Booting from a cd

Hey how do i boot from my cd drive. What i an trying to dois format ny hardrive and i am not familiar with BIOS settings and such. In the BIOS settings i have gone tothe menu on the far right end and have selected for the cd drive to boot before the floppy and other. I don't know if that does anything but i isn'tworking obviously. I am on a school labtop right now so my typing is bad sorry. Oh...my os is windows xp.

ALSO...someone told me that i can format my hardrive through installing my os through this process. That is ultamatlywhat i am trying todo.

KissArmy

oh yeah my aol screen name is acdcayoung@aol.com if anyone wants to email me or chat if i'm on.

No you got the right idea , go to BIOS and set as first boot device your CDROM then put your CD in and you will go to the installation screen from there you can delete the partition that has WINDOWS XP and reformat it and reinstall windows .you said you did all that ,but you should have another option to boot from the CD ROM ,not in that menue in ,it will say boot priority.in the Bios


You'll have to delete the existing partion before you can reformat. Anything else will not work. You are given this option when you boot from the CD. You have to select the drive that you want to delete by high lighting it and pressing L. You will be asked to confirm this. Follow the rest of the instructions provided to you...

ok hey this is what my boot menu settings basicly say in the BIOS
boot device priority title
-cdrom
-hard disk
-floppy
-LAN
(in order of startup)
Hardisk boot proioity title
-pri.m Samsung SP8oP4H
-bootable add in cards
(also in order of priority)

I tried to do as much as i understood of what u told me but still with my os cd in the drive it does not launch before my os initializes.
Kissarmy=very confused
please tell me exactly where to go and what to do in steps if at all possible.

Sorry I just relized that you have been sitting around waiting on me.
okay this is what we do !

this is whats going to happen once we straighten out your boot order
this what you will do

cd has to be sitting in there(cd rom player) when you hit the power .

To reinstall Windows XP by starting your computer from the Windows XP CD, follow these steps:
Insert the Windows XP CD into your computer's CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, and then restart your computer.
When the "Press any key to boot from CD" message appears on the screen, press a key to start your computer from the Windows XP CD.

you have to go back into that Bios menue (in order of startup)
and bring the Samsung up to the top of the list < arrow down to it and hit enter ,and you will see how you move them around,sometimes it can be a little tricky ,untill you see how it's done ,you have to highlight each one and move it down or up ,,,in this case you make one move up,,so the Samsung is first ,cause thats your startup priorty and thats the CDROM

try it .

hey i did what you told me to and when i restart my computer it doens't boot from the cd it just loads the regular xp os that i have on my computer. The samsung is at the top of the boot priority and so is cdrom but nuthing happens upon start up. and yes my cd is in the drive when i reboot.
this is becoming very confusing and if you have no idea what is happening please just aid me in reformating my computer through another process, like using deltree or something.

did you do this :
If you want to test whether your system can boot with the CD, just insert a bootable CD (like your Windows XP CD-ROM) and reboot. If Setup begins or you see a message about hitting any key to boot from the CD, you're all set.


I did not no that you had a OS on the H/D I thought it was empty.
Answer: It's pretty easy. In fact Microsoft has done a nice job of taking all the pain out of wiping the hard drive and reinstalling XP. Pop your Windows XP disk in the CD ROM drive and wait for the installation menu to come up.

Choose "Install Windows XP" then it will go into a new screen that lists a bunch of steps.from the pulldown menu choose "New Installation (Advanced)" and let the software do the rest.

It will wipe out all the data on your hard drive and put a fresh copy of Windows XP on the system.
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/wi ... _clean.asp
other than that ;
http://www.cyberwalker.net/faqs/reinsta ... einstallxp

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=315341

See hopefully you have XP,if not then you would do an upgrade .

If you really want to reformatt that bad ,you have to lern about
FDISK and REFORMATTING from a floppy ,if you can't get your
CD-ROM as your first bootable device

And if you do that ,you have to have internet to read about it .
Is your OS that you have now in pretty bad shape on that PC.

here are links ,more reading than i have room here .
Fdisk;
http://www.fdisk.com/home/
http://fdisk.radified.com/

Reformatting:
http://www.ntcompatible.com/thread27291-1.html
http://www.pctechguide.com/tutorials/WinXPInstall1.htm

http://geekswithblogs.net/jbrayton/arch ... /4823.aspx

good luck ,i'll look for your post.

hey is microsoft office xp standard for sudents and teachers my os cd or is that just a information cd?

microsoft office xp .Is just that (Office XP)
That is not an OS disk !
You would need a fullfledged XP home or Pro disk

http://www.salesintl.com/product.asp?0=218&1=231&3=58

Your OS cd is what you need for a re-install,repair,or fresh install of XP

hey i had my pc made customly...and i chose to have them instal xp on it. should i not hav had an xp os cd come with my comp?

Not unless you expressly paid for it. Most makers will preload an OS for you but they won't give you the CD since well...you didn't pay for it.

Now if you DID pay for it...then you got jipped.

I hear about that all the time ,I would if I owned a place and sold you
the PC,would have ,But they should have.

Thats like buying a new car ,and them not giving you any owners manual
how you going to fix it ,if you don't have anything to help you.

What it is ,,is .they want to overcharge you and fix it everytime you
break it...it's a scam they all doit.

They don't want to give you the OS disk, cause then you fix it yourself,
this way if you bring it into them they can charge you $130.00 for throwing XP back on !

And then Microsoft wonders why there is so many pirated OS's out there!

ok hey for the guy thats been helping me...the easyest way to do the thing that i've been trying to do is to system restore from the computer and not the os. I talked to a tech guy and he told me to do this simple thing. upon startup tap f10 and then maek sure you are doing destructive system restore. I already did it and i am just now currently loading my stuff back onto the pc. he said that hp uses partitions rather than adding the os cd to set back to when you bought it. well like i said i just did it and it is exactly like the day i got it. thx for your help and cya later

Good ,another happy ending !

If you look at your first post tho !
It looks like you want to clean (as in reformat) and have a nice
fresh start on your Hard Drive !

If I had realized by (you ) telling me that you just wanted to use
your OS .
I would have told you that ?
But you looked like you were determined to reformat it .
not do a repair.

Funny, I have a LOT of newb's that think that Office XP will run a computer...Education and re-education