Booting from CD Question

  • Thread starter Thread starter Just Judy
  • Start date Start date
J

Just Judy

In many posts here, I've seen reference made to "Make sure your
PC is set to boot from CD."

I'm running XP-Home, with SP2. It's an E-Machine bought 13
months ago from Brands Mart, and I have the OEM CD. It's a perfectly
stable system, and I have zero desire to mess with it's innards now,
but I'm hoping to have the answers in advance of needing any reformat.
I'm afraid to put the OEM CD in_now_and trying to boot up, just in case
I find myself confronted with something I don't understand, and can't
get out of. I don't do HIKEY stuff. <g>

In the event I_later_need to reformat, how can I know_now_if my
PC will boot from the CD? ;)

Thanks for your time; I'll be back here hoping for a response,
 
Just said:
In many posts here, I've seen reference made to "Make sure your
PC is set to boot from CD."

I'm running XP-Home, with SP2. It's an E-Machine bought 13
months ago from Brands Mart, and I have the OEM CD. It's a perfectly
stable system, and I have zero desire to mess with it's innards now,
but I'm hoping to have the answers in advance of needing any reformat.
I'm afraid to put the OEM CD in_now_and trying to boot up, just in
case I find myself confronted with something I don't understand, and
can't
get out of. I don't do HIKEY stuff. <g>

In the event I_later_need to reformat, how can I know_now_if my
PC will boot from the CD? ;)
Click to expand...

When you first start your computer, before the operating system is
loaded, there should be a prompt that says something like "F2 for
Setup" and maybe even "F12 for one-time boot order". If you don't get
the latter, then you will need to go into Setup (the BIOS) and change
the boot order there. The prompts differ from motherboard to
motherboard, so yours may be something else like "DEL". Here's a
helpful link about that:

http://michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm

It will not hurt anything for you to go into Setup and see what your
boot order is. You don't need to try and boot from the Restore Disk to
do this. To boot from the CD, you'd want the boot order to be CD first,
then hard drive, then possibly a third device (if you have a floppy for
instance). Don't change anything else in Setup.

Malke
 
Judy,

You need to watch your screen while your machine boots, for instructions on
how to enter setup. It'll say "press del or F2" or similar. In setup, find
the option to boot from your CD drive. That's what you'd select if you
needed it, then you'd save the changes and your machine will reboot.
Otherwise just exit without saving the changes and you're back where you are
now. I can't give you more detail as setup differs from machine to machine.

HTH

Tony.
 
Just said:
In many posts here, I've seen reference made to "Make sure your
PC is set to boot from CD."

I'm running XP-Home, with SP2. It's an E-Machine bought 13
months ago from Brands Mart, and I have the OEM CD. It's a perfectly
stable system, and I have zero desire to mess with it's innards now,
but I'm hoping to have the answers in advance of needing any reformat.
I'm afraid to put the OEM CD in_now_and trying to boot up, just in
case I find myself confronted with something I don't understand, and
can't get out of. I don't do HIKEY stuff. <g>

In the event I_later_need to reformat, how can I know_now_if my
PC will boot from the CD? ;)

Thanks for your time; I'll be back here hoping for a response,
Click to expand...


The BIOS setup program (see below for how to access it) lets you set many
options for your computer. One of those options is the "Boot Order," the
order in which the computer tries the various possible boot devices. In
order to boot from the CD, the CD drive has to be before the hard drive in
that boot order.

You can set that order now to put the CD before the hard drive, or you can
wait to do it when (or if) you need to boot from a CD. It doesn't matter a
whole lot. When people say "Make sure your PC is set to boot from CD," they
are not telling you to find out if it's possible, but just to remind you to
make sure you've set it that way.


*****************************

How to Get In to BIOS Setup Program

How to get into your BIOS depends, not on Windows, but on what
motherboard/BIOS you have. As a matter of fact, you have to access the BIOS
before Windows even starts to boot. One common way is to press the Del key
when you first power on, but that's not necessarily right for your computer.
Watch the screen carefully when you first boot; there's often a message
there telling you what to do. If not, check your system documentation or
check with your vendor.

Also look here: http://michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm Or just
try the Del key. There's a good chance that's correct for you.
 
In many posts here, I've seen reference made to "Make sure your
PC is set to boot from CD."
Click to expand...

Thanks to Malke, Tony, and Ken for their responses. I feel
much better now. ;)

Ken wrote: "When people say "Make sure your PC is set to boot
from CD," they are not telling you to find out if it's possible, but
just to remind you to make sure you've set it that way."

When/if that time arrives, I'll at least know what could be the
cause of the inability to boot, and be prepared to deal with it then.

Thanks folks,
 
Just said:
Thanks to Malke, Tony, and Ken for their responses. I feel
much better now. ;)

Ken wrote: "When people say "Make sure your PC is set to boot
from CD," they are not telling you to find out if it's possible, but
just to remind you to make sure you've set it that way."

When/if that time arrives, I'll at least know what could be the
cause of the inability to boot, and be prepared to deal with it then.

Thanks folks,
Click to expand...


You're welcome, Judy. Glad to help.
 
You're welcome, Judy. Glad to help.
Click to expand...

I had thought that the computer would boot thru the list of
possibilities and would eventually boot from the CD if that was the only
place that had a bootable pg??
Not true??
Thanks
Regards
Buddy b
 
Buddy said:
I had thought that the computer would boot thru the list of
possibilities and would eventually boot from the CD if that was the only
place that had a bootable pg??
Not true??
Thanks
Regards
Buddy b
Click to expand...
True if all other options do not boot but what if you want to boot from
the CD even if your C drive is still bootable,say for a repair install?

gls858
 
Mon, 06 Feb 2006 21:31:04 GMT from <Buddy B
(e-mail address removed)>:
I had thought that the computer would boot thru the list of
possibilities and would eventually boot from the CD if that was the only
place that had a bootable pg??
Not true??
Click to expand...

It depends on how you've configured your BIOS.
 
Back
Top