Bootable disk and Bios

[LT]

I recently installed disk imaging software which included burning a boot
disk. It then stated that I needed to check that my bios included
instructions to boot from a CD drive. I'm afraid to mess with my bios, but
as I understand it the system (XP Home) will check all drives for a bootable
disk. Is this true? If not how can be sure that my system will boot from the
CD-ROM drive?

TIA

LT

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I recently installed disk imaging software which included burning a boot
disk. It then stated that I needed to check that my bios included
instructions to boot from a CD drive. I'm afraid to mess with my bios, but
as I understand it the system (XP Home) will check all drives for a bootable
disk. Is this true? If not how can be sure that my system will boot from the
CD-ROM drive?

TIA

LT

There is no problem at all playing with the BIOS. If
you get things wrong then you can easily reset it to
its factory settings.

WinXP can't check for bootable disks, because WinXP
is not alive when you boot your machine! Get into the BIOS
setup, then make your CD drive the primary boot device
and see if the PC will boot from a bootable CD. It most
likely will.

 

[Andrew Meador - ASCPA, MCSE, MCP+I, Network+, A+]

The BIOS needs to be dealt with in this case. Windows does not check
what drive to boot from as it is being pulled up itself from the boot
drive. The boot drives are specified in the BIOS. And yes, you should
be careful what you mess with in the BIOS - it is possible to cause
things to stop working, cause Windows to run unstable, and to even
damage the hardware in your system by messing with these settings.
However, you can typically exit the BIOS WITHOUT saving the settings.
The settings you are looking for here are not going to break anything
if you just change the settings related to the boot drive order.
Typically you will have 3 devices to boot from, the floppy drive, the
CD/DVD drive, and the hard drive. The order that these drives are to
boot from is specified in the BIOS as well. You can make it try the
floppy first, then the CD/DVD, then the hard drive. Many times (to make
a slightly faster bootup) the hard drive will be set to boot first
(which then doesn't give you the chance to boot from floppy or CD).
What this imaging software is telling you, is that you need to be able
to boot to the CD/DVD before the hard drive. So you just need to change
the order so that the CD/DVD is higher in boot sequence than the hard
drive. If you get it wrong, you can still get back into the BIOS and
change it to a different boot sequence and try again. I usually prefer
to have the sequence set as floppy, CD/DVD, then hard drive. That way
you have the option of booting off of any one of these three drives. So
long as there is no floppy disk in the floppy drive, a non-bootable cd
in the cd drive, you will boot to the hard drive like normal. If you
forget and leave a floppy in the floppy drive and you restart your
system, you may get an error like 'No Operating System Found' or
something to that effect - just check your floppy drive, if there is a
floppy in there - pop it out and hit CTRL-ALT-DEL to restart (or power
cycle the computer) and it will boot up normally.
I would not reset your BIOS back to factory defaults unless you
really need to, as this could change settings that may effect your
hardware and Windows - potentially in a way you won't like. It wouldn't
even hurt to record all the BIOS settings and keep those settings
somewhere as the BIOS settigs are kept in tact, when the computer is
off, by a battery on the motherboard. This battery dies every so often
and when it does, there go your settings. The battery has to be changed
(which is typically pretty cheap) and the settings have to be restored.
If you don't know what they were, it could cause some headache getting
everything set back correctly.

 

[Alan]

There is no problem at all playing with the BIOS. If
you get things wrong then you can easily reset it to
its factory settings.

But be prepared to gat poorer performance. The default is not always the
best. You can get some devices not working after using these settings-
things like bi-directional printing may be switched off, serial ports
defaulted to lower speeds, etc

You would be far better printing or writing the information down so you can
go back to the way it is now.

 

[LT]

"Andrew Meador - ASCPA, MCSE, MCP+I, Network+, A+"

The BIOS needs to be dealt with in this case. Windows does not check
what drive to boot from as it is being pulled up itself from the boot
drive. The boot drives are specified in the BIOS. And yes, you should
be careful what you mess with in the BIOS - it is possible to cause
things to stop working, cause Windows to run unstable, and to even
damage the hardware in your system by messing with these settings.
However, you can typically exit the BIOS WITHOUT saving the settings.
The settings you are looking for here are not going to break anything
if you just change the settings related to the boot drive order.
Typically you will have 3 devices to boot from, the floppy drive, the
CD/DVD drive, and the hard drive. The order that these drives are to
boot from is specified in the BIOS as well. You can make it try the
floppy first, then the CD/DVD, then the hard drive. Many times (to make
a slightly faster bootup) the hard drive will be set to boot first
(which then doesn't give you the chance to boot from floppy or CD).
What this imaging software is telling you, is that you need to be able
to boot to the CD/DVD before the hard drive. So you just need to change
the order so that the CD/DVD is higher in boot sequence than the hard
drive. If you get it wrong, you can still get back into the BIOS and
change it to a different boot sequence and try again. I usually prefer
to have the sequence set as floppy, CD/DVD, then hard drive. That way
you have the option of booting off of any one of these three drives. So
long as there is no floppy disk in the floppy drive, a non-bootable cd
in the cd drive, you will boot to the hard drive like normal. If you
forget and leave a floppy in the floppy drive and you restart your
system, you may get an error like 'No Operating System Found' or
something to that effect - just check your floppy drive, if there is a
floppy in there - pop it out and hit CTRL-ALT-DEL to restart (or power
cycle the computer) and it will boot up normally.
I would not reset your BIOS back to factory defaults unless you
really need to, as this could change settings that may effect your
hardware and Windows - potentially in a way you won't like. It wouldn't
even hurt to record all the BIOS settings and keep those settings
somewhere as the BIOS settigs are kept in tact, when the computer is
off, by a battery on the motherboard. This battery dies every so often
and when it does, there go your settings. The battery has to be changed
(which is typically pretty cheap) and the settings have to be restored.
If you don't know what they were, it could cause some headache getting
everything set back correctly.

Thanks for your reply. I accessed the BIOS settings but nowhere could I
find an option to set the booting sequence. Am I missing something? I
drilled down through everything that was listed. ??

LT

 

[Malke]

Thanks for your reply. I accessed the BIOS settings but nowhere could
I
find an option to set the booting sequence. Am I missing something?
I
drilled down through everything that was listed. ??

Yes, you are missing something. Unfortunately, since we can't see your
BIOS from here so you'll need to find the right place yourself. It is
usually called "Boot Order" or "Boot Sequence". It may be under its own
heading of "Boot" at the very top of the Setup screen or it may be
under Advanced Options. Refer to the manual that came with your
computer or research online at either the motherboard mftr.'s website
or the computer mftr.'s website. Or have a knowledgeable (really
knowledgeable) friend come over and help.

Malke

 

[Plato]

I recently installed disk imaging software which included burning a boot
disk. It then stated that I needed to check that my bios included
instructions to boot from a CD drive. I'm afraid to mess with my bios, but

All you do in the bios is tell it to boot from the cdrom drive first.
It's not anything to worry about as you can always change it back
anytime.

 

[Black Bart]

Hi
Sorry but Windows cant check for a bootable drive as it will not be
loaded untill the system has started booting - on the lines of which
came first the chicken,or the egg,,
You need to go into the CMOS setup and look at the Advanced settings
page - or the boot sequence drop menu. Then alter the First boot
device to CD, the second to HDD then maybe a floppy drive 3rd if
installed.

Black Bart