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Re: [LUG] Booting from DVD drive - failure

 

Rob Beard wrote:
> On 13/05/10 16:33, Neil Winchurst wrote:
>> Anyone any ideas please. Twice recently I have tried to run a live CD
>> from my desk top computer. Both times the CD has been ignored. And, to
>> answer the obvious question, I have checked the BIOS and the CD/DVD
>> drive is top of the boot list.
>>
>> Both those same CD's worked as expected on my laptop.
>>
>> Anyone ??
>>
>> Neil
>>
> 
> I've seen that occasionally when a CD or DVD drive might be taking a
> while to initialise the disc (tends to happen to me with CDRW or DVDRW
> discs).  You could try pressing the Pause/Break key when the BIOS comes
> up and waiting a few seconds until the drive light has stopped flashing
> and see if that works.
> 
> Other than that, does the CD read okay from the OS on the machine you're
> trying to boot? (for instance does the CD work in the existing OS?)
> 
> Maybe you could also try booting from USB if it's supported or looking
> at something like Smart Boot Manager which IIRC can be booted from a
> floppy (assuming you have a floppy drive and disk kicking about).
> 
> Rob
> 
Further testing shows that the DVD drive light does not come on when I
boot the computer. In fact it stays off until I have logged in fully.
Then the disc is seen and recognised.

I have tried the pause key as suggested above, but to no avail. I am
planning to install a more up to date distro soon. Looks like I may have
a problem unless the DVD is seen at the start of the boot sequence.

My computer is getting like me, old and tired.

Neil

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