cd drive ignored when booting up

Hi Jesseallie,

Just so we are on the same page, you entered the BIOS and set the boot sequence to the CD-ROM as first device, save/exit?

Best Regards





God, grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked anyway,
the good fortune to run into the ones I do and the eyesight to tell the
difference.

---

CD/RW Link

yes, i've done that.  I read in a knowledge base article to disconnect the computer from the network first.  I tried that and still asks for a disk in drive A:

You have 2 drives (CD and DVD?) Did you try putting the CD in the other drive? It can only boot from the primary device.

By turning off the A drive in bios, do you mean take it off so it is not on the list?  If so I have done that. Floppy is not on my list any more in bios.

I have a dell dimension 4100.

Hi Jesse,

Where is John~Osprey when we need him, he has a 4100 series and I recall something about booting from an optical drive, not sure if a BIOS update was needed or the second drive disconnected.
I did a quick search but did not find what I was looking for.
Go to Device Manager, uninstall the second drive, shutdown. Open the case and disconnect the drive attached to the middle connection, now try this once more.



Best Regards!




God, grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked anyway,
the good fortune to run into the ones I do and the eyesight to tell the
difference.

---

CD/RW Link
Typos...

Message Edited by Predator on 09-05-200605:09 PM

Jesse,

Charles is on-line but seems to be away from the PC, so I will drop a question or two for now.
Just curious, have you considered turning off the A drive in the BIOS and see what happens?

Also what Dell system do you have?


Best Regards!




God, grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked anyway,
the good fortune to run into the ones I do and the eyesight to tell the
difference.

---

CD/RW Link

Jesse:

Try setting the CD as the only boot device. Generally the top drive is the master, so put your disc there. However, you'll know which one is which because the system will access only the master (you'll see the access light). If it does not work, then there may be a problem with your disc.

Another thought, you are in fact using the Windows XP Reinstallation disc, right?

Message Edited by osprey4 on 09-05-200605:04 PM

And I forgot to include: yes it is the reinstallation disk and I know it works because I can pull it up once the computer is logged on.  I can start another computer with that cd. I also hear the cd drive starting when it is starting up, but it still asks for a disk in A:

I have uninstalled the cd-rw drive in device manager, turned off the computer, unplugged the cd-rw drive, booted the computer with only the cd in the bios and it still asked for a disk in A:

I took the floppy off the bios list, I took everything off except the cd and still it asks for a disk in A:  I have to go to work now, so I will try again tomorrow.  Thank you for your help so far, hopefully tomorrow will be better.

do you have any other suggestions I can try?

Yes. Whichever drive is the master device (end of the cable), unplug the IDE connector from that device and plug it into the other drive. Leave one drive unplugged.

ok, i don't understand.  Do you mean unplug it inside the computer and plug it into the other one?  How do I know which one is the master?

The master is the drive plugged into the connector at the end of the cable, usually the top drive. The bottom drive should be plugged into the connector in the middle of the cable (slave position). Pull the connectors out of both drives, then plug the end connector into the drive that used to be connected to the middle connector. This drive now becomes the master. Then try booting with your reinstallation disc in that drive.

It is still asking for a disk in A:, Can I take the A: drive out or something? I don't use it anyway.