CDROM problem

I'm trying to fix my buddy's computer and remove a virus. The problem is that I can't boot from the CDROM drive. It says no boot device available. The drive does show up in the BIOS but it won't let me boot from it. Any advice?

TIA!

 

Have you checked that it's set to boot from the CD drive before the hard drive in the BIOS?

If you have, then look in the BIOS for an option to disable 'Quick Boot', or disable 'Fast Boot', or disable 'Silent Boot', or something along those lines that suggests it will display information during boot up. Typically hitting F12 during boot will display a list of devices to boot to, but some BIOSes are different and most will display what key to type.

 

I have put the CDROM drive as first boot device and also have hit F12 to get to the boot menu and try that way. It's a Dell Inspiron 530 if that helps. Nothing seems to work as far as booting through the CDROM drive.

 

I've been in a similar situation several times where everything was set correctly but the computer always seemed to boot from the HDD instead of the CD. In some situations it was a scratched, and other times the CD drive was dirty, and once the CD drive was broken. You'll probably be quick to rule out all three of those but take note of one thing: the timeout on booting from the CD ROM is very, very small on a lot of computers. In those situations you can literally try and try again a dozen times, and then out of nowhere it boots correctly.

Here are the steps I'd do:
1. Clean the disc and try again
2. Try a different bootable disc
3. Change the BIOS boot order to either only boot from the CD (if you have that option), or make the first, second etc boot devices all the CD drive (again, that option isn't always available).
4. Physically remove the hard drive and try again.

Also, did you say that it said No boot device available? Even the hard drive?

Edit: I should have elaborated on the timeout thing some more. Normally when you put in a CD to run something the disc will spin and if a section isn't read (there's a tiny scratch, or a smudge, or whatever) it'll spin again and try once more. It'll continue in that fashion for perhaps 30 seconds and if it still can't read it, you'll get an error message. When booting from a CD the timeout depends on what BIOS you have. Some will retry for 30 seconds, but some just 2 or 3!

 

1) It's a brand new CD-RW with no signs of scratches
2) It's new
3) I put all first, second, third, fourth boot devices to CDROM and still no-go.

It will try to boot from the hard drive if I have the bios set that way but there is a heavy duty virus on there and it get's hung up in the boot sequence. I'm trying to boot from a disc that was recommended in the malware removal forum. They said to go here first and figure out how to get the computer up and running first.

Thanks for your help.

 

Does the cd drive spin during the stage it's attempting to boot from it?

 

Yes, I've tried another SATA port for it as well and still nothing

 

Okay as it is trying to boot from the CD then it's not the BIOS settings, it's not the boot order, it's either the CD, cd drive, cable or port. You've tried a different port so we can rule that out. SATA are very sturdy and you probably would have noticed a faulty cable before, so we can rule that out too.

CD drive - As it's new we can rule out dust etc, but is it so new it's never been tested on the computer?
CD - As it's also new, again not likely to be dusty or scratched. Am I right in thinking this is a recordable CD you just recently burnt? If applicable, did you make sure you Closed the disc (so nothing else can be written to it later). Can you test the CD on another computer to verify it is bootable? If yes, then maybe your CD drive isn't successfully reading the CD fast enough - recordable CDs have a thicker layer between the surface and the data which make them harder (harder = slower) to read.

The next thing I'd do is burn another disc. If that still fails, I'd grab Any bootable disc you have available (a restore CD for any computer will work) and see if the computer tries to boot from it.

 

Is there a way I can boot from my USB thumb drive? I've read that it's possible but a little more difficult to set up? Any advice?

 

Yes. I believe the USB device has to be formatted as NTFS (most are FAT32 by default). Also your BIOS must allow booting from USB. Do those two things and it's not terribly hard.

 

Yes I can do both

 

Got it fixed. Thanks!