removed lilo due to boot problems, now cannot boot from cd
 

i removed the lilo bootloader because it was acting buggy or something, and now i'm trying to boot the mandriva cd in rescue mode to reinstall a bootloader... any bootloader. now all i can do is boot straight into windows. i even had the rescue cd in the drive and went straight into bios. i selected the cd drive to boot, waited a few seconds, and then up comes the windows loading screen. i really can't understand how to fix this. it really sucks because now i can't access my mandriva install. if someone knows what they're doing, please make a suggestion.

just a question. but did you set your cdrom in the bios as your primary boot device?

i can't change the order of stuff in the bios, i can only select a device and hit enter to boot it. otherwise, i would set it as my primary.

have you tried booting the cd drive with other boot disks?

yes i tried my ubuntu install disc and once again it went straight to windows.

that's really weird. when booting in the cdrom, do you see the led flashing? also when in windows can you at least view the contents of the cdrom?

you might as well try resetting your bios settings by clearing the bios jumper in the motherboard. ask some techy person if you're new to this.

yes, i do see the led flashing and in windows i can view the contents of the cd just fine. i'll try to figure out how to clear the bios jumper. thank you for your help.

Something else to try. F8

Some bios, mine anyways, if I start tapping f8 right after hitting the pc "on" button the bios picks up the command and gives me a "boot options" screen. This screen is for choosing what device to boot from at that moment, not to do a permanent change. If I hit f8 near or at end of post, I get windows picking it up and giving me windows boot options like safe mode, so you want to try that f8 key right at the start of post. Tap it a couple more times during post if it does not give you the boot options screen right away. Worth a try