bios boot sequence

Question

I have a Dimension 2400 with XP  SP2 and has a Floppy drive.   I had a look in BIOS and see that boot sequence has Floppy as number one, and CD ROM as number two. Should I change  number one to CD ROM ?   Thanks.

volcano11 · Answer

You would only need to do this if you want the CD-ROM to be the first boot device. Otherwise it doesn't matter.  If the floppy drive is the first boot device, it will always look to the floppy drive for a bootable disk.  If there is non-bootable floppy disk in the drive, you will get an error saying to insert a bootable disk.  If the CD-ROM drive is the first boot device, it will look to see if there is a bootable CD in the CD-ROM drive.  If there is not, it will move to the next device in the boot order and boot from there.   Steve

trapper_s_john · Answer

Thanks for reply volcano11. But, could you enlighten me further:

I used to have Windows 98SE and had an emergency startup floppy made for it for emergencies but I'm told that I don't need that for XP as it can boot from the CD ROM disk. So, that leaves me thinking that if an emergency came up with XP that the CD ROM should be first in the BIOS boot sequence. Or, am I unduly concerned here.

Thanks again for help.

volcano11 · Answer

With Windows XP you would rarely have to boot from the floppy drive, so in that case it might be a good idea to have the CD-ROM drive as the first boot device. But, note that you can always change it at anytime you need to by going into the BIOS and changing the boot order, as it is independent of the operating system. You can also always boot from the CD-ROM drive by pressing the F12 key immediately after starting the computer. This will give you a menu that includes the option to boot from the CD-ROM drive no matter what the boot sequence is. So yes, you are being overly concerned.

Steve

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bios boot sequence

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