Cannot boot from Windows CD

[Spectrum]

Hello.

I have the following problem: I cannot get into the installation menu on my Windows installation CD.

I boot my machine, select the option to boot from CD. I get a screen saying "Press any key to boot from CD", indicating that the CD is being read. I press a key, and the screen goes black. Then nothing. After 15-30 seconds, the CD drive stops spinning, and nothing ever happens. I can't reach the installation menu.

I have tested the CD in another computer, and it's not corrupted. I have also tried another CD, but no difference.

I have two CD/DVD drives and have tried them both. Same behaviour.

What could be wrong here? Can anyone help?

Thanks in advance. :)

[Alan2273]

How old is the computer and are you trying to install to an IDE or SATA drive?.

[Spectrum]

How old is the computer and are you trying to install to an IDE or SATA drive?.

Thanks for the reply.

The computer itself is from autumn 2006. I have two hard drives, both IDE. Both, AFAIR, are bought in 2007.

[-pops-]

Assuming CD is the first boot drive in BIOS, are you booting with the disk already in the drive?

You should not be getting a message requesting you to "Press any key" if the boot sequence is correct for booting from CD.

[Alan2273]

When you select boot from Cd as first option do you save the changes and exit the BIOS or you can press F10 then Y and enter to save the changes.

[Spectrum]

Assuming CD is the first boot drive in BIOS, are you booting with the disk already in the drive?

You should not be getting a message requesting you to "Press any key" if the boot sequence is correct for booting from CD.

No, the CD is not my first boot device. I am manually selecting to boot from CD using a boot menu (in my case by pressing F11 during boot).

The "press any key to boot from CD" message comes from the installation CD. I get the same screen if I boot with the CD on another machine, where it finds the boot menu fine enough.

(Also, I have two installation CDs, one English and one Danish. Using the Danish one, I get "press any key to boot from CD" displayed in Danish, which I take as proof that the CD is being read.)

[Scarecrow Man]

You need 6 blank floppy disks (and a floppy disk drive), but this may be an option:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310994

[Spectrum]

You need 6 blank floppy disks (and a floppy disk drive), but this may be an option:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310994

Thanks for the link.

It's not that I can never boot from CDs, tho. I've recently installed Linux from CDs and DVDs, and that's worked great. But these last weeks I haven't been able to boot with any of my Windows CDs,

[-pops-]

But these last weeks I haven't been able to boot with any of my Windows CDs,

?Do you boot regularly from the Windows CD? With the computers I build the Windows CD is, most times, used once only to load the operating system then never used again.

[Spectrum]

But these last weeks I haven't been able to boot with any of my Windows CDs,

?Do you boot regularly from the Windows CD? With the computers I build the Windows CD is, most times, used once only to load the operating system then never used again.

No, I don't normally use CDs to boot, but I need to access some of the repair/diagnostic tools on the CD. Specifically, I've screwed up my boot sector and need to do FIXMBR.

And I've also been wanting to do a fresh install of Windows. I can't do that right now. :(

BTW: I've checked some more, and it's only my two Windows XP CDs that won't work. My ancient Windows 98 CD Works, as does my Ubuntu Linux CD.

Thanks for the help so far.

[-pops-]

If there's nothing on the disk you wish to retain, I suggest that you do a low level format and start afresh.

[Spectrum]

If there's nothing on the disk you wish to retain, I suggest that you do a low level format and start afresh.

Well, there are data I would mind losing. But even if not, how would you suggest I format if I can't boot?

I've done some testing, and it turns out that it's my hard drives that are causing the trouble. If I unplug both hard drives, the installation program runs fine, but if I leave either one connected, it hangs forever, either in "Inspecting your hardware configuration..." or with a black screen.

Any way around this?

Thanks for the replies.

EDIT: Oh, and... is there a way to install the Recovery Console despite being unable to run the installation program? If I could run the console, I think I could fix my master boot record and have Windows boot again.

[-pops-]

But even if not, how would you suggest I format if I can't boot?

The thing to do would be to remove the drive and install it as a slave in another machine. If the drive is not totally defunct, you should be able to get some sort of life out of it, even if only to recover data. You should than be able to do a low level format. From what you're saying, though, I'm somewhat doubtful about being able to do anything with it/them.

[Spectrum]

But even if not, how would you suggest I format if I can't boot?

The thing to do would be to remove the drive and install it as a slave in another machine. If the drive is not totally defunct, you should be able to get some sort of life out of it, even if only to recover data. You should than be able to do a low level format. From what you're saying, though, I'm somewhat doubtful about being able to do anything with it/them.

Nah, the hard drive is not dead. I can boot in Linux from my other hard drive, and from there I can read all the partitions fine enough (including the ones on the Windows HD).

You're right, I suppose I could boot in Linux and format it there. I'm hesitant to do that, tho, since I believe my Windows still ought to live. I think if I could just do a FIXMBR, I could get it to boot again. To do that I'd need the recovery console, but I haven't yet found out if I can run it without the CD...

[Seshomaru Samma]

you can try creating a FAT32 partition with gparted in linux

maybe Windows doesn't see any file system it can relate to and so refuses to start the installation (Windows cannot see ext3 and SWAP)

If you are using Ubuntu just run

sudo aptitude install gparted

and then

sudo gparted

'm hesitant to do that, tho, since I believe my Windows still ought to live

if by that you mean that you have a Windows partition which you wish you access - then just reinstall GRUB and you will be able to access it

if you wish to format you can use this: http://dban.sourceforge.net/faq/ it will format anything

you can save your data with a Linux live CD before you format.

[Spectrum]

you can try creating a FAT32 partition with gparted in linux

maybe Windows doesn't see any file system it can relate to and so refuses to start the installation (Windows cannot see ext3 and SWAP)

All partitions on my Windows HD are NTFS ones, created in Windows. So I doubt this is it.

If you are using Ubuntu just run

...

BTW, my Linux is Fedora Core 8.

if by that you mean that you have a Windows partition which you wish you access - then just reinstall GRUB and you will be able to access it

But GRUB can't boot Windows directly... can it? I have my GRUB set up to allow multibooting into Windows, using chain loading, but it doesn't work ATM because the Windows boot loader is screwed up. (I get the error message "NTLDR is missing", both when I try to chain-load and when I just boot from the Windows HD.)

If GRUB can solve this, then please enlighten me as to how.

Thanks in advance. :)

[pa1916]

Try unplugging the other hard drive and the remaining one is master.

[Seshomaru Samma]

Spectrum , I misunderstood your problem. I don't think Grub can boot Windows directly.

you can ,however, do a FIXMBR with a Linux live CD

HOWTO

if you are working with a Fedora liveCD you should replace the apt-get command with the yum command and ignore all the "sudo" , just do the whole thing as root.

[Spectrum]

Try unplugging the other hard drive and the remaining one is master.

Yes, you're correct. This worked. I set the Windows HD as master and removed the Linux HD, and with those settings I can run the Windows installation program from the CD. :) Thanks a lot.

Also, with assistance from this thread on the Fedora forum, I've set up GRUB so it can chain-load Windows. So now I can boot Windows indirectly through GRUB.

However, I still can't boot directly from the Windows hard drive. I still get "NTLDR is missing". This only happens when booting from the Windows HD (and regardless of whether it's set as master or slave). If I chain-boot through GRUB, Windows boots and runs fine.

I tried running FIXMBR from the CD, but this did no difference.

I have enough things working for me now to run Windows and use the Windows CD, but I would still be happy if someone could help me fix the last annoyance.

Thanks for the help so far. :)