Can I boot from an external cd rom usb?

PaednochPaednoch
edited January 2011 in Hardware
I have unmountable boot volume. error AND I can't get my CD drive to read the dell reinstallatoin disk.(yes the disk that came with the computer) This disk loads fine in another computer. I tried booting from the usb with a thumb drive but that didn't work. I have no floppy drive. i am htinking maybe my CD drive is bad.

Can I go out and buy an external usb CD drive and plug it in to the USB port and boot from the external cd-ROM usb drive? Or do I have to have the drivers for the CD drive?

Comments

  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited August 2006
    I use external drives to load OS and other programs all the time. Just make sure your PC is setup to boot from external devices.

    I used an External DVD drive to install Windows Vista yesterday :)
  • PaednochPaednoch
    edited August 2006
    Sledgehammer70 wrote:
    I use external drives to load OS and other programs all the time. Just make sure your PC is setup to boot from external devices.

    I used an External DVD drive to install Windows Vista yesterday :)



    Muchas Gracias AMIGO/A
    Now when you say setup to boot... do you mean hitting the key to bring up the bios to tell it which drive to hit first? If this is true and I went and bought a usb cd drive then I would tell it to hit USB device first ...right?
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited August 2006
    yeah these setting would be in the bios... my system sees it as a CD drive and not a USB, i think Mobo's differe from model and make.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited August 2006
    If you have any trouble, tell us the brand and the exact model# of your motherboard; we may be able to help. :)
  • guneet85guneet85
    edited January 2011
    profdlp wrote:
    If you have any trouble, tell us the brand and the exact model# of your motherboard; we may be able to help. :)


    I have a compaq v3000 series laptop with the F.39 BIOS version. Can I set it to boot from an external CD-ROM and how ??
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    edited January 2011
    Plug in the USB drive, put in a cd, and press F12, F2, and/or delete. It will either take you to a boot menu, or the setup screen. If the boot menu, and it doesn't show the USB drive, just go to the setup screen from there.

    On the setup screen, there should be an option like startup or boot. Select it and look for the USB drive there. You may have to move it from a "non-bootable" area to the "bootable" area by means of selecting it and pressing X or one of the Function keys.
  • aaapcaaapc
    edited January 2011
    Hello,

    I have the same problem with TOSHIBA EQUIUM A60-692 !

    I dont know why, but when I insert the System DVD 1( Win XP) just says....Reading the DVD... The yellow DVD drive light flashes, but it does not start the installation...!?..

    I have an external USB DVD, so far could not make it boot from the USB...

    Please, Help!
    Thank you !
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    edited January 2011
    There are a lot of variables there. You could have made the CD incorrectly. Does it work in any other computer? If so, maybe a bad drive on your computer or incompatible format (unlikely). If not ... bad CD.
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