Problems Booting From Live CD

Hi,

My desktop crashed then refused to boot up last weekend and I thought my hard disk had gone. I downloaded some Live CDs with my laptop and burned to CD then tried to boot my desktop with no success.

Various queries:

1. I have tried Ubuntu, Knoppix, and Trinity. I downloaded all of them to my laptop then burned each to separate CDs using the Vista burner on Windows Explorer by selecting the ISO file then "burn" from the top bar in Explorer. They all seemed to burn OK, but there was no "success" message or CD ejection at the end of the process. Each time it just seemed to stop doing anything and I had to manually eject the CD from my laptop. I am not sure of any of these CDs have burned correctly and wonder if I should download a burner and start again.

2. There are various burners on my desktop, which I cannot acccess such as Nero and a few others and there is also a dedicated DVD/CD writer on my desktop which I cannot access. If I download burning software to my laptop can I use it on my laptop on what appears to be a built in burner?

3. To avoid my desktop trying to boot from the hard disk, which I am trying to preserve to retrieve the data, after an unsuccessful boot from a CD I have set first boot to CD and temporarily disabled 2nd, 3rd & 4th boot in the BIOS. Is this OK that it can now only boot from a CD? My system just hangs now and says "Boot Failure please insert System Disk and press enter". As noted none of the Live CDs burned on my laptop make any difference and I still get the same message.

4. I also tried to boot from the Vista disk with little success, so could there be some other boot problem other than a faulty hard disk and three duff Live CDs?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Axel

 

ImgBurn is a good burning software for ISO files. Just install on the laptop and start the program. Choose "Write Image File to Disk" then Browse to the Iso and click the double-icon at the bottom of the window to begin burning, you will get a Operation Complete message when done. (If Windows tries to ask what you want to do with the disk when you insert the blank CD just close out that dialog).

I like Linux Mint but if you still have the Ubuntu iso file still on your laptop it is a fine distribution. Try burning that with Imgburn.

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You may also want to download a HD diagnostic utility as an ISO. It would be relatively small less than 30mb and should help determine the condition of your HD. Western Digital and Seagate/Maxtor each have one if need help finding the download let us know the brand and we can help.

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What error were you getting after the crash when you tried to boot the HD?

 

Hi

The error message was "Hard Disk Boot Failure Insert System Disk Press Enter"

My hard disk is the Maxtor 6V200OE.

I will try the image burn again using Linux Mint or Ubuntu.

Axel

 

You could also try using UBCD to assess the HDD pre-OS. I had 2 HDD's failing in a RAID0 array and I was able to rebuild the Master Boot Record (MBR) using the tools on UBCD and nurse the HDD along for 1-2 more weeks (got DATA onto a 3rd) before the failed outright:

UBCD.

This disc has lot's of tools on it and is a must have in my book.

 

Thanks sach2 I was trying to burn my own linux iso for safer online banking and the app I previously tried was "rubbish". The one you linked is excellent, tyvm.

 

Axelbrora whenever you are burning "important DATA" it is always best to choose on of the slowest Burn speeds possible to potentially minimise errors and improve the quality of the write.

 

Another point has become apparent Axel, is did you check the MD% Checksums of the ISO files before trying to make an Image? I just successfully made an Image of Ubuntu and the image was verified, etc. etc., tried to boot from it and got all the way to Selecting it to run as a Live CD and then it hung 1/2 way through installing the kernel/drivers. Checked the MD5 Checksum of the ISO file and it didn't match (therefore file had become corrupted during DL).

- DL File
- Check MD5
- Burn ISO image

 

K Axel I have just DL'd my 3rd Linux ISO and had my 3rd MD5 Checksum Error (file corruption during DL). Getting damn frustrated with this but I will not even bother trying to make an image of a corrupt file as the chances of issues are significantly higher. Going to persist till I get a verified file.

 

Thanks sach2,

I have now sucessfully burned both the Ubuntu and the Knoppix ISO files using imgburn and booted my desktop from both. I found Knoppix was a lot faster to boot and also a lot easier to use. With Knoppix I can now see all of my data on my hard drive and once I install my new hard drive I should be able to easily drag and drop my data. I may well see the drive and data from Vista once it is installed on my new drive but if not then Knoppix will do the job.

I have not attempted any repairs to the drive until I retrieve my data, but once my data is rescued I will experiment further with Knoppix.

Many thanks for the assistance.

Axel