I can't boot from CDROM : old BIOS ...

[ptek]

Hi all

I have a rather old PC motherboard and the BIOS doens't allow to boot from CDROM ... I've already updated the BIOS but it's a quite old one and didn't solve this problem.

Is there any program that can run from floppy / hard disk upon executed stays in memory (or installs itself on the MBR), soft reset the computer and prompt a choice  from boot devices (like floppy, CDROM, hard disk) like we see on current BIOS ?

I remember to see something like this in System Commander multi OS selector, but only for booting from floppy disk.

My goal is to boot from CD in order to install Linux or other OS that it's installation setup program starts from CD ...

[Ilwrath]

My goal is to boot from CD in order to install Linux or other OS that it's installation setup program starts from CD ...

As far as I know, in PC land, if your BIOS doesn't support booting from CD, you aren't going to be booting directly from CD, no matter what.

I think what you're going to have to do is find, or more likely, make a boot floppy that will start up the machine, load the CD ROM drivers, and start running files from the CD.  Similiar to the way you can still create boot disk sets for Windows NT series.

Most Linux distros will also have a boot floppy option, for machines that don't take the autoboot CDs.  Included in the distro somewhere should be a few disk images you can uncompress and save to floppies to kick off the installation.

The recent exception would be Fedora Core 2 Test2, which I recently found out doesn't support this.  (And this was a problem because I am one of the "lucky" people with a PC that has an Award BIOS that their autoboot code crashes on!)  I ended up having to use a different boot CD and then doing a network NFS install.  (eeesch!)

[Peter_s]

If your just wanting to install a new OS, and you have a enough space on your HD.   You can simply copy all the files from the CD to a folder on your HD (example C:/WindowsXP)and then run the setup exe from that folder. :-D

[x56h34]

He could go to bootdisk.com and download DOS or Windows bootdisk images with CD drivers on them, and install them back onto a floppy disk for use. By simply double-clicking on the downloaded self-extracting/self-writing image file, it writes itself back onto the floppy and regains its original form...sort of like an ADF file on Amiga. ;-)

[ptek]

Hi !

Thanks for all the answers.

I also found this :
http://www.madboot.com/

It only supports winblows instalations but it seems rather cool !
I'm going to try.

[blobrana]

@ptek

Is the computer so old that you can`t flash the bios?

It`s really easy.

I`VE done it many times before (while sweating profusely)...

You need to get the exact make and model-number of your motherboard and download the flash utility (the writer) and the actual bios upgrade to suit your MoBo...

Copy them to a (bootable) floppy, and reboot from that...
Once it boots into shell,
...in the command line type flash blah blah number...

And that`s it...
(Detailed instructions are found on the web...)

[Sry, if i missed something here]