No Booting form DVD-Drive

[Manfred Heuer]

Hello!

Why do older computers not boot from a DVD-Drive?

Is it the DVD-Drive or the mainboard (with its BIOS or the onboard
controller)?

Thanks Manfred

 

[David B.]

Not really a Vista related question as any computer capable of running Vista
will be capable of booting from DVD. If the machine is so old that the BIOS
doesn't support booting from DVD, it isn't going to run Vista anyway.

 

[Manfred Heuer]

Hello again!

Not really a Vista related question as any computer capable of running
Vista will be capable of booting from DVD.

Not quite! We tested it at work: only machines younger than a year could
boot from a DVD-Drive.

The older computers are not that old: about 3 to 4 years, with CPUs faster
than 3 GHz. But all of them failed to boot from an Install-DVD-ROM.
But you could install Vista as a second operation system.

But we did not try out yet a new DVD-Drive in an older computer, so we would
have found out ourselves. That is why we asked to find out without testing
it.

Greetings Manfred

 

[Curious]

My over three year old MOBO boots DVDs fine when I select the DVD drive as
the primary boot drive in my BIOS.
Does your BIOS not see the drive? And if it does are you sure that you can
not in your BIOS select it as the primary (1ST) Boot device?

 

[Manfred Heuer]

Hello Curious!

My over three year old MOBO boots DVDs fine when I select the DVD drive as
the primary boot drive in my BIOS.

Does your BIOS not see the drive?

Yes, it does see it!

And if it does are you sure that you can not in your BIOS select it as the
primary (1ST) Boot device?

Yes, I can and did select it as primary device. But only CDs can boot, but
no DVDs.
And the DVD is all right, it boots in newer Computers.

I was really surprised, that it does not function and it made me curious
why.
And until now, I did not find an answer in the net - that is why I asked
here.

Greetings Manfred

 

[Curious]

Is the BIOS for your MOBO the most current?
Do you have any problem playing DVDs using the drive?

 

[Richard Urban]

Your statement: "We tested it at work: only machines younger than a year
could
boot from a DVD-Drive" is absolutely ***FALSE***.

Lord, I have worked on literally hundreds of computers 4,5 even 6 years old
that can boot from a CD or DVD disk easily.

I will bet that those at work who tried to boot from the DVD had actually
installed the DVD disk into a CD drive.

Else they do not know what they are doing and are incapable of altering the
computer bios to allow booting from an optical disk!

 

[Dominic Payer]

It may be that the drives cannot read the particular type of DVD or CD
and need firmware updates. Check for firmware updates for the drives on
their manufacturers' sites.

 

[David B.]

Your testing is flawed, PC's have been booting from CD/DVD drives for over
10 years now.

 

[R. C. White]

HI Manfred.

Yes, I can and did select it as primary device. But only CDs can boot, but
no DVDs.

Perhaps the DVD laser is burned out, even though the CD laser in that drive
still works - and the drive still spins. (Yes, it has happened to me.)

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8064.0206) in Win7 Ultimate x64 RC 7100

 

[Curious]

The following form of the OPs previous posts implies that a DVD drive can be
read by the system.
"
The older computers are not that old: about 3 to 4 years, with CPUs faster
than 3 GHz. But all of them failed to boot from an Install-DVD-ROM.
But you could install Vista as a second operation system.
"
What I would like to know is what messages if any the OP gets on the system
display when an attempt to boot from an installation DVD is attempted when
the BIOS settings are set to boot from the DVD optical drive first.

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Curious.

Yes, I meant to ask about error messages, too, but forgot.

But you could install Vista as a second operation system.

I kind of skimmed over this since the Vista files could be read from another
source (unlikely, but possible - USB, another HDD volume...). His mention
of multiple "older" computers also makes my idea unlikely - though still
possible. Clutching at straws, I suppose.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8064.0206) in Win7 Ultimate x64 RC 7100

 

[Manfred Heuer]

Hello again!

First I thank you all for your help!

I must admit that the question has been held to common and was simplified
too much.
I just diskjockeyed a bit at home - first time, it seems, with a VISTA-DVD,
and the result: it boots fine, although my computer is pretty akin to those
at work and even a year older.

And then I remembered why and when I was confused about:

It was all about a Windows 7 DVD! I made that DVD at work (for I have no
writer at home), tried the DVD in that same Computer, and it functioned.
Then at home, I could not boot from that DVD: There was just the message:

"CDBOOT: Cannot boot from CD Code 5".

And with this Windows 7 DVD I made a test at work a bit later: only the
Computers from last summer (on one of them I made the DVD) could boot from
that DVD,
and the Computers bought in 2006 did not - they generated just the same
message "CDBOOT: ..." (all motherboards have an AMI-BIOS).
All the Computer from 2008 have the same writer ..., perhaps the DVDs do not
run in other DVD-Drives properly ... but that is just guessing ...

Excuse my simplifying - I really thought, that DVDs did generally not boot
on those machines. So my thinking does seem to be a bit weak.


Greetings Manfred

 

[Frank Holman]

So my thinking does seem to be a bit weak.

A bit of an understatement.

 

[Curious]

Often CDs and DVDs made on one system will not work on another system. This
is especially true when using +or-RW disks or if they are written at their
maximum speed or when the manufacturer of the optical drive used on the
systems are different.

 

[Richard Urban]

Ah! Now we are getting somewhere.

The Windows 7 .iso file you download has to be burned to a DVD by using a
program that unpacks and burns at the same time. It appears that not all of
them do the job with the Windows 7 .iso file.

One that does is ImgBurn (FREE)

After the burn is completed it checks to be certain that the information on
the disk matches that contained within the downloaded file.

This disk WILL be bootable - assuming that you have an original Microsoft
download and not one from a warez site.