cdrom as boot device

[flcpge]

Hey All,

Technical info: I have a Dell Inspiron 1150 laptop, purchased June 2004. Intel P4 2.66, 512 MB ram, 20 GB hard drive, the CD-RW is listed as Samsung. I only updated the BIOS once to version A03 last July. I'm not a complete noob with computers, I built my brother's pc last year. But I don't consider myself an expert either. I'm comfortable with linux and windows.

I got tired of using Mandrake and decided to reinstall Debian (prefer apt-get). I have the Debian Sarge net install rc-2 on CD as an ISO. I successfully net installed Debian this way before. When I boot with the CD inside, the computer ignores the CD and boots straight to grub, then linux. I went into the bios and made sure the cdrom is the first boot device. It still doesn't work since grub pops up after I reboot. After that I went into the bios again and disabled the hard drive as a boot device, with only the cdrom (listed first) as a boot device. This time the computer says there are NO bootable disks/devices.

I went back into the bios and enabled the hard drive as a boot device (cdromis still first), this time to reinstall Win XP. This time the cdrom spins, I see a screen that says hit a key to install and I do so, but then the screen goes black and the cdrom just keeps spinning. I also tried to reinstall Mandrake using the CD ISO's but get the same problem like Debian.

I can still logon and use mandrake (i'm typing from it right now), so the hard drive is OK. And when I check the cdrom with a CD inside, I have access to the files, i.e. I see the debian-install rc2 on the disk. So the computer refuses to recognize the cdrom as a boot device, except with windows. And even then I don't see the windows install.

Anyone have any ideas? I don't know if installing an OS can mess up the system. I hope I didn't bork my computer.

[bailey]

what is it you realy want to do, format the hard drive so you can install xp ?

xp must be installed first, but don't use the full disk space, leave a bunch as free unallocated space, after xp is installed, then you can install which distro of linux you want on the unalocated space, this will give you the dual boot if thats what you want.

[flcpge]

Actually Bailey, you DON'T need to have windows installed first. That's a common myth. I've installed linux on several brand new hard drives that never had windows or any other OS on them.

I want to know why my cdrom is not recognized as a boot device, and what can I do to fix the situation. I don't want to share linux and windows on the same hard drive.

I want to install linux on this hard drive. I cant install any OS because the cdrom is not recognized as a boot device.

Any ideas?

[bailey]

I only said that if you wanted to dual boot, sence you don't can you just clean the drive and go from there ?
can you boot from a floppy and format the drive ?
if the system can't see the cd drive, is it possible that it may be bad ?
have you done any changes to the cd drive as far as the jumpers or cables ?

[glc]

I've seen notebook CD drives have problems booting from burned CD's even though they can read them fine. Try a different brand of media when you make your disks, or make them in a different burner. My notebook refuses to boot from a Maxell CDR, but boots fine from TDK - both made in my TDK (Lite-On) desktop burner. Go figure.