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sarahgrace
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September 17th, 2004 17:00
trying to reformat, keeps ignoring CD boot at startup
Hello,
I have a 4300 which has served me well for three yrs. Over time it has starting slowing down & messing up. I tried XP windows fix but it didn't help. I want to reformat & reinstall windows fresh. I put the windows Dell operating system disk in & reboot. Although the screen gives me the normal options of "set up f2 and start up F12", when I hit f12 it ignores the directive & goes right to windows. How can I get the CD to boot the machine? My CD drive is fine.
Thanks you
Sarah in TN
simpswr
2 Intern
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3224 Posts
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Posted September 17th, 2004 22:00
Press F2 and go into setup ( BIOS ) navigate to the Boot tab and set the cd as the first boot.
When it restarts you will see a black screen with a prompt "Press any key to boot from cd" . . do that and you will be able to delete partitions and recreate the ones you want and proceed to formating and installing XP
That message can pass quickly, so have a finger on the keyboard when you boot. This will delete all data on the drive so be sure you have your important data backed up.
You can get a reinstallation guide specific to your Dell here
http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/software_reinstall/en/index?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=mn
wrs