[Ham-Computers] Change a Bootable Floppy to a Bootable CD

[WA5CAB at cs.com]

Jim,

Before throwing away your coasters, are you sure the machine is actually 
configured to boot from the CD drive?  By default, most are not, as it 
significantly increases the total normal boot time.

If you are not sure, reboot the Dell and go into CMOS Setup (probably just 
called Setup).  Look for the list of boot devices and also for the list showing 
the boot device sequence.  As Setup's vary so much I couldn't guess what tab 
they would be under, and whether there will be two lists or one combined list.  
I've seen it both ways.

Make sure that the CD drive is ahead of the hard drive on the sequence list.  
If your intent is to make a bootable CD your primary backup boot method, put 
the CD drive ahead of the floppy drive on the list.

Once you have it working and can boot from the CD, go back into Setup and 
either take the CD drive off of the device list or demote it below the hard 
drive.  Assuming that you don't expect to have to use it every few days.  If you 
have a hard drive failure, turn it back on or promote it to the top of the list 
until you fix the problem.

In a message dated 10/31/2006 1:17:08 AM Central Standard Time, 
hro5-2 at cox.net writes: 
> My newest computer, a Dell E510, has a USB floppy which I can't 
> include as a bootable device.
> 
> I have bootable floppies for Norton Ghost and Partition Magic, which 
> I would like to change to bootable CD-R's.  I'm primarily interested 
> in Ghost, which boots into PC DOS.
> 

Robert Downs - Houston
<http://www.wa5cab.com> (Web Store)
MVPA 9480
<wa5cab at cs.com> (Primary email)
<wa5cab at houston.rr.com> (Backup email)