CD drive won't boot bootable disks

kdr1066 · 02-05-2005, 08:07 AM

I can't get my CD drive to boot from a bootable CD. I've tried various disks (I'm actually trying to install Fedora), all of which will boot my laptop, but not my PC. I'm guessing it's something wrong with the CD drive itself, as the BIOS boot order is floppy, CD, hard drive (making CD 1st in the list makes no difference). I can't remember if there were any settings on the drive itself when I installed it, jumpers possibly? Any advice? Thanks in advance.

Ptrs!OP · 02-05-2005, 09:20 AM

Do you have two CD-ROMS or DVD-ROMS on your computer? If so check if they are connected to the same channel. A friend of mine had the same problem because the guy who sold him the computer had connected the DVD-ROM and CD-ROM on the same channel, one as primary the other as secondary and the computer couldn't boot from CD-ROM. I changed them to different channels and now it can boot from any of them

teckk · 02-05-2005, 10:11 AM

You didn't say if it was a SCSII or IDE drive.

In some machines the BIOS requires the drive be a master on the IDE channel to boot from it.

Make your CDROM a master on the secondary IDE channel. And make sure your BIOS is set to boot from CDROM. One drive must be master and the other slave on the same IDE channel. I think people sometimes have problems using cable select with Linux. Double check the CD to see if it boots in another machine.

kdr1066 · 02-05-2005, 12:35 PM

Sounds like that might be the problem, I have 2 IDE CD drives (one is a writer), and 2 IDE hard disks, I'll have a look at how I've connected them up. Many thanks.

J.W. · 02-05-2005, 03:44 PM

I'll agree with teckk. Personally I always manually jumper the disks and never use cable select, and likewise I've got my CD as the secondary master. As also previously noted, be certain that your CD is the first entry in your BIOS boot sequence. Good luck with it and welcome to LQ -- J.W.