dell

[bum]

My dell is having issues. There are several but I really need help with the first one:

Can't get it to boot from a CD (to install windows).
It says the drive is "(not installed)" in the BIOS. Checked the cables, reseated them, same result. Then I tried a USB based CD burner and got the same result. I can't get it to do anything cuz it just says
"No boot device available -" it gives the option the retry or go back to the bios. I only have a external floppy drive but the Hard drive is blank at the moment. Even with the harddrive unplugged same result, so it can't be a virus thing can it?

Im gonna try a different cable now

 

[sPlAtOiD]

Can you see your drives in the BIOS? Are the driver set properly? Are they both on the same cable?If so the hard drive shoud be master and the CD rom should be slave.Or both Cable select.
Or maybe the cd rom is broken.

 

[bum]

the HDD is SATA so the CD drive is the only one on there. I've tried to boot from cd even without an HDD plugged in same result. Tried a different cable too, no dice. The drive seems to be working, but there is some possiblity its bad. As of now it looks like the most likely culpret is the motherboard.

 

[leonardmp92]

I assume the boot CD is good?

Does the CD drive spin/light up whenever you put a CD in?

 

[FlashDude]

Have you set the cdrom to be the first boot device in the bios? Also If you are using a sata then you will need to set the cd/rw as the master on the primary ide channel. Also you know you will probably need sata drivers so the motherboard will see the hdd, right?