XP disc will boot but other boot disc won't boot.

[TheHeartSmasher]

I can boot from the xp cd on a gateway 3600 pc. but when I try to boot from a gateway drivers disc it doesn't seem like the computer even sees the disc. I have tested it on other pc of the same kind and it works. But these 3 computers I have to have them work.

My boss want's me to fix the problem but I don't know how. I don't get any errors or messages of any sort. :scratch:

[profdlp]

Does it read the disc when you look for it in Windows Explorer?

Some discs just plain don't want to get along with some drives. If you can't view the contents in Windows you may need to temporarily stick another drive in there. :)

[TheHeartSmasher]

Yes, and I have tried swapping drives.

[profdlp]

Is the cdrom drive on the computer with the problem a master drive on its channel? Some systems are fussy about booting from a slave drive.

[TheHeartSmasher]

No everything seems to work fine. The only problem is I don't get the normal boot from cd or go to windows option that I get from the other pcs.

Is there a way I can make a floppy that can I can use that will boot the disc in the cdrom drive.

Example.

1. I boot the floppy in and I get an option of where I would like to boot from drive this or that. Or get to type in a drive.

Something like this might work.

[profdlp]

...I don't get the normal boot from cd or go to windows option that I get from the other pcs...
You do have the cdrom drive set first in the boot order, right? ;)

Assuming you do, try setting all the boot devices to cdrom. If that's not possible set the first boot device to cdrom and disable the rest.


Is there a way I can make a floppy that can I can use that will boot the disc in the cdrom drive...
You could try the Windows 98 SE Custom, No Ramdrive (http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm) bootdisk, which supports most cdrom drives.

Pay attention while it boots; you want to see which letter is assigned to the cdrom drive. Then type in a prompt X:\ (replace the X with the correct drive letter) and hit {Enter}. Then type in dir to see the contents of the disc.

(Sorry if I'm over-explaining this, but lots of people these days have never used much DOS stuff.)

[TheHeartSmasher]

I tried that still no go. I even made an ms-dos boot disc and typed in the drive letter and I got an invalid parameter. But it shows up in XP.

The weird thing about it is it will always boot up an windows cd. We are installing(installed) Windows Server 2003 standard on it. With no problem.

But my boss wants to be able to boot from cd incase he can't get into the os and needs to install drivers that are to big to fit on a floppy.