comp problem

mist_01

New Member
so... i am trying to boot to a linux live cd. However, despite the fact i have my cd as my first boot option in bios it still refuses to boot the cd. it simply starts booting form the hard drive. Any ideas?
 
GEEK SQUAD ALERT...

ya ya i know. Um, my sugestion.. dont ask me :eek: best of luck to ya tho!
 
Is this a newly burned cd? What distro and version? Have you tried it on other computers? Have you tried any other Boot CD's? Is your cd drive functioning properly, have you tried loading other CD's while your OS is running since you started having this problem?
 
You need to have burned the cd using the proper tools. I am hoping you didn't just burn the .iso to a cd and hoped it worked...
 
It is correctly burned. I booted a virtual machine to the cd so i know the cd is working. I have not tired other cds but when i installed by current os i did it by cd instal. However, i will try and see if a different boot cd will lanch.
 
My motherboard has an option to manually select the boot device by pressing a key. I just use that and have never looked back.
 
ok, so have tried booting to two live cds and one normal instal cd. Nothing has worked. It simply boots into xp. I have switched my boot order around but i still can't get it to boot to cd. Any ideas? I know the cds are working.
 
Sometimes you can try disabling the other boot devices, such as the XP hard drive. Try that?

How many CD drives do you have? And, what are they (DVD, DVD-RW, CD, CD-RW, etc)?
 
Sometimes you can try disabling the other boot devices, such as the XP hard drive. Try that?

How many CD drives do you have? And, what are they (DVD, DVD-RW, CD, CD-RW, etc)?

If you have two cd roms, burn another copy and put one in each. :)

Some computers you have to choose when it starts up to boot from CD. Most use the F1 key . I'd press it before as it restarts every 1 to 2 seconds and see if it will boot then.
 
If you have two cd roms, burn another copy and put one in each. :)

Some computers you have to choose when it starts up to boot from CD. Most use the F1 key . I'd press it before as it restarts every 1 to 2 seconds and see if it will boot then.

Actually more often than not motherboards boot device menu is accessible by pressing F8, F10 or F12 after you turn on your system.
 
my bios dose not let me disable boot options, just switch priority, i will try the pressing the F keys and update this thread. Thx for the suggestions.
 
nope, no luck with the F keys either, ill go see if i can dig up the manual for the motherboard. Please let me know if you have any other ideas or work arounds.
 
Well if you're only trying to use the boot CD and don't care whether or not you can see the hard drive or not, you can always try unplugging the HD and see if the CD will boot without an HD present.
 
Hmmm... Check to see that you have your CD drive plugged in with the Master end of the IDE cable and not Slave. Also check the jumper on the CD drive and make sure it isn't set to slave.
 
I loaded xp from a disc tho, it worked fine then and that was just a few mounths ago. Some how it is simply booting to HD first. You might be right about the primary and slave tho, ill have to take a look. However, i still don't under stand why it worked the first time and not now.
 
Well if the hard drive was brand new it makes perfect sense. If there is no bootable partition than your motherboard simply tried to boot the HD and in finding no bootable partition, it skipped the HD and went to the next device in the priority list; the CD.
 
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