How do you boot Dell 8400 from dvd

ucan

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Oct 15, 2009
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I have a dvd OS re-intall disk from Dell. Setup will not allow boot from dvd. Any suggestions. I have both cd-r and dvd drives both are working. OS is Windows XP media Center Edition 2005.
 

geno777

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Insert the dell OS cd in a drive and restart the pc. At the boot window press F12 . You should have window that has boot from cd on it. High lite it press enter. The rest is pretty much self explanatory. Good luck.
 

ucan

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Dell did not send OS re-install software on a CD-R disk. It sent me OS re-install software on a DVD disk. I tried placing the DVD OS re-install disk in both the CD-R reader and the DVD reader. The computer does not read the OS re-install software from either CD-R reader or DVD reader, even when I press F12 and highlight the CD-R drive option and press enter.
 

geno777

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Should still work with DVD or CD. Just to confirm how to boot with the disk.
The software you have is it say operating system or restore CD/DVD ?

1 Put disk in a drive.
2 restart computer.
3 press F12 at boot window (not at window start up.
4 You should have a screen that has options ,boot from onboard CD,usb.
5 High lite the boot from CD.
6 press enter.
7 follow promps for reinstall.


If you have never did a OS reinstall from the disk, you maybe able to restore with a Dell partition that came with the PC.

Simply restart the computer press Cntrl+F11 at boot . And a reinstall patition should come up.


If it still don't work ? Will the PC read a disk in windows
 

ucan

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Oct 15, 2009
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The software is on a DVD disk and the title on the disk is:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Operating System
Already installed on your computer
reinstallation DVD
microsoft Windows XP Media Center Version 2005 with Update Rollup 2
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When I did steps 1 through 7 above the reply on the screen was:

"strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility"

when I entired F1 the response was:

"selected boot device not available
"strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility"

I entered F1 again and the response was the same

So I tried to boot with Cntr+F11 - I got a screen that said that the computer will boot but I will loose all data. I did not do this as I wanted to keep data. Is there any other way to boot with out loss of data?


 

rockyjohn

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What is the problem with your pc?

If it is operating, have you tried to do a Windows XP restore to set the system back to a previous state to fix the problem?

If that does not work, the Dell restore that wipes out all Data may be the only other simple option - See page 58 of your Owners Manual. If you don't have it, you can download it from Dell. If you system is working, you can save the data to an external source, then do the Dell restore.

Off course, depending on the problem, there might be third party software that can help, at least with recovering data, or you might be able to take it to a service that specializes in recovering data from HD. Another option to save data if the system does not work might be to put the drive in another PC and copy your data to it.

Again, please state the nature of the problem.

 

ucan

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The problem is when the computer tries to boot it gives the following error:

windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
windows\system32\config\system

you can attempt to repair this file by starting windows setup using the original setup CD-ROM. select 'r' at the first screen to start the repair.

As I said earlier - I got a Dell OS on a DVD not a CD-R and system will not read the OS disk (see earlier messages).
 

rockyjohn

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Since the OS disk is DVD, it will only work in the DVD reader and not the CD-R. When you went through the steps above, on #5 did you have the option to select boot from DVD?

See Owners Manual, Appendix, Page 118 which provides directions on changing the boot sequence. It is strange that the directions here list CD Drive but not DVD since the data was provided on a DVD. However, you might just try it to see if the system has been updated to give you the option to boot from the DVD. If so, set it to first in the boot order and try again.
 

ucan

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I did not have the option on step #5 to select boot from DVD. I do not know how to check to see if system has been updated for DVD boot. I went to setup for bios and I can not see any way to include the DVD drive in the boot sequence sub-menu. If you know how I would appreciate it if you would let me know
 

rockyjohn

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At this website:

http://en.community.dell.com/forums/p/19253627/19493154.aspx

I found this:

Re: Dimension 8400 will not boot from cd or dvd drive
21 Aug 2009 08:58AM

zerkked:
I am not 100% sure why this works, but my guess is that either a conflict was occuring, or the Boot sequence was just looking at the CD Drive and ignored the DVD Drive. I am, howver, certain that this is 100% safe and very easy to accomplish. To turn off the CD/RW drive in the Bios, restart the computer and hit F2 to enter setup. VIew the drives on the menu tree and hit enter. Now find the drive that controls the CD/RW drive. This information is found on the right hand portion on the lower half of the screen. It will tell you what the manufacure is ect. Once I identified the drive I hit enter and then used the arrow key to turn it off. This will disable the drive until I turn it back on in the bios. Save and exit, and now the DVD should boot just fine.

Well Windows 7 is about done installing now, so I have to go check it out. Good Luck to anyone with this problem.





In your case the bold portion of the first sentence is exactly why you couldn't boot to the Windows 7 DVD. Dell configures systems that have two IDE optical drives with the CD or CD-RW in the master position and there's no option in BIOS to make the system boot to an optical drive in the slave spot. You have to either disable the master optical drive in BIOS or physically unplug it to boot to a DVD drive. I think niq000's issue wasn't the same thing since s/he indicated at least some of the discs s/he attempted to boot to were actually CDs.