setting to boot from CD

Hi - currently taking advice on the malware forum for a messed up computer. Shadow has suggested it's multiple incorrect OS installations... I am sure he is right but feel there's something worse in there too.
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showpost.php?p=742227&postcount=3

Currently I am trying to check it's set up to boot from CD, to boot from a Knoppix. I'm not sure if I'm doing the right thing... and would really appreciate help on this because they seem stretched for experts/time on the malware forum at the moment, but if what you see does reek malware please tell me to go back there!

I'm mailing from an alternative computer (the Dell referred to in the thread) so it's easy to see and do while mailing.

When booting, a line comes up saying press Ctrl+F to enter Fastbuild. I do that and have 6 options

auto setup
views drive assignments
view array
delete array
rebuild array
controller configuration

I have looked in all (except delete array). I think 'array' is where I should be setting the order of where-from to boot. But all I see is the hard drive listed at the top (or it says 'Stripe' - I think the hard drive is an IBM Deskstar). No floppy, Cd or CDRW drive.

Under drives assignments, it says

[channel ID] [drive model] {the below info is centred below the 2 headings}
1:Mas IC35L040AVVN07-0
[capacity] 41174
[assignment] array 1
[mode] U5

Does it make any sense and can anyone help?

Many thanks in advance!

 

Thanks Halo

I don't see anything saying what to press for entering the bios.

What I first see is

MBFastTrak133 (tm) "Lite" BIOS version 2.00.1.23
(c) 1995-2001 Promise technology, Inc All Rights reserved.
Scanning IDE Drives.....

and then some settings and then Press ctrl+F like already mentioned.

The next page flashes on really quickly - I can't read anything there, is there a way to temporarily freeze it?

The motherboard I have - in theory anyway - is Asus SoA VIA KT333 ATX A R F, about 3 years old. the computer was handbuilt by someone who knows about building them but self-admittedly has limitations on problem solving.

I tried del already, as I read that in another thread here but setup hung with a Windows error message.

Many thanks for any help you can give.

 

found it! esc did the trick, thanks.

What i see now is
1 zip
2 ltn526
3 lite-on LTR-52327S
4 floppy
5 scsi device

I have CD and CDRW drives - but I don't know which of those two they are. Nor why they aren't named generically like the others are.

Can you guide me please? Many thanks again...

 

Thanks! I wouldn't have known. Trouble is, esc isn't working any more. I get a flash sometimes of the list of six, but then windows just boots up. Have tried the other keys as well, just in case.

When I tried moving one to the top of the list - thinking I was following onscreen instructions, windows also suddenly sprung into life. I had used the arrow to highlight the cdrw (I think), then clicked enter - boom! windows!

Any suggestions are welcome but meanwhile I'll keep trying and see what happens.

 

Aah! I tried pressing esc a bit slower (less impatiently) and got it. And before, I was trying to do the wrong thing - I thought I had to get that drive to the top of the list! Thought a bit more about yours and on-screen instructions, put the CD in and I got knoppix! (Not sure what next, but I'll head back to SPD/malware for that).

Many thanks Halo! I really appreciate you being there and generously helping idiots like me.

 

I missed something... "save" [edit - and you did say to move to top of list!] . I didn't see instructions for either. How do I save?

I can't exit Knoppix and then boot to the HDD utility CD (which was made bootable - though is the first tried in the other computer). Just goes to Windows. From Knoppix I went to log off, then shut down, and put the HDD CD in after taking out the Knoppix, then enter. But Windows.

It may be the thing of multiple bad installations like SPD said but just as likely me doing something wrong! Every so often I get the boot option menu from esc so will keep trying.

Thanks again for your help!

 

sorry, so many posts - will wait for advice before another! The exact wording is

"select boot device. Use <up arrow> or <down arrow>, then <Enter>. Or press <esc> to exit."

up and down the list is fine, and presumably enter is 'save'. I thought that I'd be able to then move one up the list, or down.

<enter> boots to windows - or knoppix if that CD is in, but if the HDD Cd is in, then it boots to windows.

have I missed something?

 

No, the order is
1 Zip
2 CD
3 CDRW
4 Floppy
5 SCSI

When I manage to catch that screen (1 in 10-20 attempts), the highlight is on Zip. Using the down arrow I can make the highlight go to CDRW. But can't make the CDRW go to top of the list. Or Zip move down the list.

What I can't do is physically get hold of any entry, like if I was highlighting with the mouse. How should I be highlighting them?

The HDD CD is 'the next bit' - it's a bootable CD of the hard drive manufacturers utilities. Hitachi. In theory anyway. It might not be working for 3 reasons (I can think of) - the CDRW where it was burned in the other/'new' computer is faulty; the HD isn't the one I originally bought for the machine ie wrong utilities (unlikely); something within the system is preventing this CD from functioning. This last is possible, because the machine builder already tried doing this (a CD he brought with him), yet got a blank screen (if I understood right what I was seeing. After this, he admitted defeat - which was OK, he's not a specialist).

Yes, if Knoppix is in the drive when I'm on the boot-from page when I hit enter (even when CDRW isn't top of list) then Knoppix loads. But if I stick the HDD CD in after logging out of Knoppix, or as doing with Knoppix on the boot-from screen, then it reboots to Windows.

