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October 12th, 2005 22:00
Making DVD drive bootable
I was wondering if anyone knew how to make the second DVD drive bootable? I have an XPS 600 if that helps, and the DVD drive is set as slave. In the BIOS there is an option to choose the boot order but it only works with the CD-drive, which is set as master and that works fine. But I have a bootable DVD disk that would only work with the DVD drive. I tried disabling the first drive because I thought then maybe it'll just jump to the second drive when it tries to boot from the disbaled CD-drive. No luck. I also tried pressing F12 on startup that brings up the boot menu, but it also has the same effect when I press the "boot from IDE CD-ROM device" : it either only reads that drive or skips the the whole process if its disabled. So does anyone know how to make the DVD bootable? Or is it basically impossible with the current BIOS version? I have the A02 by the way.
Message Edited by timberland_forest on 10-12-2005 06:37 PM
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Skybird
10.9K Posts
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October 12th, 2005 23:00
you may need to switch the drive positions in their bays. That will make
the DVD the Master and the CD-ROM the Slave.
That, incidentally, is the preferred configuration when there are two drives
in a system. Dell puts the standard drive in the top bay (Master) then adds
to the second bay the optional drive, thus it ends up backward, but it works.
It helps the assembly line to build the systems more quickly.
timberland_fore
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October 12th, 2005 23:00
Dev Mgr
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9.3K Posts
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October 13th, 2005 17:00
Be sure to jumper it as cable select, not slave. This might play a role in the ability to boot to it.
Predator
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October 13th, 2005 18:00
Edit: My bad, I should have refreshed before posting, got a phone call..Ignore my remarks...
Glad to hear you were able to fix her with Mike`s & Dev`s help.
Hi Timberland Forest,
Although it is not set in stone, you might consider uninstalling both drives from Device Manager before switching. Also as Dev mentioned, Dell`s ships their systems using the Cable Select jumper feature so unless you changed something you should be able to move it and it is already set to CS..
Also some systems will only boot from the Master position, I could not find any reference in the on-line User Guide, yea or nay on this one.
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
Message Edited by Predator on 10-13-2005 03:31 PM
timberland_fore
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October 13th, 2005 18:00
stop_it_I_like_
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January 10th, 2006 17:00
Any other tips on this - I've just gone through all mentioned so far re changing jumpers to CS and changing positions on IDE cable but still can't boot from the DVD.
I'm also running an XPS600t (it's been a great machine - so reliable!)