Boot Sequence Trouble

[slick1]

My darling(?) little niece got her hands on my laptop keyboard and now
the boot-up sequence in "boot options" seems all haywire. I was not sure
what the previous order was and do not know what the proper sequence is
suppose to be, so maybe someone here can help me out. I tried Google, but no
luck.
Boot Sequence is at present set at and in this order:
- USB Key
- USB CD-Rom/DVD Drive
- Hard Drive
- USB Hard Drive
- CD-Rom/ DVD Drive
- Network Drive
- USB Floppy Device

My System: Acer 2450 laptop
Windows XP Home Edition SP2
Explorer 7

I'm a newuser at all this tech stuff and I hope someone can help me solve
this problem. ( The computer that is... there's no hope for my niece!)

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

A good order is cd/dvd, hdd, floppy, in that order at the top. The rest
doesn't matter.

 

[Bill in Co.]

I'd suggest: floppy, cd/dvd, hdd, in THAT order.

 

[Lil' Dave]

Unless you believe that your bios may become inaccessible for changes,
booting order should commence first from the hard drive is the most logical.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I'd suggest: floppy, cd/dvd, hdd, in THAT order.

My view is different. I think that the hard drive should be kept first
in the boot order. I don't want the floppy or CD drive to be checked
to boot from. I hardly ever want to boot from one of those, and if I
do, I'll temporarily change the boot order then. I don't want to try
to boot from a floppy or CD accidentally left in the drive. It will
generate an error message if it's not bootable, but if it is bootable
(especially a floppy) it could have undesired consequences. For
example, although boot sector viruses are much less common these days
than they used to be, it's always possible that one could turn up on a
floppy. If the floppy is first in the boot order, and such a diskette
has been left in the drive, you're infected.

 

[Bill in Co.]

I don't get that. The problem is, if the HDD is first in the boot order,
it boots up on the HD, and doesn't allow you that immediate access to the
floppy - which was presumably your intent (assuming you have a floppy in
there). (The assumption again being, if you have a floppy in there at boot
time, you intended to boot up on the floppy for some repair or access or
restoration routines that you can't do in windows).

I mean, I never leave floppies in there "by accident" (or at least very
rarely), but even if you did, you'd catch in in time, and could reboot and
pull it out (if you're quick enough).

 

[PaulMaudib]

My darling(?) little niece got her hands on my laptop keyboard and now
the boot-up sequence in "boot options" seems all haywire. I was not sure
what the previous order was and do not know what the proper sequence is
suppose to be, so maybe someone here can help me out. I tried Google, but no
luck.
Boot Sequence is at present set at and in this order:
- USB Key
- USB CD-Rom/DVD Drive
- Hard Drive
- USB Hard Drive
- CD-Rom/ DVD Drive
- Network Drive
- USB Floppy Device

My System: Acer 2450 laptop
Windows XP Home Edition SP2
Explorer 7

I'm a newuser at all this tech stuff and I hope someone can help me solve
this problem. ( The computer that is... there's no hope for my niece!)

Why ask HERE? This is a problem in your system BIOS and XP has not
even been loaded at that point. Perhaps you should ask this to the
manufacturer of your BIOS or computer, but either way.......

Ask elsewhere

 

[Bill in Co.]

Why ask HERE? This is a problem in your system BIOS and XP has not
even been loaded at that point. Perhaps you should ask this to the
manufacturer of your BIOS or computer, but either way.......

Ask elsewhere

Perhaps because he likes Paul, who hasn't offered anything of substance yet?