I was planning on formatting my HDD and re-installing Windows not long ago, instead, my system isn't wanting to boot from the CD-ROM.  :-\ I have never had this problem until now, although, I had seen a similar instance where I had to go through many more steps because I had Windows XP Professional installed and I was downgrading to Home Edition. I'm not sure what I've got myself into or how to fix this mess, plus I have no choice but to install HE seeing as how I lost my Windows XP Pro. CD. Anyways, when I go into the BIOS and tell my system to boot from the CD-ROM which the Windows CD is in, I'm not prompted as I normally am to boot from the CD with Windows on it, and Windows boots up as it normally does and goes about it's business. Any advice?

Make sure the disc is bootable by trying to boot onto it with other computers. If it is, it's possible your CD drive has a problem. You may also want to try removing your HDD from the boot list if your BIOS supports that feature.

Do you have a CD Burner? If so, I can give you a safe, working, bootable ISO of XP Pro SP2, but you'll need your own cd key.

If you can boot into windows, just run setup.exe from the Windows XP cd and install windows that way. It should work, and worked when I upgraded from WinXP to Vista.

Is your bios set to boot from the CD in prefrence to the hard drive?..

Well, last night I decided to shutdown my system and try something I had read on another site. All I did was disconnect my DVD drive from the MB and shabam! It read the Windows CD. I'm guessing my DVD drive was bad.

Although, I do have to thank everyone who posted a possible solution to this problem, your help and thoughts are much appreciated!

[quote author=ChroniX link=topic=17281.msg175971#msg175971 date=1201299105]
Well, last night I decided to shutdown my system and try something I had read on another site. All I did was disconnect my DVD drive from the MB and shabam! It read the Windows CD. I'm guessing my DVD drive was bad.

Although, I do have to thank everyone who posted a possible solution to this problem, your help and thoughts are much appreciated!
[/quote]
does your dvd drive run regular cds or is it that old.

[quote author=l)ragon link=topic=17281.msg175972#msg175972 date=1201299878]
does your dvd drive run regular cds or is it that old.
[/quote]

Well you see, that's the problem, it doesn't read anything at all, it's as though there is no drive in place. And actually, it's only a year old or so. I built the entire system no more than a year ago, so I find it unearthly that a piece of hardware no more than a year old would suddenly go bad. But at one time it was working. *shrugs*

Uh... warranty?

I purchased each individual part from a local computer store known as Tech Advanced. No warranty was issued. There cheap anyways, I wont cry about it, I promise!  :)

I meant a warranty on the DVD drive, not the computer.

I wish :'(

I'll go rob the place and take one!

You're kidding, your drive didn't come with a manufacturer's warranty? That's unheard of!