Which should be my first boot device?

Lioness

Member
Jul 27, 2001
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What should I set as my first boot device in the BIOS? Or doesn't it matter? I have the FDD set as first boot.

My choices are CD-RW, DVD-ROM and HDD.

thanks
 

minendo

Elite Member
Aug 31, 2001
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I always leave mine set to FDD in case I need to reformat or boot from floppy. However, by setting it to HDD you increase your boot time a little.
 

indianduddawg47

Senior member
Dec 29, 2001
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hdd - it will quicken your boot time

some motherboards allow you to pick by hitting a hotkey - for example i can hit F8 and i will be prompted for which device i want to boot from (i have an ecs k7s5a)
 

MacaroneePenguin

Senior member
May 12, 2001
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I would recommend anything BUT FDD. If you accidentally leave a bad/corrupt bootup disk in your FDD the computer will try to load with that corrupt boot information and will potential corrupt the hard drive's boot information.

I've had this occur with my computer because my sister always leaves floppy disks in the FDD and some of the floppy disks were old bootup disks.
 

Lioness

Member
Jul 27, 2001
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I have it set to FDD for the reason that was mentioned earlier...reformat. boot up disk etc. Yet, there are times I forget and leave in a disk (not bootdisk). However, I was thinking maybe I should set it up to first boot on my DVD-ROM. If I should have problems booting up, for whatever reason, I should be able to use my XPpro CD with the recovery console for a fix/repair. Right? Or should I use my XP floppy bootup disk? I prefer to have my recovery console fix the problem simply because it will walk me through the fix/repair. With a floppy bootup disk, I won't have this pleasure.

I have a P4B266. Does the F8 key give me the "first boot choice"?
 

MacaroneePenguin

Senior member
May 12, 2001
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Remember, you can always change it to whatever you want whenever you want since the OS does not inflict the BIOS. So, IMHO, I would just set it at none until the day I need to boot off my CD-Rom or Floppy.
 

pamf

Senior member
Dec 11, 2000
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I was going to comment, but everything I was going to say has been said.. I'd set your hd as the first boot device, and change it to fdd/cdrom when you need to boot off one of those.. saves some time and frustration ("non system disk? WHAT? OH CRAP NO%#@!%@! oh wait.. theres a disk in there.." .. heh)