Solved: Making a DVD drive Boot

[laremac]

I want to boot the computer off the DVD drive so I can install a new OS I have on a 1.4 gig DVD. The BIOS is set up to boot floppy, CD, then HD but there is no entry for a DVD drive. I removed both the CD and DVD drives, CD was jumpered to serve as master, DVD was set as slave. I changed both settings so that the DVD is now the master, and installed it with the ribbon cable that used to go to the CD drive. It still boots off the HD like before. There is no provision for choosing an alternate boot source at start up. I'm willing to try any suggestions. Thanks, LM.

 

[crjdriver]

In order to help you, you need to post the exact specs on the system in question ie exact mb, exact hard disk, etc, etc, etc. If this is a big box system, then post the exact make and model# If you have a service tag, then post that as well.

 

[laremac]

It's a Medion PC MT5 desktop. HD is a 20 gig Quantum Fireball, 1.8 gig HZ Pentium 4 processor, 1 gig of RAM. It still boots off the CD even though as I said before, I switched the jumper settings, drive bay and ribbon cables for the drives. If you need more info such as the BIOS type, please let me know. Thanks again, LM

 

[crjdriver]

Have you tried just disconnecting the cd and using just the dvd drive without any cd drive? If not, do so.

Jumper the dvd as master and connect it to the black end of the cable. Leave the cd disconnected.

 

[laremac]

I'm not sure what you mean about the black end of the cable, but I will disconnect the CD drive like you said and try it with all the cable connectors. The DVD is jumpered as master. I'll let you know what happens. Good of you to help out!

 

[crjdriver]

The later ide type cables are color coded ie blue, black and gray. Blue is to mb or controller, black to master device and gray to slave device.

 

[laremac]

Mine are all black. I disconnected the CD ribbon cable and power supply. I used the ribbon cable that originally went to the CD which was then secondary master. The DVD showed up as secondary master in the IDE detection screen, no CD of course, but it booted off the HD into Windows. BTW, another machine I have has the option of selecting your boot device and I was able to install the OS (Linux Mint 17.1 Mate edition) from a USB reader and all went well so I know the install disc is OK. I don't suppose cable select setting would help? There are several entries in the BIOS for other devices to boot from such as LS120 etc. but I know nothing about them. Could I copy the boot files from the DVD to a floppy or CD and try to start that way?

Update: The boot sequence problem may be solved. I tried to open the files on the DVD in the drive in question, and could not. I put in a disc with some pictures on it and it worked OK. Apparently the DVD reader in this old machine can not handle the disc that I downloaded and burned. I will try to find a drive that can handle the disc and put it in the machine. Thanks for all the help.

 

[crjdriver]

You are welcome.
Are you sure the dvd is in fact bootable? Have you tried it successfully on another system? What program did you use to create the bootable dvd?
Mint 17.1 is going to be pretty marginal on that hardware. It will run with 1gig of ram however it is not going be very quick.