Cannot Boot from Disc!!

[willit]

The Basics:

I like to think I know a thing or three about PCs, and have recently moved over from WinXP to Linux Mint 7.
I built this machine myself, and I know it is kosher - all the hardware works fine.
MB: Gigabyte GA-P31-ES3G
Processor: Intel Dual-Core 2.4Ghz (x2)
RAM: Kingston 2mb Ram (x2)
HDDs: Western Digital 1TB; Maxtor 500gb; Maxtor 120gb
Sound Card: Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS
Graphics Card: Can't remember (blagged off a mate!)

The Situation:

Much to my dismay, I have found that certain applications I need can only run in Windoze, and before you ask, I've tried VirtualBox; it is not built to handle the software and probably never will be. My solution was to dual-boot. I've followed all the instructions, but I could not boot from the Linux disc in order to resize the partition on my primary HDD (120gb) in order to make space for a dedicated XP partition.
I tried setting the boot priorities in the BIOS combined with a forced "Boot from CDROM" in the boot menu, to no avail. This I tried with both of my CD rom drives. Following this, I've decided to create a partition on one of the storage HDDs (1TB) and try to boot from the genuine XP disc. No luck there. Nobody on any forum seems to have already found the answer, either...
I hope this helps; up until now I've had no problems with Linux, but I can't do without this software! Please help if you can

[viking777]

I would love to know what software you have that runs on windows but not on windows in virtualbox!! Windows in virtualbox is windows, so it must run. Maybe you mean your piece of software cannot connect to some external device that you need - that is a different question - but not the one you are asking (though maybe it should be?).

Anyway back to the question you are asking. Since you once installed Mint 7 to your machine, then how did you install it if you can't boot from the CD? Are you using the same disc? Is it damaged? Have you changed something on the machine since you did install it? Have you tried downloading/burning a new disc?

[willit]

Thanks for your answer, the software is Cubase. The reason I need it so bad is because I have TONNES of music clips and tunes I've recorded in there, and converting them into a format that can be opened in something like Rosegarden will take me an incredibly long time. The reason it won't run in VirtualBox is because VB assigns a virtual sound card to your virtual machine, and this virtual sound card is not powerful enough to cope with professional recording.

When I first installed Linux I booted from disc in Windoze, and through the installation process Linux has overwritten my version of XP (happy days). Since I've been using Linux this is the first time I've needed to boot from CD, but I had no trouble with this whatsoever in XP and I've made no hardware changes since the OS swap. I'm sort of glad that Linux is trying to protect me from re-installing the dreaded Windoze, but it was hard enough to come to terms with the fact that I might have to reinstall in the first place before this hurdle...

Could it possibly be the GRUB bootloader?

[viking777]

Aha, so it is really the hardware capabilities of virtualbox that bother you - now that I can understand. When I test new distros I always install them to the hard drive for that very reason, virtualbox installations are never a true test of how a distro will react to external hardware (or even internal hardware if your experience is anything to go by, and I am sure you are correct).

Anyway back to your question.

Grub bootloader? No, if you are booting from a live cd then it doesn't get as far as your grub bootloader because it boots from the CD first. Now you say that you cannot boot from the disc. So what happens when you try? Does it boot straight into the installed version of Mint? Does it freeze? Does it produce any error messages? Are you sure the bios boot order is correct?

I would think that by far the easiest way to fix this is to download the iso again and reburn (limit the burn speed a bit, that might help). You might even try Mint 8 instead if you fancy the latest version.

[willit]

Aye, sorry for being difficult! Basically it acts as if I had never set it to boot from CD and loads Linux up as usual. Yes messing about with other OSs is fairly new to me, so perhaps I should try installing them to the HDD in future and doing a bit more research prior to that.

I just assumed that the Grub Bootloader might be overriding it somehow, but it did seem unlikely... I usually burn discs on a low speed anyway (I learned that the hard way!), so I shall take your advice and reinstall Mint. I think I'll redo Gloria for now though - I know that booting from disc is not a problem with this particular distro since my friend installed at the same time and he never had any trouble dual booting with Vista. Hopefully once I get to grips with this flavour I'll move on to Mint 8!

I'll be sure to update this thread and let you know how it went as soon as I get a chance to re-install. Can't thank you enough for your help

[MaddogF16]

Willit, what is the boot order in your bios?

