OS won't install: Doesn't ask to boot from CD?

[GGR1]

Well, this is interesting... Just bought some new hardware for my box, and decided I was going to reinstall the OS as well. I tried XP, it formats the hard disk, copies files to it, restarts... and then rather than ignoring the bootable CD (Where it would normally display "Press any key to boot from CD..."), it starts up the installer again just like nothing had just happened. Thinking it might be an XP quirk, I popped in my Win2K CD. Same deal, goes through the whole deal, wants to restart... starts the installer from scratch again! The only hardware I've added recently is a video card, and I popped in a LiteOn 16X DVD and a 24X burner. Thinking they might be the problem, I hooked up my Toshiba 32X CD-ROM and got the same results. :disgust:

 

[Amused]

When the BIOS is booting, go into the BIOS and switch the boot order back to HDD or Floppy/HDD.

OR, when it's rebooting and you're still in the BIOS, eject the CD.

Either way, this may be annoying, but it's not the end of your OS loading by any means.

 

[jh0sken612]

Yah, either rearrange boot order to make HDD/Floppy before CD- or take the Disc out

Later/Jim

 

[GGR1]

Oops, I forgot to mention that if I do just eject the CD so it will boot from the hard disk, it says "Operating system not found". Grrr.

 

[Mitchydkid]

I've had this problem twice.

First time I fixed it by booting from a DOS disk, then use the FDISK MBR command. I don't remember the exact command, I always look it up on the web. This formats over your "Master Boot Record" if you did not already know. After this is done, I was able to install the OS as usual.

Second time this happened... the above fix did not work. I had to use the Maxtor "MaxBlast" installation disk to format the drive. I don't know why, but this was the only thing that worked.

Hope this helps

 

[risen]

do the low level format as the previous post suggested. It will return the drive to factory condition. then you can fdisk and format, etc. also if the drive is going bad the low level format will let you know.

 

[GGR1]

Well, I gave that a shot, did a low level format.... Nope. STILL doesn't work. About to throw dis piece of sheet out dee window!

 

[Chadder007]

Try using a Win98 boot diskette and use FDISK. Delete the partitions.....Create a new one (partition it like you want it) and make the first partition the "Active" partition. You can then reboot using the diskette also and just go to your CD ROM and run Setup from there.