How to make my PC boot from the CD-ROm drive

[RogerS]

I know it's something to do with the boot order but can't find how to get into the BIOS to force it to try booting up from the CD-ROM drive first. Or are there some magic keystrokes that I can press during the boot-up procedure?

Reason for asking is that earlier today I got an error message saying Operating System Not Found and it refused to reboot. Brought it home and it booted up fine so sounds as if it's a dodgy sector. Ran CHKDSK but it said errors were found (after Stage 2) and it couldn't continue in read-only mode...which presumably is because I booted up from the hard drive ?

Many thanks

Roger

 

[wizer]

Is this your PC or MAC? If PC what make? To get into the bios is normally an F key or Del. Dells are F2 I think and HP's are F10. This isn't set in stone. Trial and Error. Turn off the PC completely, then turn on and press an F key after about 2 secs or when you see the first bios loader screen.

 

[Racers]

Hi,
You need to open My computer right click on c: click properties then to Tools tab then Error-checking click the Check Now button and tick both options and then it will tell you it will run after the next reboot. so reboot and it will fix the errors (if it can) or you can get into the bios by pressing delete F1 etc (it should say when you boot) and set it to boot from a CD.

Pete

 

[TonyW]

You could try the following common ways to get into BIOS. From boot up press the chosen key about once every second:
Delete
F1
F2
F3
F5
F10
Escape
Insert
Control + Escape
Alt + Escape
Control + Alt + Escape
Control + Alt + Enter

If you can either name the PC and model or motherboard should be easy to find.

Remember Roger PC's are fun

 

[RogerS]

Thanks, chaps.

It's a Sony Vaio laptop...tried the various options but it whizzes straight from the Vaio splash screen to that cute little Microsoft Screen that says Windows XP...you know, the one that they fudged up really early in the boot sequence to fool you into thinking that XP actually loaded faster following adverse comments when it first came out.

I digress!

It did tell me that it had corrected a serious problem and it is booting into XP OK now, thanks, but I want to check out the hard disk to see if it's dying and so still need to boot from something other than the hard disk, I guess??

EDIT: Note to self...read the posts more carefully. Thanks, Pete, you've already told me how to do it! I'll leave it cooking overnight.

 

[TonyW]

Roger, I think it is the F2 or F3 key with most Sony Vaio.

Make sure laptop completely powered off, then switch on and keep pressing F2.

Cheers
Tony

 

[RogerS]

Overnight laptop seemed to settle down.
This morning started playing up again.
chkdsk on restart said unable to continue

Came home, it is F2 to boot from the CD drive.

Booted up from the XP CD. Ran chkdsk.

75% in and it says that the volume appears to have one or more unrecoverable problems.

Oh dear.

Paddle....s**t creek...lack of.

Probably not worth getting a new hard drive and finding the magic screwdrivers to get inside the laptop.

Anyone for Frisbee?

 

[RogerS]

Bought a new drive from Dabs that I think should work. Larger capacity as well.

Also bought a cheapie hard disk USB enclosure to stick the old drive in on the off-chance that I might be able to recover some of the data files. My backup philosophy never extended to the laptop

 

[TonyW]

Roger, you will need some decent recovery software for HDD. If you haven't got anything already there are 2 that I have used successfully in the past:

http://www.r-studio.com/

http://www.stellarinfo.com/disk-recovery.htm

You should be able to download demo versions of both. AFAIK demo version quite limited on saving files but at least it will indicate potential recoverable data - then you can make a decision if data is worth the purchase price of the recovery software

Cheers
Tony

 

[RogerS]

Tony - thanks for those links.

Update - Dabs are duff or at least they use a duff delivery network (Home Delivery network). According to the tracking info, they attempted delivery twice. Mmmm...strange that....been in all the time.....no cards left on either 'alleged' occasion. Perhaps it's because there's a 70 mile round trip from the delivery depot to my address has something to do with it? Cynic? Moi? So order cancelled. Won't shop there again in a hurry.

On a separate note, according to Dabs email responses, Due to the recent collapse of one of our couriers (Amtrak) we have an unusually high number of customer contacts. If you have received this email, your query has been received and will be answered as soon as possible.

 

[RogerS]

Got a new drive and also an enclosure for the old drive. Tried out the old drive and it is failing magnificently! Directory entries are all there but reading the files clearly shows it struggling. Ah well..

Re-installed XP only to find that the network drivers are special to the Vaio and so missing from XP. Ran the Sony Recovery Disk which overwrote my copy of XP with their copy of XP and the good news is that network connection sprang into life. The bad news - mucho bad news - is that Norton also got installed. So back to a real kosher copy of XP and try to find the Vaio drivers, I guess.

 

[Raggy]

Look here for your drivers

 

[RogerS]

Thanks, Chris. Now all I need to do is work out how to instal them.

What a kerfuffle! :wink:

 

[DaveL]

If the Sony has USB ports, down load on to a USB memory stick on another machine and then plug it into the laptop.

 

[RogerS]

It's not that so much, Dave - I've burned them to a CD - but actually getting them installed in the right place. Seem to remember something about Device manager but that was such a long time ago!

This has shades of a similar experience years ago when I was asked to be the systems administrator for a PC based workflow and imaging system. A dedicated Mac man...I didn't even know how to use DOS! You should have seen the look on the trainers face when on Day One the first thing we had to do was copy a file from the floppy to the hard disk After trying to drag and drop I was forced to ask 'how do I do this?'

 

[TonyW]

Are you sure that the drivers are not contained in an .exe file that will auto install?

If you have to manually install them for each device then you should be able to using Device Manager:

Start / Right click My Computer / Properties / Select Hardware Tab / Device Manager

Right click your device and select Update driver

You then have a choice for Windows to search Updates - select No, not at this time click next

Select Install from a list or specific location and point it to your driver files

Cheers
Tony