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Can't boot from cd drive

bruceb

bruceb

Diamond Member
Dell Dimension 8200 with XP PRO SP3 and all other updates. Has Dell BIOS A09 on it (latest for this computer)
It will not boot from either of the 2 CD-DVD drives. It will boot fine into Windows XP and it can boot to a
Ghost Boot Floppy disk.

It has the following:

Floppy is on Drive "A"
Hard Drive "C" (this one has XP on it)
Hard Drive "D" (mainly for data and back up files)
CD-DVD Drive "E" (Sony DRU-530) This drive may be bad, can not always see CD data
CD-DVD Drive "F" (Phillips) (it won't boot from this one either even if the CD is in it and it should)

Below is how the boot.ini file looks:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS

[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

[spybotsd]
timeout.old=30

Not sure what needs to change. Thanks
 
It is unlikely two optical drives go bad simultaneously, so I suspect connectivity or software driver/parametrics issues.

DvD/CD optical drives which are old and have been in place for a long time seem, for me, to get nervous breakdowns often.

Once in the OS, verify that the optical drives are able to read optical disk materials such as data disks, music CDs, movie DvD as well as display the files of the bootable optical disk media.

Stuff I do to get them functioning again is to reseat their connections and delete their hardware in device manager and re-boot to re-install hardware drivers and re-set parameters.

Upon computer box boot up, use the pause key to stop the hardware status splash screens to ensure that the subject hardware is registered.
 
The Sony drive is not currently able to read discs, but the Philllips drive still can. The Sony had been making some funny noises and had some issues with the tray opening & closing at times. I wonder if I should disconnect the Sony drive and see what happens. Do you need to set Master / Slave on a CD-DVD drive ? ? ? Have not done so in quite a while.
 
SATA drives do not require jumpers.

A guess now is that you have two (E)IDE optical drives, the first (SONY) is jumpered as master and set in the BIOs as alternate boot. The second drive on the same (E)IDE controller is jumpered slave and is established at the bottom of the totem pole in the BIOs for boot options.

Go into the BIOs and in boot options menu set the Phillips optical drive as first boot option, then HDD as second. You might as well set the SONY drive to disable in boot menu if that option exists or else set it way down the list behind the floppy.

In general, for my systems the boot order is set to Floopy, Optical drive, then HDD. To speed up booting, you should want the floppy behind the HDD (unless like me) you use it from time to time with such utilities as the free "SeaTools" or Windows 9X start up disk (for system and components testing).

Oh ya, couple things. Boot order is independent of optical drive jumpering. It is what's in the drive (or 1st screen) section of the BIOs that matters regarding jumper settings. Then, remember that the master jumpered drive must always be connected at the end of the (E)IDE connector.
 
Note also, that you should NOT leave one drive jumpered to Master/Slave, and the other one to Cable Select.

To use Cable Select properly, BOTH drives need to be set to Cable Select, and you need to be using a specific Cable Select Cable. (It will have a section of maybe 8-10 wires that are twisted around at the middle connector.) When using the Cable Select Cable, the Master drive is at the End, and the Slave drive is in the Middle.

When jumpering devices explicitly to Master and Slave, the Master device should be at the end of the cable, and the Slave in the middle.

I believe that if you jumper the devices explicitly, that overrides whether or not you're using a Cable Select cable with the devices.

You just don't want one device jumpered to CS (Cable Select) and one device jumpered to Master/Slave. I think that can result in duplicate ids, or intermittent operation.
 
First the Dell came with the Phillips from the factory. The Sony was added many years ago. So I would think the Phillips would have been the Master .. Second, in the BIOS there is only the option to set the drives to boot or not. It is set to: CD, Floppy, Hard Drive (floppy and hard drive work fine)
 
Advice now is to:

- Disconnect both SONY & PHILLIPS from the IDE cable.
- Reconnect only the PHILLIPS to the end of the IED cable and verify that the drive is set to master.
- Set drive in BIOS to boot status
- Attempt to boot from PHILLIPS; verify that PHILLIPS shows up in hardware status screen pror to attempted new boot

Good luck
 
I just finished doing all that. Phillips is now on the end connector of the IDE cable and BIOS boot order is correct. It still refuses to boot from a factory CD such as Windows XP or Windows 7 or from a factory Acronis TruImage CD .. Not sure what else it could be. Are the entries in the boot.ini file correct (in post #1) ? ? Maybe I need to edit something in there. I am not sure where the option is on the Phillips to set it to Master
 
This is a Dell, correct? I once worked on a Dell, that wouldn't boot any OS install CD/DVD, for some reason, unless it was a Dell-branded one. Like they have BIOS lock-outs or something. That might be the case here. (But eliminate bad hardware and BIOS settings first, before coming to that conclusion.)

