Problems booting from CD

[Chyno]

Hi there (Long time visitor, 1st time poster ) in need of help

I'm giving my old pc to a friend & trying to re-format my old pc beforehand (Using the windows xp disk I got when I purchased it). I've changed the Advanced CMOS settings so that my CD-ROM drive is the only device to boot from but when it comes till to boot I get a "Disk Boot failure" and the thing won't load. Any ideas on what steps I can take to correct it?

 

[RealBlackStuff]

You should only set the boot-sequence, not the bootable device(s).
Set it to (1floppy)-2CD-3harddisk-(4other).
Check that all cables are properly connected on both drive- and motherboard-side

 

[Chyno]

Doesn't seem to be any problem with the cables (Though the CD-ROM works fine when it's loaded up normally anyway)

As for the boot sequence/bootable devices, that's what I changed (I'm think lol, doubting myself now). I normally have it in the sequence you described but when I do that, after failing to boot from the CD it moves onto the hard drive and boots up normally which isn't the desired outcome

I should mention, when I load up normally and access the disk it takes absolutely ages to do so, the PC is pretty old and slow. Maybe it's worse trying to boot from it and that's why it won't work?

 

[RealBlackStuff]

If it's that old, use a W98SE boot-floppy (available from www.bootdisk.com, then FDISK first to delete and re-install partition(s), then use FORMAT C: /U to wipe the disk.
When XP is going to be installed, you can choose the NTFS format.
If that HD is less than 20GB, keep it at FAT32.