Jump to content

Welcome to Geeks to Go - Register now for FREE

Need help with your computer or device? Want to learn new tech skills? You're in the right place!
Geeks to Go is a friendly community of tech experts who can solve any problem you have. Just create a free account and post your question. Our volunteers will reply quickly and guide you through the steps. Don't let tech troubles stop you. Join Geeks to Go now and get the support you need!

How it Works Create Account
Photo

Unable to boot from CD-ROM on Compaq


  • Please log in to reply

#1
il_cattivo

il_cattivo

    New Member

  • Member
  • Pip
  • 2 posts
I did find a topic somewhat similar to this in the Win98 threads but it wasn't exactly what I was looking for.

I have an old Compaq that I recently installed an LG 52x24x cd-rom on (hooked it up with the EIDE & power cable, etc). The installation of windows on the hdd is corrupt and won't boot. So I specified in the bios to boot from the CD-ROM first. I've tried a Windows 2000 disc and the GParted open source partitioner live cd (haven't tried a Fedora live iso yet). I still get the same "Operating system not found on any devices. Press any key to continue" message. Basically the machine won't boot any cd I've tried.

It does detect the cd-rom and I have specfieid in the bios to freshly detect new devices on reboot. Still same result.

Any ideas? Something on google spoke of using the master and slave pins but I'm unfamilliar with how that works.
  • 0

Advertisements


#2
rshaffer61

rshaffer61

    Moderator

  • Moderator
  • 34,114 posts
Does the bios see both the hard drive and the cdrom?
Is the hard drive and cdrom on the same IDE cable?
  • 0

#3
il_cattivo

il_cattivo

    New Member

  • Topic Starter
  • Member
  • Pip
  • 2 posts
Yeah both are listed in the bios settings. And they are on the same cable. I wonder if a linux live cd will work. Still that shouldn't be necessary...
  • 0

#4
rshaffer61

rshaffer61

    Moderator

  • Moderator
  • 34,114 posts
Any linux live cd will work like Gparted.
Try this and let me know if it boots to this Linux live cd. Pay close attention to how you burn the disk as it can not be burned as a data disk..
Get Puppy Linux from my signature below...Get puppy-2.16-seamonkey-fulldrivers.iso download it and burn it to cd
..
if you don't have a burning program that will burn .ISO files get Burncdcc from my signature...it is a small FAST no frills iso burning program...

NOTE...do not put a blank cd in until burncdcc opens the tray for you
1. Start BurnCDCC
2. Browse to the ISO file you want to burn on cd/dvd ....in this case its puppy-2.16-seamonkey-fulldrivers.iso
3. Select the ISO file
4. click on Start

make sure in the bios the cd drive is the first boot device....

put the cd in the cd drive..boot your computer....puppy will boot and run totally in ram...if your hardware is is good working order you will know...
after you get it running and your at the desktop...you take the puppy linux cd out and then you can use the burner to copy all your data to cd/dvds
you can also use it to backup your data to a external usb harddrive..just have it hooked to the computer when you boot up with puppy...

==========================
quick guide for saving data...music..files on a system that will not boot using puppy Linux..


after you get to puppy desktop..
click on the drives icon...looks like a flash drive...top row..it will list all the drives connected to

your computer...

click on the red icon for the drive you want to mount...in this case its a flash drive ...puppy will

mount the drive..the drive icon turns green when its mounted...
minimize the drives mounter window..you will need it again in a few minutes..
drag the right edge of it sideways to shrink it to its narrowest size...about half the width of the screen...then drag the window to the right edge of the screen...

now click on the icon that looks like a filing cabinet (kind of yellow) on the main drive...it should
already be green..
you will see a list of all the folders on the main drive Usually your C: drive..shrink that window to
the narrowest you can..about half the width of the screen...drag that window to the left side of the screen...
at this point you should have 2 windows open on your desktop..the flash drive on the right side..
go back to the folders on the C: drive...click on the documents and settings folder...then your user
name or all users..find the folders that has your data..
drag and drop the folder with the data you want to make copies of to the flash drive window...

your options are to move ..copy ect...JUST COPY..if its to big you will have to open the folder and
drag and drop individual files until the flash drive is full...(I have a 120 GB external USB drive for
big data recovery jobs and a 4 GB flash drive for the smaller jobs)..after you get the files copied to
the flash drive...
Click on the drives mounter you minimized earlier
UNMOUNT THE FLASH DRIVE by clicking on the green icon..you will once in awhile get error messages when
unmouting the drive..ignore them..when the flash drive icon turns red again its safe to remove the
flash drive..trot on over (stroll if you want to look cool) to another computer and plug in the flash

drive and copy all the data files ( I drag and drop) to the other computer..
make sure the other computer can read them...

now delete the data on the flash drive...take it back to the misbehaving computer and plug it in

again..click on the drives icon again and repeat until you have all your data transferred to the working
system..

Thanks to happyrock
  • 0






Similar Topics

0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users

As Featured On:

Microsoft Yahoo BBC MSN PC Magazine Washington Post HP