I'll make another CD up elsewhere and try that!

Meanwhile thanks again for all your knowledge and time.

 

Might this have caused a difficulty with changing boot order? The guy who tried before with the HDD utilities did it from floppy, and he physically disconnected the zip drive and connected the floppy direct to the HD (as I understood his explanation or maybe he swapped their connections over). Afterwards he put them back to how they were before.

Previously, floppy was top of the list for booting from, now it seems zip and floppy remain interchanged.

 

When I hit enter after highlighting CDRW (at no 3 in list), the system boots...

into Knoppix if Knoppix CD in the drive
into windows if nothing in drive
into windows if "bootable HDD CD" in drive

Should I try testing it with a bootable floppy on the floppy option (at no 4 in list)?

 

Halo - thanks... I made another HDD utilties disc elsewhere and IT WORKS!

New stumbling block. It asked me ATA & SCSI support or ATA only. I went for both, and then there were 4 more options of which I chose Adaptec (only because I have Adaptec card driver (I don't know what this is really). Lots of 'failing' things came up so I decided to exit.

Could you advise me which options to choose - and then I can run the driver fitness test (which I saw at the top), and is what SPD asked me to do.

I'm unsure what if any other things you might need to know about my system, but there's

IBM Deskstar 120GXP 41.2GB UDMA100
Asus SoA VIA KT333 ATX
Matrox Millennium G550 32MB DDR AGP
Athlon XP 1800+ 1.53 GHz SoA
Adaptec 2906 PCI SCSI Narrow Mac int

When the system is booting I see "Stripe" come up.

Many thanks in advance for your help!

 

Have now looked at the ATA alone and it brought a list of devices up that looked fine, so am working with that...

Thanks again!

 

Thanks Halo... I am unsure whether I got the booting from CD right though. I can see when I boot that it looks first at zip, then CDrom then CDRW and floppy's in there somewhere too.

Because of this and also because of errors loading windows (as before) I will post back again the malware forum - and would appreciate any input you can make.

Thanks again, I really appreciate it.

 

Hi Halo, no! I realised afterwards why it was important!

Can you read the message I just posted back in malware? It may be connected with malware too. Or should i continue here if you think it more appropriate. I don't know which forum! Thanks again. Really appreciate it.

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=85608

 

Apparently I wasn't in the bios settings but in a simple listing that he-who-told-me had never seen before. Another 5-6 attempts on DEL brought the bios settings up and I was then able to move things up and down to my heart's content! Sorry that I didn't persevere quite enough with DEL before.

I have now got XP set up - so far (not very far), all is running fine. Thanks for your help in this, I really appreciate it.

There are two things I'd like to do even if it means re-loading XP:

1 - Change current hard drive letter G to C, and change CD etc drive letters back to those I've always known. I can do all the other drive letters but it's 'not allowed' on the (HD) G drive. I also saw it's possible to assign and protect drive letters for particular drives, but no obvious instruction on how to do it.

2 - Create partitions within the G drive for programmes and files. I used to have a partition for programmes and another for my files, it was set up this way for me years ago. Can you advise me on the practicalities of still having such partitions considering the advances of XP over 95 and 98?

I tried in Computer Management, but right clicking the hard drive didn't allow the partition option, which confused me. Perhaps I should have done it during setup while the option was there. Perhaps I can't do it because only Windows is on the HD?


Many thanks again for your time and expertise....

 

Thanks Halo! It's exceptionally clear and easy to understand! I will wait to hear first if SPD thinks I should still switch jumper settings and then will set it up afterwards.

Thanks again for all your help...

 

Finding some more things not set up properly (eg in msconfig, Boot and Tools tabs missing, and startup menu empty) I did a further drive fitness test and clean install. As was happening before (weeks ago) the installs are not consistent or proper. This time it wasn't worried (again) about seeing a previous legit version of Windows, and the page showing existing partitions showed a single C partition (previously G) plus the unallocated 8MB.

I don't see that it can be me getting it wrong each time! How wrong can you do when it's a CD in a drive doing its own thing...

Being up against deadlines and still unable to access my work files (on an external HD) - and unwilling to put my hands inside the case because of an inherited different "magnetism" - I feel I now have to concede and take it to someone else to physically check over. I am already beyond my capabilities!

Just want to thank you again Halo for your expertise and time. The instructions above I will print out and keep for another time. And it's useful to see how much HD space you have - I'll get my system upgraded now as well.

 

Thanks halo, yes it's partly that and partly my limitations... though I know much more now than before! Forgive me if I don't describe this well...

It seems that the original problem was added to or changed when upgrading to XP.

The motherboard is not recognising the hard disc. The manual says this might be because of reformatting (Fat32 to NTFS)... (also might be because originally one partition wasn't reformatted from FAT32).

Also the HD is set up in an array, despite being only one disc. Has worked fine for 3 years on Win98 though! It will be reset as the primary master.

Boot.ini isn't being picked up (don't understand this/can see it though).

The original problem (on Win98) was something to do with malware but not resolved as I ran out of time and went for clean install/upgrade to XP. But could never get a clean install.... etc etc

I'm getting it upgraded at the same time as the above is being tried.

Thanks again for all your help - it's really good of you all to give your time and expertise...