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Cannot boot from DVD or USB drives on Dimension 9100
Very frustrating/embarrassing... lol Cleaned up/reinstalled XP and wanted to create dual boot to Linux.
At first, I thought...I could boot from USB with various linux distros and choose MINT 32 bit as dual boot.
Found booting from USB impossible...after trying YUMI, XBOOT, Ubootin...yet the USB stick worked fine on other systems. ...so I gave in and figured I'd do the old way, boot from ISO DVD to create the dual boot. Never thought it would be such a struggle...yet...I accept challenges.
Then, I tried a bootable DVD ISO distro of Linux and no luck booting from that either... again the DvD is good and works on a Windows 7 machine... I create, I test, I fail...
I'm providing the history for info... I gave up on USB boot, even after updated Bios etc.
so I'm here now... Still trying to get the system to boot from DVD an ISO of MINT 32bit.
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Original config 9100..last long time. Won't die, runs well...secondary machine.
Reinstalled OS from hidden partition, XP pro and all updates, etc.
A03 BIOS...chipset updates, etc from DELL support site for the 9100.
Moved DVD drive to master, CD drive to slave - to put the DVD in location for boot from
Disabled USB diskette option...and moved DVD to 1st boot option...
STILL cannot get machine to boot from a bootable DVD with an iso of Mint Linux
I welcome any suggestions for getting the 9100 to boot from DVD. I'll take care of the rest.
This machine is clean as a whistle, brand new XP and Updates...runs well...
I thought it would be good candidate for a Linux partition and dual boot.
I don't take failure well...unless I learn from it...
Thanks in advance..
BerryHelpfull
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June 15th, 2014 11:00
OK...me again with a final after replacing the DVD drive...which was not recognizing DVDs.
Booting from the new DVD drive worked fine...and I am now dual boot with Linux Zoran.
I gave up on the booting from USB, as apparently the bios is just not happy with that even though it says it should be... I accomplished my goal.
Thanks for your comments.
osprey4
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May 27th, 2014 17:00
Hi BerryHelpfull,
The old Dimension 9100 was a great machine. Nice to see you've still got it in service.
First, it should not matter whether you've got XP loaded. You should be able to boot to a CD or bootable flash drive even with the hard drive disconnected.
Second, it does matter how the optical drives are connected. They should both be jumpered to cable select, with the DVD drive on the end of the cable. If there is a jumper problem, you may see one or both optical drives appear as unknown in the BIOS. Please check that and tell me what you see.
BerryHelpfull
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May 27th, 2014 20:00
Jumpers are both cable select and all drives show properly in bios... Upon your comment...I just turned off both DVD and CD drives in bios, set USB as the top priority and boot device...with no luck on the bootable USB.
However, something is amiss with the DVD drive...it handles music CDs but doe NOT now see anything on a DVD. That is new, since moving the drives... so I'm guessing there are problems with the DVD/Cd combo drive beyond the pale. Have no idea if that is all the problem, but I will throw a new DVD drive in the system before I go further. ...more later on that.
On the USB...I have heard that it is best to use a 2.0 USB for bootable iso's. Mine are all larger USB's and 3.0 variety. Thusly, I just ordered 3-4GB 2.0 USB that I will do one last attempt at being bootable with USB.
Of course, if the USB had booted early on, I would have never come back to using an ISO on DVD.
I had always wanted to really have several bootable USB thumbs with different LINUX or ISO variations on them. The usb's work on my windows 7 machine, but none on the 9100.
I will comment again...after I replace the DVD drive. Thanks for your response OSPREY4.
osprey4
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June 15th, 2014 14:00
Good to hear. That was a cheap fix! :emotion-2: