[BernieDoc]

Hi,

Although my system is fairly stable, there's been a few hiccups with some of the software locking. So, I thought I'd wipe my hard drive and reinstall XP as it's been a very long time since I did so.

When I reboot I am prompted to 'press any key to boot from CD'. I do this, but my system won't boot from the CD, completely ignoring the CD installation disc and booting from the 'C' drive.

The BIOS is set to boot from the CD drives first. The CD works fine as does the Disc, which I can open and browse when in windows.

I just can't get the system to boot from the CD so that I can reformat the Hard Drive and reinstall Windows.

Help!

Many Thanks

Bernie

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Hi BernieDoc...

Do you have more than one cd-rom drive on the machine. If you do, try using the other cd drive.

wannabe1

[wannabe1]

Hi BernieDoc...

Do you have more than one cd-rom drive on the machine. If you do, try using the other cd drive.

wannabe1

[BernieDoc]

I've tried booting from both CD-RoMs, but no joy. It gets as far as asking me to press any key to boot from CD, then just goes through the normal bootup from HD.

[BernieDoc]

Anyone else got any suggestions for what I can do to get my system to boot and reinstall from CD?

[wannabe1]

Is the cd you are using a Microsoft Retail version, or an OEM Recovery cd?

[BlutoniumBoy]

If this is not a OEM, retail or "imaged" copy it will not boot. There is a Microsoft boot file that is hidden on the disk and if not copied correctly, this hidden boot file will not be copied and therefore will not be bootable.

Edited by BlutoniumBoy, 20 December 2006 - 02:13 PM.

[BernieDoc]

It's the original OEM recovery disc, but it does contain the full Windows XP installation on the disc, as opposed to loading this from the HD (If that makes sense?)

I've used this disc to reinstall XP previously; but not for about a year.

[wannabe1]

Hmmm...

Let's check for filters on the cd-rom drives.

Click Start then Run and type regedit...click "Ok"

In the left pane, expand (click +) HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, then SYSTEM, then CurrentControlSet, then Control, then Class, and click on {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

In the right pane, are UpperFilters and/or LowerFilters listed?

[BernieDoc]

Yes, both UpperFilters and LowerFilters are listed. There's also one called, UpperFilters_1

[wannabe1]

Right click on {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} and choose "Export". Name this file "filters' (without the quotes) and save it to your desktop.

Right click on LowerFilters and choose "Delete"...Accept the deletion. Right click on UpperFilters and choose "Delete"...Accept the deletion. Do the same for UpperFilters_1.

Close Registry Editor and reboot.

Then try your installation again.

[Tyger]

If wannabe's suggestion doensn't work you might want to try SmartBootManager. It's a utility that you image to a floppy. You can use rawwritewin.exe to do that. It allows you to boot from any device. Both are freeware.

[BernieDoc]

Still no joy. I've altered the Registry, but it still won't boot from CD.

Just a thought, but is it possible that keystrokes from my wireless keyboard are simply not being recognised at bootup? The press any key option appears, which gives me the option to boot from CD, so the CD is being recognised, but then the periods seem to countdown and no amount of key presses seems to be recognised.

I don't know if it's related, but if I interupt bootup to enter safemode, I can't use any keys to move the cursor about the screen, meaning that I can only accept the option that is selected; which is normal startup; and can't move the cursor to select, e.g. safemode.

It's making me wonder if it's not the bootup process, but a keyboard issue. I.E. perhaps the USB element of the keyboard isn't enabled, so the computer simply isn't recognising the keypresses?

(Just had an afterthought.... My system recognises the 'delete' keypress to enter the BIOS, so perhaps this debunks my theory?)

Any thoughts?

Edited by BernieDoc, 24 December 2006 - 07:53 AM.

[wannabe1]

I know how to find out....try a PS2 keyboard and see if you can get it to boot from the cd.

[BernieDoc]

Will do. But, as I don't own one, it'll probably be a few days before I let you know if it worked.

Merry Christmas Everyone, and thanks for the help so far.