Can't boot from CD

I used DBAN to wipe the HD clean on an old Dell Dimension C700CXE that I just upgraded to a 1.0 ghz Celeron and flashed the BIOS to the latest revision. I put the XP (upgrade) CD in to reinstall, but it will not boot to it. I have changed the boot order in the BIOS so that the CD ROM is #1. I am pretty sure that this is how I installed XP in the first place (previous BIOS), though I think I just booted to a Win98 disk and formatted, rather than use a cleaning utility. Why can't I boot to a CD?

I tried booting to a Win98 floppy, and then running Setup from the XP CD, but that did not work.

I also tried a Linux CD too, and it did not work either.

I also recently removed a ZIP drive. So the three variables are DBAN, BIOS update, and removal of ZIP drive.

I made sure that the drives were plugged in correctly. The HDD was set as master and connected to the master primary, the CDRW was set as master and connected to the master secondary. This looked good.

However, during my investigation, I discovered that the HDD was jumpered wierd. Like it was supposed to be the default setting, but was on the wrong row. It has been like this for over two years with no apparent issues. I went ahead and moved the jumper to the master position.

After this, I was for some reason able to boot to a couple of CD's (Linux, Ultimate Boot CD), but NOT the WinXP CD.

To elimate the CD, I tried another WinXP CD, with the same result.

I tried the XP CD in a Compaq system with a DVD drive installed. XP booted.

I then removed the CDRW from the Dell, and replaced it with the DVD drive. Everything booted fine.

Then I tried the CDRW in the Compaq. The XP CD booted.

Soooooo......conflict with the Dell L Series A14 BIOS and this AOpen CDRW?

PK

 

But doesn't an upgrade XP CD need an existing OS to upgrade from? confused

 

It prompts for a previous Win CD during installation.

PK

 

in the bios make sure the IDE for primary and secondary master are set to
AUTO detect

and make sure the IDE controler is enabled
if your useing a SATA HDD make sure that the SATA controler is enabled

if that dosen't work and your not getting an option to boot from CD
then try a diffent Disk

if that does not work
then changed the IDE Cable for a differant one if posible

 

Have a quick look at this post, and Studiot's explanation of Dell setup
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=118727

 

You have used a disc wiping utility, it is possible that you need to restore the mbr, You have a copy of Ultimate boot cd, there is, I believe a Hard disk utility to restore mbr on it.

 

Hello Allochthonous, congratulations on a good bit of investigative work at the outset.

In order to prevent conspiracy theories getting wilder and more conspiratorial I feel I should say a word or two.

I don't quite know what you mean by boot as you don't mention the error message or what actually happens. However I can say that a valid windows, or other OS CD will start a pc WITH or WITHOUT a hard drive (or zip drive) being present. Obviously a program like windows setup can't function if there is no HD to install to so the process will stall there.

I know that Win XP will not recognise certain CD drives but you say that it worked Ok in the Compaq so this is not it. I haven't checked on the Aopen for Microsoft compatibility.

I can't at this moment think of an explanation for the events described but I will post again if I think of anything more.

Studio T

 

If the mbr has been corrupted/destroyed, the hard disk will not be" there" to write to, or, install on.
Have a look here
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/kb...ps/Miscellaneous/RewriteMasterBootRecord.html

 

I have , in the past struggled to get Windows on drives that had been wiped, and the number of times the mbr needed to be sorted , I lost count off.
It is a problem that can occur with the likes of killdisk, etc:

 

Have a look at
fdisk/mbr
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q69013/

 

I do not know if allochthonous' "will not boot to it" meant it would not run from the operating system on CD or if it meant it would run but setup failed. I have guessed the former because he also said it would not boot from floppy or a Linux CD.

Which is why I used the official Microsoft term 'start the pc'. This means that the BIOS successfully hands control to an operating system, be on HDD, floppy, CD, USB, in RAM or whatever.
Booting may still fail after this happens as all too many geek posters witness.

Windows setup, by the way, writes a new master boot record.

Cheers

Studio T

 

Useful readind, and Free tool, if it turns out to be mbr, and/or partition problem
http://majorgeeks.com/Super_Fdisk_d4985.html

 

Thanks Studiot, I agree, but I pointed this out, after I personally, had many a wasted hour trying to get windows on. I found a nooked one often needed extra help, as it made the disk unusable.
Many a time I "installed", and it just stuck in no man's land.
When done seperately, I found it went on , no bother.