Can you add a SATA PCI card (Syba makes one, with a 3114 SIL chipset), and plug in a SATA DVD-RW. (IDE DVD-RWs are hard to find.)

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...CI SATA&cm_re=PCI_SATA-_-15-124-020-_-Product

Firmware to change it into a straight-up SATA Host Adapter, instead of a RAID card (so therefore, suitable for ATAPI devices), is on siliconimage.com, I believe. (Unless they got bought by someone.)
 
Yes, it is a Dell. And it never had any issues like this before. It had worked with the Acronis TruImage factory CD back in Aug 2017 ... Not sure when the boot from CD went bad.
 
One other thing that might work.

You said the PHILLIPS is able to read files, so:

- Insert the Windows CD into the optical drive (while holding down the shift key to prevent auto boot; after CD registration you may release the shift key)
- Use Windows Explorer to view the files on the CD
- You should see "SETUP.EXE" in the CD's root director; click on that and the installation process should begin (note: I have verified just now that this works using an authentic MS Windows XP CD; presumably Dell CD is similar).

Often for me, for some reason, an installation CD wont auto boot and it (ie, setup) just has to be done manually.

Oh ya, in general with self booting CDs (and it can be any other type program or application installation CD), inserting an auto boot CD while holding the shift key locks out the auto booting process. Then using "Windows Explorer" allows observation/access of the CD's files.
 
But the Acronis TruImage CD is supposed to boot directly into it's own application so you can make or restore an image from outside of windows. Does anyone have a similar Dell that can copy the Boot.ini file so I can compare it to what I have and see what may be incorrect in it ? ?
 
Boot.ini only matters when you have several Windows OS version on a hard drive. It only control which Windows version it boots into.

It has nothing to do with if the machine can boot from a CD/DVD.

CD/DVD drive could bad anytime. If you tested several bootable CD/DVD and it won't boot, the drive just won't boot any more.
 
I was under the belief that the CD drive needed to be in the boot.ini file
or it would not be able to boot from it.
 
bruceb said:
I was under the belief that the CD drive needed to be in the boot.ini file
or it would not be able to boot from it.
Click to expand...

You have the wrong impression. 🙂

If you still want to use this machine and boot from a CD/DVD drive, you probably have to do what VL has suggested.

==

Make sure the IDE cable is plugged-in properly for the drive.
 
Last edited:
I could, but I can still boot fine into the OS Windows XP PRO SP3 .. so for now, not worth the cost of a SATA card and SATA CD/DVD drive
 
Another trick Ive had to use (not often) is to make a copy of the problem media (eg, bootable CD) then boot from the copy.
(For some reason with the drive, a copy will boot when the original will not. A guess is that an old drive gets dirty and the reading head cant move fully to CD track zero like when it was new, so it has trouble reading the initializing track.)

You might also try cleaning the PHILLIP's optical sensor, but be careful not to damage the lens. Use some alcohol on a Q-tip.
 
If you have True Image, you can create a new rescue disk - or a bootable thumb drive as well.
 
I have Acronis on a thumb drive for use on my Windows 10 laptop .. But the old Dell does not have "boot from usb" capability. It is on my Dell that a CD/DVD will no longer boot up from (it did work in Aug 2017 as I tested the Acronis disk when I first got it) .. This is an old computer (circa 2001 or 2002)
 
Just a couple more things:

- Ensure in BIOS that AHCI is NOT enabled
- During boot up one of the keyboard keys should allow bring up of the Dell boot device selection menu from which you should be able to select the PHILLIPS optical as boot drive. Keys to try are F12, F9 and F2.
 
It would be F12 ... But I had tried that before I moved the Phillips to the Primary IDE connector. It did not work then. I will have to try it again next time I go to that computer.
 
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