Computer won't boot from CD

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Gringuito

21 posts

Geek

#77008 9-Feb-2011 21:36

I have tried everything, BIOS settings are to boot from CD-ROM, however it continues to boot from the HDD. Using boot menu does nothing more.

I am trying to uninstall ubuntu 10.10. However Grub bootloader won't let me simply erase the HDD, i need to change the master boot record or something.

Please help!

Gringuito

21 posts

Geek

#438529 12-Feb-2011 10:28

Seriously, nobody has any ideas?

soleil24

124 posts

Master Geek

#438578 12-Feb-2011 14:01

Ideas? OK. Solutions? Hmmm!

Most machine BIOSs will allow you to both enable/disable boot devices *and* select the boot order. So make sure the CD drive is enabled as well as being ordered ahead of the hdd.

The BIOS will attempt to boot the enabled devices in the order shown so if the first device fails to boot, the BIOS will try the next device and so on. Are you sure the CD from which you are trying to boot is "good" (and that means both a viable CD *and* bootable)? Try using a different known good bootable CD *or* using your preferred (apparently non-functioning) CD in a different machine.

You could try disabling all but the CD as bootable devices and see what happens (at least you may get a helpful error message)

What is the CD that you are failing to boot from? What process are you trying to use to uninstall Ubuntu - and how are you intending booting to a different OS in the future? Do you have multiple OSs and if so how is GRUB currently installed/configured? Your comment on re-writing the MBR only comes into play once the hdd is selected as a boot device so sounds like at least 2 problems to consider.

All of this assumes a typical simple machine setup - one optical drive, one (maybe partitioned?) hdd?

A bit more info and clarification on what you are ultimately trying to achieve may yield some different (and more useful?) suggestions from others.

IG

Gringuito

21 posts

Geek

#438669 12-Feb-2011 19:41

I'll start off by saying that I'm not incredibly knowledgeable, nor am I an idiot when It comes to computers.

Computer set up is as follows:

AMD Phenom™ II X4 965 3.4GHz
4GB DDR3 (2x2GB)
Radeon HD6850
1TB HDD 64MB cache. (partitions removed as far as I know)
Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H Motherboard

I know that the DVD drive works. I have tried to boot from my old Windows 7 (32bit) disk (Its not retail nor illegal) and my old Windows XP OEM disk. Neither will work, but have in the past (W7 recently). I am intending to install W7 64bit in the future.

I had Ubuntu 10.10 installed by itself from a USB solid state storage device (only for a lack or other operating systems and to test the new computer), on failing to boot from DVD Drive, I put the hard drive in my old computer and deleted the partitions using Computer Management (I was ignorant that Ubuntu should not get in the way of installing an OS overwriting it) . Upon doing this, when I tried to boot from DVD, Grub alerted me that the partition was missing and went into some kind of recovery mode. I was able to install Ubuntu again, from the USB.

I have searched through the BIOS menus and could not find a boot from device disabling option, only boot order. I already changed all 3 to CD-ROM during my attempts to boot from DVD, still reverts to HDD... I will have another look through the BIOS options to see if i can disable booting from the HDD. There is also a HDD boot priority, only having 1 I assume this is not important.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for responding.

Batman

Mad Scientist
29760 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#438692 12-Feb-2011 21:26

it can only boot from cd rom if it is a bootable cd (or dvd). can you check with a definitely bootable disc and see it that works? if it does your cd is a dud. if it doesnt work then the solution is something else.

sometimes you have to strike a key to enable cd boot (did it ask you to strike any key?)

Gringuito

21 posts

Geek

#438696 12-Feb-2011 21:30

The DVD is bootable, it is not bung, the DVD drive works. If I have been prompted to press a key, it was too fast for the human eye to see.
I believe it may be a problem with the motherboard or BIOS, however I'm not really qualified to make that judgement...

Gringuito

21 posts

Geek

#439549 14-Feb-2011 22:49

YAY!

Friend came around to help me out. It turns out that I had the drive using a driver that wasn't installed, also, the motherboard's SATA controllers were faulty.

:D