Reformat Harddrive with XP--BIOS help

[sbender333]

I'm a novice whose trying the reformat the hardrive. I've looked at various faqs outlining how to do this and I have always gotten stuck when they ask me to change the boot order in the BIOS settings. There is no option for me to do boot from the CDROM. I have an IBM and I press Ctrl+S to access the setup screen (or, I'm assuming BIOS). These are the only options I have to modify:

Network Boot Protocol: PXE/RLS
Boot Order: Try local drive first, then network/Try network first, then local drive/Try only local drive/Try only network
Show Setup Prompt: Enabled/Disabled
Setup menu wait time: 2 sec/3 sec/4 sec/5 sec/8 sec

The first options are default. I tried the different boot orders and restart with the XP cd in my CDROM with each combination, but it always boots off the harddrive.

There is probably some obvious answer to this trivial question, but I apologize for my inconvenience. And if there is any other info about my computer that you need to answer this question, I'd be happy to give it, but I just don't know what is needed. Thanks in advance.

[EzyStvy]

Boot Order is the option you want. How old is this machine?

[sbender333]

I purchased it less than 2 years ago. Yeah, I suspected the Boot Order was what I need to change, but I couldn't find an option under there that related to booting from the CD-ROM.

[EzyStvy]

Might look into upgrading the bios.

[sbender333]

So, do I need to upgrade it if I want to reformat my hard drive?

[Statica]

Do you even have the option to boot from floppies?

[sbender333]

No, not on the screen I laid out in my first post. Maybe this isn't the BIOS screen? I don't know, but I did access it by ctrl+s on the while the comp started up...

[Panama Red]

Just checked the IBM site for "how to access bios" and different machines use different keys. Some f1, some f2, some use key combinations. Maybe post back your system model and sn so we can look or go there yourself and check the support area.

[sbender333]

My Machine Type/Model is "2251VAU" and my System Serial Number is "78ZR304". Hope this is the right info. Thanks.

[sbender333]

I've looked through the IBM site on a guide to help me access BIOS, but I can't seem to find it. Can you please give me a link as to where to find this. Thanks in advance.

[Panama Red]

This page at IBM discusses a problem with USB which isn't generic to your problem, but they do tell how to access the bios, use the F1 key during startup. I usually tap the appropriate key repeatedly once the splash screen shows until the bios is shown or the system beeps at me repeatedly. The page I linked also shows a link to update your bios. Good luck. Let us know if it worked.

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/si...id=MIGR-4Y6LGU