Can I install XP from #2 CD Drive?

[sana]

Is there a way to get the XP Disk to reinstall from my #2 Cd Drive... i have discovered my CD/RW is not reading any disks this morning...

it is my Master CD drive .. is there a way to change the drives over even without opening the box up and swapping the 2 plugs at the back of each drive it is a LITE-ON LTR-52327S (prolly crap in world std's but it worked .. once)

could this be the reason why i cannot boot the ATPI from disk to do a clean install?
does it even make a difference ?
thx
going-bald-sana

 

[vegasgmc]

It doesnt matter which disk drive you use. But go into device manager and uninstall the cdrw drive and then reboot the computer and let Windows reinstall it.

 

[StormBringer]

if that drive won't boot to a CD, it isn't a problem that doing anything to do with Windows will fix. Booting to a CD has nothing to do with the OS.

 

[sana]

thanks for all the help ... im going to send it to a professional .. they know more about it than i ever will .. after talking to microsoft in nz ... it is more than likely i have a hardware issue that is stopping XP from letting me make any changes .. soooo i got no more choices .. unless i have the DOS command and do it that way ... but if i foofoo it up its byebye PC i think
sana

 

[RealBlackStuff]

Do as you suggested yourself: swap the cable on those CD-drives, and make sure you change the jumpers as well, so that old master becomes new slave and old slave becomes new master.
Then make sure to set boot-sequence in BIOS to start from CD before harddisk.
When booting from CD, the BIOS looks for the master CD.