Windows XP reinstall (format) - can't boot from CD

[petesamprs]

Want to do a clean reinstall of XP. But my CD won't let me boot from it. I tried booting from floppy but that I got some error and that quit. I really want to figure out why my CD rom drive doesn't let me boot from it. I've gone into the BIOS and set it to do so, but I don't know what else I have to do after that. Might be the wrong forum, but any suggestions?

thanks.

 

[blurredvision]

So does it do anything out of the ordinary when booting up? Or does it go through it's normal routine, with no extra messages or pauses? Also, do you have multiple cd drives on your system?

 

[Navid]

If you have set it up, in the bios, to boot from the CD, it will ask you to press any key if you want to boot from the CD when you reboot. If you don't it will go to the next item in the boot priority, which probably is your hard drive. So, make sure to press a key when it asks you to!

 

[petesamprs]

I have two CD rom drives - one normal one (52x) and a burner. It tries to go to the CD rom at boot, but says "CD rom boot failed" or something like that right before the screen changes to the XP moving blue bar screen. So it knows to try it, but it doesn't succeed. That should answer Navid's q as well - it doesn't ask me to press a button to try to boot off the CD...it tries it itself but doesn't succeed.

Is it possible this is a limitation of my drive itself?

 

[Tweak155]

i had a similar problem with my dvd burner drive....i have to use a different drive every time i wanna format, it sucks

 

[petesamprs]

Since I can't boot from CDrom and the disk boot is not working, do you guys suggest getting a new hard drive or getting a new cdrom drive. All I'm looking to do is format the drive with a clean reinstall of XP. What else can I check to make sure my current drives won't work for this?

 

[Broadkipa]

Have you got the upgrade ver by any chance, I know that the upgrade ver will not boot into setup, it only runs from another Windows like 98

 

[Cawchy87]

If you are running a Dell you can't use the dell windows re-install disk after a complete re-format i belive.

 

[Navid]

Do you have a windows XP CD, or do you have a recovery CD that came with a computer that you bought?
Did you build your computer or did you buy a computer that came with the OS?

 

[BFG10K]

Is this a legal copy of Windows?