My computer is not able to boot from the CD-ROM drive. I have Windows XP but I want to do a clean re-install of Windows XP. I even put it on boot from CD-ROM for all 3 boot sequences, but it still just loads Windows XP as normal. I know it saves it in BIOS because when I restart the computer and check the BIOS, it's changed to what I changed it to. Any ideas? Thanks.

When the boot order has been set to CD-rom first, you get a message during boot to press any key to boot from the CD. This option is only available for about 3 seconds, so if you don't press any key in that time, it will continue to boot from the HD.

Just an after thought. I remember working on a machine that wouldn't boot from the CD-rom. I eventually found that I had to press the F8 key during boot to bring up a boot menu. From this menu I was able to boot from the CD. This may be the case with your machine.

I have run into that problem on occasion and still haven't been able to figure out why! My workaround: First, I have to hose the disk. Otherwise this just won't work. Go here and download clearhdd from Samsung: http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/support/faqs/faqs_20000120_0000000036.htm Drag&Drop it onto your WIN98 floppy disk; insert the disk & reboot; Say "yes" to start computer with CDROM support. When you finally get the DOS prompt, type: CLEARHDD 0.exe (don't forget the space after clearhdd); hit return; hit Y two times (it will ask you if you really want to do this) and your entire disk is hosed within 15 seconds. Okay, insert your XP CDROM; if the install screen does not appear (I don't expect that it will actually) type your CDROM drive letter (usually D:\ ) and hit enter. Your CRDROM shuld fire up and the install screen should appear. Let me know if this works, email me if you want. Of course, in the dozens of times this has worked for me, now it won't. Murphys Law again.

I have had the same problem myself. In the end I had to boot from a 98 boot floppy, ran FDISK ( which probably wasn't necessary). Then I changed the boot sequence in the BIOS to CD ROM ->Floppy->HDD. I then restarded hit F8, where there is an option to boot from the CD ROM and it worked fine. So maybe if you give that a try...Hope I have helped you a little bit. Rob.