Reformatting problems

[philthyphil]

Hi...over a couple of years ago I reformatted my dell dimension..no problem there except when you first switched on you had to hit F1 to continue...no problem ....I wish to reformat again,but with having to hit F1 it wont let me into the boot disc..it goes into Windows...is there a cure for this F1 problem...sure hope so...thanks...hope to hear from someone ...or two

Regards philthyphil

 

[gbhall]

Sounds as if you have not reset the Drive Order in the bios to put the install boot disc/drive at the top of the boot order. And of course, set it to HDD after install completed.

 

[mike1959]

Normally you need to hit F2 to get into the BIOS. But it can be Esc or Del.
You should get on screen message to tell you, "Press F2 for setup" is a common one. But the BIOS may have been changed to not show messages, to save time.
If you power on, then tap F2 straight away, about twice a second, till it jumps into the BIOS.