Can't boot from CD to install XP

Go into your BIOS settings and disable you computer from being able to boot from anything but your CD ROM drive, save and exit then reboot with your CD-ROM in place.

OK, I tried that. Now I get :

"Invalid boot diskette"
"Insert BOOT diskette in A:"

Which type of boot diskette does this BIOS need?

It seems like you dont quite have it right, it shouldnt be looking for A: as this is unlikely to be your CD-ROm drive.

Try this http://www.windowsne...lmig/bootcd.htm

It may not be identical to your BIOS screen, but it should at least point you int he right direction.

BIOS: first (and only ) boot device: ATAPI CDROM
All others disabled.

As everyone else said.. make it so the CD drive is the only bootable device. Second, is this a copied windows install disk or a original?

-Matt

I'm using a backup copy of the Dell OEM XP software on CD.

Howdy:

Your problem is probably the copied backup cd.. You need the original Resore/Recovery cd for THAT particular system !!

Murray

Edited by Murray S., 02 August 2005 - 08:26 AM.

matt...did you burn this copy as a bootable image of the original cd?

I have another XP system that boots fine off the CD. I think something is just wrong with mobo or machine. The BIOS boot order is set to ONLY boot from a CD. However, the led on the CD drive only comes on when the system is rebooting. Any other suggestions?

Doesn't matter and you still haven't answered the question: Where is the original cd nand just how many systems have you used this cd on??

Murray

Edited by Murray S., 02 August 2005 - 02:02 PM.

on newer dell computers, the OS is on partition 1, because they have a utility partition on partition 0. if you formatted that partition too, it could be acting all funky

the HD was a mess, so I partitioned and formatted the whole thing. besides, i turned off all other boot devices besides the cd rom.

The cd does boot in another machine, so it works. the cd-rom shows up on the screen during boot sequence, so machine is seeing it. i swapped the cd rom out to another machine, and it works.

no bootable cd roms work in this machine, even though it is supposed to and has done so in the past.

nothing helps.

Yet, you say if you swap that cd-rom into another system, that system will boot using a bootable cd??

Almost seems like even though CMOS is saying Boot from the cd-rom, it isn't recognizing that..

Does setup have an option to boot using PXE (network) or Usb??

Murray

yep- i knew it was a weird one. the disk works fine now. I swapped a cd rom from the other machine and SURPRISE! it works. Nothing was changed in BIOS. Original CDROM works fine in new machine. go figure.

This machine is going to be a gift for a charitable organization, so I just want it to work correctly. As they say, no good deed goes unpunished!

Well, you are trying to install a Microsoft product right??

Murray