in the BIOS hardware list. For external USB drives look for entries named like "USB CD-ROM", "USB-HDD" or use the boot menu.
  • On modern systems with UEFI and Secure Boot, legacy BIOS-style CD media may not boot unless Legacy/CSM is enabled or Secure Boot is turned off; in that case a USB installer prepared for UEFI is usually easier.

If the optical route still fails, a one-time boot menu (if available) or creating a USB installer are the usual alternatives.

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Member Avatar for Catweazle

It's quite unlikely that F8 is the keypress to access BIOS setup. That's the keypress usually reserved for accessing Windows 'Safe Mode'. Most motherboards require the <Delete> key to be pressed while the system is first powering up in order to access BIOS setup, although proprietary 'name brand' PCs may have a different keypress.

See this article for further information.


Once in BIOS setup look through the menus to find the items which related to 'Boot order' or 'Boot device'. The keys used to navigate the menus and make changes will be shown onscreen, so there's no need to describe them.

You will usually have a list of entries on an 'Advanced' menu which will indicate the order of boot devices, and the most useful method is to set CD-ROM as '1st boot device' and HDD-0 as '2nd boot device'. Some older systems may have a single setting for 'Boot Order' and you need to cycle through the available options to locate the most relevent one. Ensure you Saves the changes before exiting BIOS setup.

Some name brand systems will boot directly from CD without an onscreen message, but most assembled PCs will display an onscreen message asking you to "Press a key" to boot from CD, so you need to be watching the screen during the power-up process or you'll miss it, and the system will try to boot from hard drive or elsewhere regardless.

Member Avatar for Catweazle

ooops!!!! :o

Thanks mate. I forgot to include the hyperlink

Way to 'pimp' my own work, eh? :D

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