[andy!]

hi,

i have a dell inspiron 1100. the internal cd drive died a while ago, and i purchased an external usb dvd/cd drive. id like to do a clean install, but i dont seem to be able to boot the system disk off of a usb drive. is there a way to do it that im unaware of? do i have any other options aside from buying a new internal drive?

thanks!

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Hi andy!

Turn on your laptop and when the Dell logo appears, press F12. This will display on the screen the devices you can boot from and gives you the ability to choose which one you want to boot from. Make sure your usb cd drive is connected to the computer AND it is powered on before doing this so that the computer can recognize it. I have never tried to boot from an external cd drive on a dell inspiron, so I don't know if it will be listed, but it's definitely worth a shot.

Fenor

Edited by Fenor, 29 January 2007 - 04:55 PM.

[Fenor]

Hi andy!

Turn on your laptop and when the Dell logo appears, press F12. This will display on the screen the devices you can boot from and gives you the ability to choose which one you want to boot from. Make sure your usb cd drive is connected to the computer AND it is powered on before doing this so that the computer can recognize it. I have never tried to boot from an external cd drive on a dell inspiron, so I don't know if it will be listed, but it's definitely worth a shot.

Fenor

Edited by Fenor, 29 January 2007 - 04:55 PM.

[andy!]

Hi andy!

Turn on your laptop and when the Dell logo appears, press F12. This will display on the screen the devices you can boot from and gives you the ability to choose which one you want to boot from.

Fenor

yeah i have tried this before with no luck. the usb drive isnt a boot option in the list.

[Fenor]

Then unfortunately it doesn't look like booting from a USB device is supported. You can try updated the bios on the computer, but that is risky and can render the laptop useless unless you know exactly what you are doing.

Fenor

[andy!]

Then unfortunately it doesn't look like booting from a USB device is supported. You can try updated the bios on the computer, but that is risky and can render the laptop useless unless you know exactly what you are doing.

Fenor

is there a way to use an image utility (daemon tools etc) to load the image? im assuming not, since i want to format the hard drive and do a clean install, which will erase the iso file and not give me anything to install from.

are there any other options you can think of aside from buying a new internal drive?

[Fenor]

Unless updating the bios enables usb support for external devices, there really is no other alternative other then to buy a new cd/dvd-rom drive.

Fenor

[andy!]

ressurecting an old topic...


when i press f12, in the boot options menu i have pushed "usb storage device" to the top of the order

but when i exit setup and the computer continues booting, it boots off the harddrive and not the usb cd...

so frustrating!

i (think) i have the latest bios for my laptop (phoenix rom bios plus version 1.10 A32)

is there something else im forgetting or overlooking?

there is a bootable cd in the drive too