Removable CD Drives

Some computers do not support booting from removable drives (USB connected). If you computer BIOS boot sequence does not specify "USB Storage Device" or something similar, it may not support it. You cannot set the BIOS to CD ROM drive for a boot device when using an external USB connected CD drive. So, are you sure your system supports booting to USB devices?

Tom

Describe this booting CD...are you defining the disc as an external device by way of explanation? I'm almost completely sure I don't have any clarity what you're asking for.

When the computer boots normally can you find the disc drive?? And is the boot disc then recognized by the drive??

How did you come by this BCD?

This question gives me the opportunity to opine on a general problem with posts to this forum - too little information leads to too much speculation. Don't ASS-U-ME that the reader know what you are talking about just because you do. Although this is apparently a Windows problem [but could be Linux] at a minimum you should provide: • Computer make + model; • Operating system - name and version A general observation - you said CD are you sure it is a CD and not a DVD? Early OS X Macs would boot off a CD - not so sure about Windows PCs. They were still using floppies when Apple introduced CD drives across the product line.

This is not a Windows problem, it is a device detection problem on startup in BIOS. The OP said that the drive is not found on boot up. I think it is clear that the external CD-ROM drive is set in the boot order as the first bootable device (but is it as a CD-ROM drive, or as a USB device... ). What is not clearly posted is the interface, this could be an old portable parallel CD-ROM drive circa 10 years ago. If it is a USB interface, then the BIOS must support booting from a USB device, if not then maybe there is an update for your version of BIOS.

I realized that I had omitted the interface connection issue as soon as I clicked on send - and I agree with that point. But still not enough info to answer the inquiry intelligently or completely. The poster appears to want to boot from the external CD. If this is a vintage Windows PC that will not be possible without a rewrite of the BIOS. And even then -depending upon the OS version - it will probably fail.

If the BIOS issue is resolved, then it would be a matter of editing the autoexec.bat and possibly config.sys. It may be worth a shot to try booting the PC into DOS CD\ to your external drive letter (D likely, if the system sees it!) and try running setup.exe (if that is the name of the executable to launch the installer, i dunno, just guessing).

If in such system I find use of a floppy expedient.

Unfortunately, most off-the-shelf systems sold these days don't come equiped with a floppy drive, so if this system is <5 years old, it is very possible that there is no floppy drive (unless you're someone like me who builds his own systems), so no floppy boot disk was made. And of course, an external USB floppy drive would be in the same boat as the afore mentioned external CD-ROM drive. It makes sense in the case of laptops especially to not have in internal floppy drive for space reasons alone. Why have a bulky internal 3.5" drive at 1.44MB when you have a tiny USB port to interface with flash drives, etc. at several GBs of data.

What I like doing if anything like this happens to me or friends, is to download a copy of one of those Linux bootable CDs, that has antivirus software etc. on it and check the Windows harddisk out without booting the Windows....but its NOT for beginners.....

Knoppix is another of these CDs.....

It kills me when OPers don't return to thank people for their advice.