[Ingo]

Thank you to anybody who is reading this and is willing to help me out. I have a problem that may be very simple, but nevertheless it's a big problem for me.

I was trying to reinstall XP with my install disk and it just kept booting me into windows. I changed my boot priority and that didn't change anything. Then I took my hard-drive off of the boot-list and it STILL booted me into windows.

Every other time I've done this when I use the install disk it boots into the menu where I can format/partition and such. I can't find a way to do that. This is all really puzzling to me because I don't remember any time that it's done this.

Can I format my hard disk without using the disk?

 

[Kirosia]

Have you tried telling it to boot from the optical drive first? (something like that) Before Windows loads, you should get like a "press any button to boot from CD" prompt.

 

[NiceCans]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kirosia /img/forum/go_quote.gif Before Windows loads, you should get like a "press any button to boot from CD" prompt.

I had the same problem once, drove me crazy . . . . until I finally discovered my monitor was out of adjustment and the "press any button to boot from CD" message was below the bottom of the screen

adjusting the monitor solved it.

 

[UncleDavid218]

First off, what is your system setup? Any specifications?

Why were you trying to re-install the OS?

 

[fordgtlover]

You can format your hard drive without using the XP install cd - it's called Fdisk and format. A DOS boot and utilities disk are veeery useful things to have. Bart's boot disks are very useful. Using the Windows 98 boot disk allows you to put a number of DOS utilities onto a floppy.

You can probably do the same with USB memory sticks these days, but I've never played with them.

As far as it booting to HD rather than CD, I would disconnect the power to your HD and try the boot again; not having a HD will force the OS to work its way down the boot devices list. If you get the boot device not found message there is something wrong with your XP CD or your hardware. If you can boot that way, there is something misconfigured in your BIOS, or your hardware is not working properly to cause the OS to use the HD rather than the first boot device.

 

[Deathsnapper]

This might not help, but who knows; it's worth a try. Usually there's a button that you can click on boot to open a boot list where you can just choose what you want to boot from. No, it's not the BIOS or anything like that, it's just a list similar to the priority one in the bios. For me I think it's F12 while booting, or something like that. There's probably a splash screen at boot that says the buttons for bios and boot list.

Otherwise maybe try USB as posted before, though it's a bit of a pain to do (mainly on creating a bootable USB drive that caused some pain when putting XP on my eeepc). I think some motherboards don't allow booting from USB though, so it may be an issue.

 

[mark2410]

just hit the space bar as it boots up repeatedly, that way if the boot from cd message is off screen you will still catch it

we are talking about a non dell/hp/other box manufacturer?

 

[obobskivich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mark2410 /img/forum/go_quote.gif just hit the space bar as it boots up repeatedly, that way if the boot from cd message is off screen you will still catch it

exactly.

I've had monitors that just take an age to turn on (my current one is horrible about it, takes it 10-15s to fully cycle on sometimes, thats about the boot-up time of my system....

), sometimes having the monitor "on" before you boot, so its just coming out of a rest state helps, or just do the button-mash until you catch the XP CD

it shouldn't matter if its a Dell/HP/etc or a custom build, with few exceptions (although, if you're in the BIOS and changing settings, those exceptions are likely non-issues)

 

[mark2410]

well i know on my dell lappy it demands f2 or f12 or something (forget exactly which) or it will just boot off one of the hard drives (yes it has 2, its a beast)

 

[obobskivich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mark2410 /img/forum/go_quote.gif well i know on my dell lappy it demands f2 or f12 or something (forget exactly which) or it will just boot off one of the hard drives (yes it has 2, its a beast)

that should just be the boot order menu coming up, and is part of that BIOS' "style" (whatever you wanna call it, its basically "how they did it"), but if he's changing the boot order menu in the BIOS before restarting, it should be following that (I've never seen a vendor put settings in that exist just as fluff, and don't actually do anything)

 

[Deathsnapper]

Quote:

Originally Posted by obobskivich /img/forum/go_quote.gif that should just be the boot order menu coming up, and is part of that BIOS' "style" (whatever you wanna call it, its basically "how they did it"), but if he's changing the boot order menu in the BIOS before restarting, it should be following that (I've never seen a vendor put settings in that exist just as fluff, and don't actually do anything)

Yes, but a specific difference is it doesn't restart (at least if it's what I think it is). Like it doesn't actually change the boot order, it just changes where the computer will boot from on this specific boot. Meaning if the problem is that the BIOS isn't saving for some reason or another then it should make this no longer a problem.

 

[Ingo]

Sorry guys, I haven't had time to get on a computer to write back.

My computer is a custom build.

MSI Neo4 platinum (K8N mainboard)
1 GB Ram
AMD Athlon 64 3000+

It actually says while it's booting "Press any key to boot from CD" but no matter what it boots to windows.

I'm going to try to unplug the HD power when I get home. Would I just plug it back in if the CD finally booted?

One thing I noticed was that I was unable to move the cursor when I go to the screen to boot in an alternate mode eg: safe mode.

Maybe it's just not letting me input with the keyboard at the right time. I don't know why it would be doing this, but it's definitley never happened when I've tried this before.

Thanks to every for the suggestions and help.

 

[obobskivich]

do you have a USB keyboard?

try with a PS/2 keyboard, or your keyboard with a USB to PS/2 adapter

 

[Deathsnapper]

Quote:

Originally Posted by obobskivich /img/forum/go_quote.gif do you have a USB keyboard? try with a PS/2 keyboard, or your keyboard with a USB to PS/2 adapter

Yes, this should work. If it's not an option try checking for a "legacy USB support"/"legacy USB keyboard support" or something similar to that in the BIOS; it might also work if it's an option. I had a similar issue a few months back after a BIOS update.

 

[obobskivich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deathsnapper /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yes, this should work. If it's not an option try checking for a "legacy USB support"/"legacy USB keyboard support" or something similar to that in the BIOS; it might also work if it's an option. I had a similar issue a few months back after a BIOS update.

what you'll wanna change in the BIOS is the option for "USB Keyboard Support" from "OS" to "BIOS" (it won't change a thing in the OS, it just forces the BIOS to handle I/O for the KB when you're booting, so you can enter bootorder and all that hoopla)

/highly technical term-usage