I have been having trouble reformatting a PC, a simple matter you would think. The machine in question has two drives, a CD-rom (broken) and a DVD-rom (working). When I try to reformat using my XP disk, the disk refuses to boot. I know the disk to be working because i've used it before, and tried it on my other machine.

What actually happens is that DOS will come up with the "Boot from CD:" message as it does, at which point I will proceed to mash buttons so that it knows i want to boot from the CD. Then the "Press any key to boot from CD" message appears, and once again I mash keys in the vain hope that the damn thing will recognise that yes, in fact I DO want to boot from this CD. Sadly, whatever I do, the machine simply ignores me and continues to load windows. This happens, oddly, even if i've removed the hard-drive from the BIOS's boot order.

If anyone has any ideas or suggestions, please let me know.

Thanks,

Nil

Are you using a USB keyboard? If so, you need to temporarily use a PS/2 keyboard and enter the BIOS. Enable legusy USB devices. Hopefully then your USB keyboard will work. If that isn't the problem then your DVD drive may not be functioning either. If it is on the same cable as the dead drive that will cause it to malfunction also. Disconnect t he dead drive and rejumper the DVD drive accordingly. Also suspect a bad IDE cable. Modern drives need an 80 wire cable to function correctly. If you are using an older 40 wire Cable it may cause the drives to not function correctly. 80 wire cables can be identified by the colors of the connectors. 80 wire have black, grey and either blue, red, yellow, something other than black on the MBoard end.

For some reason the computer is recognizing there is a bootable CD in the drive but it is not booting from it. Your boot order setting is okay to boot from a CD and it is detecting a bootable CD or you wouldn't be getting that boot from the CD message.

Make sure the CD is clean and has no major scratches on it.
Try cleaning the DVD drive lasers with a laser lens cleaning CD.

If that doesn't help...

The useless CD drive may be interfering.
Remove the AC power to the case/power supply. If the useless CD drive's data cable is still connected, disconnect it. If both the CD and DVD drive are on the same data cable, you might need to change the jumper on the back of the DVD drive, if it is set to the Slave position, to the Master position.

If that doesn't help....

If the XP CD is a copy, you should have no problem with it if it is on a CD-R, but you might if it's on a CD-RW. Sometimes a CD-RW made in another burner drive is not recognizeed properly on some other drives.

If that doesn't apply or doesn't help, you may need to replace your DVD drive, or get a another CD or DVD drive.

"What actually happens is that DOS will come up with the "Boot from CD:"

Actually that is the BIOS Post Screen not DOS, never will be DOS and is totally O/S unrelated.

If you have a floppy drive can boot from the Setup Boot Disks:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310994

You need to use a PS/2 keyboard in order to boot from the CD. USB is only seen after the drivers are loaded by the Bios or OS. They are not loaded in-between.

"You need to use a PS/2 keyboard in order to boot from the CD. USB is only seen after the drivers are loaded by the Bios or OS. They are not loaded in-between"

Not true, what is needed on any relitively new PC is to have a setting in the BIOS to ENABLE legusy USB devices. Sometimes it may be necessary to use a PS/2 KBoard in order to access the BIOS to make that change.

I suspect that on Most OEM systems shipped these dayse the Default is enabled, if they even have PS/2 ports at all.