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Boot order

Discussion in 'PC Hardware' started by Bimmer Guy, 2006/04/22.

  1. 2006/04/22
    Bimmer Guy

    Bimmer Guy Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    Hi, what is order I set the in the bios for startup?
    tks
     
    Bimmer Guy,
    #1
  2. 2006/04/22
    SpywareDr

    SpywareDr SuperGeek WindowsBBS Team Member

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    Normally, you'd set it to try and boot from the hard drive first, (so you don't have to wait for it to check any other drives on bootup).

    If you need it to try and boot from something else later, pop in to BIOS and reset it.
     
    SpywareDr,
    #2


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  4. 2006/04/22
    Bimmer Guy

    Bimmer Guy Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    SpywareDr. thanks Thing is I am attempting to format my HD. From what I understand xp needs the cd first. All is good till it says it cant find a hard drive. Thats why I'm confused about the order.
     
    Bimmer Guy,
    #3
  5. 2006/04/22
    TopFarmer

    TopFarmer Well-Known Member

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    To boot from the CD it needs to be listed first and hdd 2nd. If the XP cd can not find a hdd, then the hdd might be bad. Is the hdd listed in bios by correct type and size? Why are you formating ?

    Might want to get the test program from the HDD manufactures web site.
     
    TopFarmer,
    #4
  6. 2006/04/22
    BillyBob Lifetime Subscription

    BillyBob Inactive

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    I believe the best and safest overall boot order is still;

    Floppy-CDROM-HD.

    Or at least CDROM-HD.

    BillyBob
     
    BillyBob,
    #5
  7. 2006/04/23
    SpywareDr

    SpywareDr SuperGeek WindowsBBS Team Member

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    "Safest "?

    What happens if you, (or someone else), inadvertent leaves a disk in either of those drives and it happens to be infected? :(
     
    SpywareDr,
    #6
  8. 2006/04/23
    BillyBob Lifetime Subscription

    BillyBob Inactive

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    OK. I agree. Lets leave out the word "safest" out if this.

    But I believe the better overall boot sequence is Floppy, CDROM, HD.

    This is what is making it harder and harder to make suggestions as there are so many different ways of doing things.

    But the bottom line is doing what is better for the overall system and usage of same. And of course what is better for the USER.

    BillyBob
     
    BillyBob,
    #7
  9. 2006/04/23
    TopFarmer

    TopFarmer Well-Known Member

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    BillyBob- I agree with you as far as with home use , both of my comp's are set that way. I'm not going to be to concered with the little time it takes to check the floppy or CD for boot disks.
     
    TopFarmer,
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  10. 2006/04/23
    BillyBob Lifetime Subscription

    BillyBob Inactive

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    The only time I have ever seen the machine bother with the Floppy or CDROM was IF there was actually a disk in them.

    Otherwise I do not even see the lights blink.

    Also if you try booting directly to the HD and it does not work and you need to go to the BIOS to reset things your doing nothing but WASTING TIME.

    And you want to talk time ??

    Having the Floppy and the CDROM in the boot sequence takes nowhere near the amount of time it would to go in and reset the BIOS.

    Also I have found that if I turn the machine on and sit here and wait for it, it seems to take FOREVER. If I push the buttons on my way to a cup of coffe it does not take as long.

    BillyBob
     
    BillyBob,
    #9
  11. 2006/04/23
    BillyBob Lifetime Subscription

    BillyBob Inactive

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    Man-O-man was I wrong. I never saw because apparently I never paid attention.

    Just for the giggles of it I just shutdwon and restarted this machine. Guess what ? After paying atteniton I see that it does check both the Floppy and the CDROM.

    But still, having them there if I need them is worth it.

    BillyBob
     
    BillyBob,
    #10
  12. 2006/04/23
    SpywareDr

    SpywareDr SuperGeek WindowsBBS Team Member

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    If you have the CMOS/BIOS set as say Hard Drive/Floppy/CD-ROM and the hard drive does fail, the PC will then attempt to boot from the floppy, then the CD-ROM ... and all without having to fiddle with any CMOS/BIOS settings.
     
    SpywareDr,
    #11
  13. 2006/04/24
    TonyT

    TonyT SuperGeek Staff

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    When I setup a system for my clients I use:
    1. cdrom
    2. floppy
    3. hd

    This is because I am the one that will have to go and possibly restore their systems using Ghost (I have made custom ghost boot cds using win98 & ghost). Or I may have to boot using a different cd with utilities on it.

    Newer systems don't even have floppy drives anymore, so I just use:
    1. cdrom
    2. hd

    And I always disable network booting in the bios.

    I get calls on the phone and sometimes walk a cliet through fixing their system & would hate to have to instruct over the phone changing bios settings!

    For business systems I setup this way:
    1. hd
    2. cdrom
    3. floppy (if exists)
    4. network (disabled)
    pw protect bios to prevent unauthorized booting from the cdrom or floppy.

    The reason for using the floppy last in boot order is because there is pretty much nothing (at least for the average user) you can do to an nt based system via a floppy. Esp if have NTFS drives. One can use a win98 floppy with NTFS Reader to access the drives, or use a linux boot floppy with NTFS drivers, but the average user would not know how to do that. The floppy drive is dead and used only by we die hard users anymore.
     
    Last edited: 2006/04/24
    TonyT,
    #12
  14. 2006/04/24
    hawk22

    hawk22 Geek Member

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    Well there is still a little use for the old Floppy. I found once that the only way I could get in a old system running XP Pro was by downloading from MS the XP Pro Boot Floppy disks(4) this enabled me to boot and Format and re-install XP.
    hawk22
     
    hawk22,
    #13
  15. 2006/04/24
    Bimmer Guy

    Bimmer Guy Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    Hi, thanks for all the great suggestions. I have the order in bios setup as cd, floppy, H/D. Still get mess. that cant find H/D. When I reboot I see 2nd slave not detected. H/D must be working cause I'm useing it right now. ??
    tks
     
    Bimmer Guy,
    #14

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