My current computer is dual booting Windows XP and MEPIS, but I need to be on Windows 24/7 and I still want to be able to use Linux. So I dug out my old windows 98 computer and formated it to get ready to install MEPIS on it. My problem is, the CD ROM drive is dead, and if it isn't...then for some reason beyond my control, the computer won't boot from it. I don't have any other CD-ROM drives that are compatible with the computer, but I do have a HP 8200 series CD writer(USB).(Though I do not know how to make the computer boot from it.)

I'm afraid I can't give you much information on the computer, the documentation on it is lost. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Afraid it didn't work, I keep getting 'Disk Error 0x20'. I'm sure there is nothing wrong with the CD, it worked perfectly on my computer.

According to this page there's something wrong with the controller.

How is the CD player connected? IDE or via soundcard? In the first case, you can start changing combinations. There should be two IDE controllers that can handle up to 4 IDE devices. So start mixing (i.e. HD and CD on the same cable, on different cables, on different IDE channelss etc). Don't forget to change master/slave settings on the HD/CD if necessary.

I think your PC is too old to support booting from USB.