nickskip

Hi. This is a question i'm sure mostly everyone but me will be able to answer because its very simple.. I'm reformatting my hard drive and I'm having trouble booting the cd. Windows starts normally without giving me the chance to load the cd.

so, simple put, how do you boot to the cd when you begin? By pressing one of the F1 - F12 buttons?

Thanks in advance.

TheMatt

Set the Boot order in the BIOS to like this:

CD/DVD Drive
Hard Drive
Floppy Drive
Network Boot

You will find it in the BIOS. When it shows the computer/motherboard manufacturers logo, it will say to press a button to enter setup. Press that button. Look in the Boot tab to find the settings.

nickskip

Thank you very much

nickskip

Actually, please come back. because it doesn't give me the option to 'enter setup' like my other computer does. but if i press the F buttons ( not sure which one cause i press them all the same time) a screen comes up with a bunch of options, But there is no Boot tab and nowhere on the list does it give me the option to change the boot settings..

Real_Bullet

When you reboot, hold down F8

F8 usually the key you push and it give a boot menu, also you may wanna check the bios and make sure their is no boot sequence option in it, i havent seen a bios yet that didnt have it.

Zazula

Also give this a try: as soon as you boot keep DEL pressed and see if this lets you in the Bios setup.

nickskip

Yea thanks. This time i did it for sure, lol.. I got into the setup menu at the beginning and found the option for changing the boot sequence. then did it up like CD Rom, hard drive, floppy etc... Now I can reformat my hard drive.

Zazula

I'm glad you sorted it out, nickskip. And, since all TSF threads are used as a reference by future users and guest visitors, I'd like to add here a more complete list of key combinations that let you in the Bios setup (courtesy of cyberwalker.net):

Acer: Ctrl+Alt+Esc
ALR PC: (F2) or (Ctrl)(Alt)Esc)
AMI BIOS: (Del), (F1) or (F2)
AST, Advantage, Award, Tandon: - Ctrl + Alt + Esc
Award BIOS: (Del) or (Ctrl)(Alt)(Esc)
Compaq: (F10) (do this when the cursor is in the upper right corner of the screen blinking)
Dell: - F1 or Del.
Dell: - Some require pressing reset twice
Dell: - Ctrl + Alt + Enter
DTK BIOS: (Esc)
Gateway 2000: - F1
Hewlett Packard: - F1
IBM:
- Older Models - In order to get into the configuration of the IBM setup screen (CMOS) screen you need to hold down both mouse buttons during bootup.
- Aptiva - Press F1
- IBM PS/2: (Ctrl)(Alt)(Ins) after (Ctrl)(Alt)(Del)
- IBM PS/2 with reference partition: - Press Ins during boot
- Some PS/2s, such as 75 and 90: - Ctrl Alt ?
- Some PS/2s when pointer at top right of screen: - Ctrl + Ins
NEC: - F2
Packard Bell: - F1 or F2
Phoenix BIOS: (F1), (F2), or (Ctrl)(Alt)(Esc)
Phoenix BIOS: - Ctrl Alt S
Phoenix BIOS: - Ctrl S
Phoenix BIOS: - Ctrl Alt Ins
Sharp Laptop 9020: - F2
Sony: (F3) while you are starting the PC, then (F2) or (F1)
Tandon computers: - Hold down the key after turning on power
Tandon: - Ctrl + Shift + Esc
Toshiba Laptops: - Toshiba Utility
Toshiba: - Press Esc during boot
Toshiba, Phoenix, late model PS/1 Value Point and 330s: - Press F1 during boot
Olivetti PC Pro: - Shift Ctrl Alt + Num Pad Del
Miscellaneous PC's: - Ctrl + Esc or Ctrl and Alt and +
Zenith: - Ctrl Alt Ins

TheMatt

I would just like to add than on my acer, the F2 key is how you get into the BIOS.

laboye

Toshiba Laptops also have the escape key. Then it tells you to press F1 to enter setup.