[willit]

The boot order (from first to last) is CDROM, floppy, hard drive. After doing this and resetting the PC I hit F12 to enter the boot priority menu, and selected CDROM on there but it still boots from the HDD

[MaddogF16]

Is the cdrom drive recognized by the bios, check the listings in the bios that show hardware (floppy,HD,DVD/CD,memory) and make sure the bios is seeing the device properly, it will still give you the boot list that the bios came programmed with even if the drive isn't being seen. Maybe the cable needs to be reseated.

[viking777]

Does the same thing happen if you don't hit F12? - With your bios boot order set as it is you shouldn't need to do that anyway. Try this in both cd drives.

[willit]

Is the cdrom drive recognized by the bios, check the listings in the bios that show hardware (floppy,HD,DVD/CD,memory) and make sure the bios is seeing the device properly, it will still give you the boot list that the bios came programmed with even if the drive isn't being seen. Maybe the cable needs to be reseated.

Does the same thing happen if you don't hit F12? - With your bios boot order set as it is you shouldn't need to do that anyway. Try this in both cd drives.

Sorry for the massive delay in replying. Yep, everything's recognised by the bios, and the cables are sound. I've double checked everything down there, and all ordinary functions seem to be working. I can play CDs and CDROMs once I'm into Linux itself, but I'm not able to boot from them, whether I go into the boot menus or not... I wanna wipe my primary HD and install Helena but I'm stumped! How do I start again??

[brucknic]

I've reread this post several times,but still not sure how you got windows insalled without booting from cd. i will sugest that you recheck your bios settings
On my asus motherboards the optical drive is listed as an ide device,with the last set of numbers and letters the part number for dvd drive.

[Leppie]

if you have a floppy drive, you can use a boot loader to select a cd drive as boot device: http://bootcd.narod.ru/bcdl150z.zip
http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/

if you don't have a floppy drive, i think for only a couple of $ you can find one

[willit]

if you have a floppy drive, you can use a boot loader to select a cd drive as boot device: http://bootcd.narod.ru/bcdl150z.zip
http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/

if you don't have a floppy drive, i think for only a couple of $ you can find one

Thanks, I've got a floppy drive and I've given it a shot. It's trying to boot from floppy which is a good sign, only when it gets to the loading screen, it gives the message "NTLDR missing" not sure what to do about that...

My last resort is to disconnect the primary HDD and re-install on another formatted HDD, is this the only option I have left?

[Leppie]

if you have a floppy drive, you can use a boot loader to select a cd drive as boot device: http://bootcd.narod.ru/bcdl150z.zip
http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/

if you don't have a floppy drive, i think for only a couple of $ you can find one

Thanks, I've got a floppy drive and I've given it a shot. It's trying to boot from floppy which is a good sign, only when it gets to the loading screen, it gives the message "NTLDR missing" not sure what to do about that...

My last resort is to disconnect the primary HDD and re-install on another formatted HDD, is this the only option I have left?

have you tried the second link i posted as well (bootmanager)? it claims to be able to boot any cd.

[willit]

I've reread this post several times,but still not sure how you got windows insalled without booting from cd. i will sugest that you recheck your bios settings
On my asus motherboards the optical drive is listed as an ide device,with the last set of numbers and letters the part number for dvd drive.

Apologies, I missed your post! Originally I installed Windows the normal way, from disc. I've reformatted with the same disc many times, every time the thing needed clearing out. It's only since I installed Linux that it doesn't boot from CD, so I was assuming that it was Linux that was either preventing some sort of boot enablement involving the CDROM drives, or something wasn't happening when it should be.

I've got no IDE drive listed there, here is the full list:

Floppy
LS120
Hard Disk
CDROM
ZIP
USB-FDD
USB-ZIP
USB-CDROM

I tried the CDROM, the USB-CDROM and the LS120 in all types of boot order, and with both drives, but it always loads up normally as if the hard drive was boot priority. I don't understand why it's just the CDROM drives that are affected.

have you tried the second link i posted as well (bootmanager)? it claims to be able to boot any cd.

Sorry I only clicked the second one before, but I just booted the first one and it gives me the same message... puzzling. I've read a few forums with people who got the same message, but they are suffering different circumstances unfortunately.

[willit]

Thanks guys, everyone for all your help, I feel like a right flapjack... The CDROM drives were plugged into the motherboard via an additional PCI device since there was only one IDE connector on there. I feel so stupid for wasting everyone's time, but it's so clear to me now, I'd totally forgotten about it and just overlooked it like an idiot. For future reference, it actually seems to be a hardware issue - the motherboard won't boot from these drives if they are not plugged DIRECTLY into it... Looks like I'll be picking me up a SATA CDROM soon...

Thanks for all your help