Searching for boot record from CDROM..not found ?

Forum: User Feedback
Topic: Searching for boot record from CDROM..not found ?
started by: setecio

Posted by setecio on Aug. 08 2008,20:48

Hi

I'm trying to boot off a live DSL CD, trying both 3.3 and 4.4.3 but it gives the same message. It is a year 2000 Time PC good spec Athlon 1200, 512 MB ram, and was working fine with win98 before I DBAN wiped it.

Now when I try a live CD it comes up with the message :

Code Sample

Searching for boot record from CDROM..not found

Have I wiped some special boot record by using DBAN ?
Or is there a setting in Bios that I should look for.

Thanks.

Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Aug. 08 2008,21:12

Did you try the syslinux version?

Posted by mikshaw on Aug. 08 2008,21:26

Your bios is apparently trying to see if it can boot from cdrom, so I'd say it's either what ^thehatsrule^ mentioned, or possibly a failed burn.

Posted by setecio on Aug. 08 2008,22:10

All the CDs work on other machines so hopefully it needs the syslinux version, which I will try tomorrow.

Thanks.

Posted by setecio on Aug. 09 2008,09:31

Tried it with the syslinux version and it does exactly the same thing, same message

Any other ideas ?

If I put a win98 startup 3.5" floppy in the a: drive and boot up I can then view the contents of the DSL cd (in DOS). But it looks like I might not be seeing all the files : it only shows
INDEX HTM
KNOPPIX <DIR>
LOST_FOU <DIR>

Can I boot the CD from the DOS loaded up from the 3.5" floppy, if so what is the command to use ?

Or do I need a special syslinux 3.5" floppy, if so where can I load one from, or what files do I need on it ?

Thanks.

Posted by curaga on Aug. 09 2008,09:59

Sure you can boot the CD from the DSL boot floppy. It would be better than from DOS.
< http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub....ppy.img >

You can write that to a floppy from windows using rawrite, or from a running DSL system.

Posted by setecio on Aug. 09 2008,11:55

Thanks, I created one from apps-tools-create bootfloppy on a running DSL machine.

It all boots up fine from that.

This is the first computer I've had to do that on. I thought it was for very old computers, and was surprised as this is a 2000 machine with a decent spec for its time.

What is the reason for requiring a bootfloppy in this case ?

Thanks.

Posted by curaga on Aug. 09 2008,13:53

Crappy bios not booting standard CD's properly.
Some Dells are known to do that, even as new as 2004..

Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Aug. 09 2008,17:41

You could see if there are any bios updates for your motherboard, should you want to investigate this further.

Posted by setecio on Aug. 09 2008,19:24

Yes, unfortunately it was a special motherboard made for Time who went bust and there aren't any Bios updates for it.