I have set the BIOS to first boot CDRom, 2nd HD0. I have one CDrom installed (DVDRW installed but not connected to power). With a bootable CD (factory XP) it will not boot. Goes directly to HD. I need to run a application from boot and can't get there. Any suggestions??

I am assuming that this application is a application you have burnt yourself?

If so, did you finalise the disk? Some cd rom drives can't read unfinalised disks

Hi,

I've had this problem in the past. You must set your boot procedure to exclude your hard drive completely. If your bios doesn't let you exclude the Hard drive then just set the first one to floppy and the rest all to the cd rom drive, it will then prompt you to press a key to boot from the CD.

Hope this helps.

G

As stated in my message "it is a factory XP pro cd"

Tried that (exclude HD) and then nothing happened at all. I have had the BIOS set everything from CD first to CD for all three. I had also confirmed on another computer that the XP pro CD is in fact bootable. Also removed power from my DVDRW so that only the CDROM is present

oh ok...have you tried it the old fashioned way? Can you get to a DOS promt? Try hitting some of the Fkeys, or using an old Windows 98 startup disk if you have one.

You should then be able to select the right CD rom drive and execute windows setup from there.

On the DOS promt type:

CD: D (try E or F is D dosent work)

then
D: SETUP or D:CDSETUP then D:SETUP/SETUP

I think that might work...

OS is XP so a 98 disc wouldn't work. I can only get a "dos" prompt after XP boots and I can't to anything prior to the boot except access the BIOS.

greetings Myronbg

was just wondering if your BIOS recognizes the CDROM during "POST"

If you mean once it's running the answer is yes. If I put in an application, and as "auto open" is "on", the application boots.
I had both CDROM and DVD installed and un-plugged the DVD so that there would only be one installed