This guide will show you how to boot a computer from CD, rather than from the native operating system.
Edit Steps
- 1Place the CD into your CD/DVD drive. Once the CD is sitting properly on the tray, close the tray. Don't play the CD or follow any prompts that appear on your screen, simply let it sit in the drive.
- 2Shut down your computer. Note: "Restart Computer" does not have the same effect as "Shut Down" followed by turning the computer on again. You need to shut down all the way, so that the BIOS loads at boot. When you restart, the BIOS usually stays running.
- 3Once the computer has completely powered down, turn it back on and get ready to read FAST. The (usually black) screen that first appears will say something like "Press [key1] to enter setup, or [key2] to change boot order". Quickly, press [key2]. It will usually be one of the F1-F12 keys.
- 4Glance at the screen that appears, which should list various devices. There is one for each hard drive, one for each media (CD/DVD/Floppy/Blu-Ray) drive, and one for USB drives. Use the arrow keys to scroll to the drive that has the boot CD in it, and then press enter to select.
- 5Proceed with your operating system install, system recovery, or whatever you needed the boot CD for.
Edit Tips
- If your computer's CD drive will still open and close when it is off, you can insert the CD and then boot up (with no need to boot, insert CD, shut down and boot again). Most computers do not have this function, however.
Edit Warnings
- If you are installing a new OS, back up your data first. It is easy to make a mistake in setting up the partition and accidentally format your drive - erasing all of your data.
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