cant boot from XP cd..help

Im trying to format my hard drive so i can install a new copy of win xp, my pc is full of crap and runnin a bit slow....i set bios to boot from cd, but instead of bringing up the usual menu to format the drive etc, its just loading up to windows as normal............cant think what im doin wrong at all, any help ? thanks in advance.

 

Stupid question but did you hit F10 and save the changes in your bios ??

 

Yes, save changes (F10) is always a must.

Also have you more than one cd/dvd rom in your pc, and have you selected the correct one to boot from.

 

yeah i saved all the settings in bios to boot up from cd, it gets to the point where it asks me to press any key to boot from cd.........then just boots up as normal like its doin it from the hard drive, its driving me mental im desperate to format and start fresh and it wont let me, please any help ????? i onyl have one cdrw in my system ive tried everything ic an think of and it WONT let me format, yet i can do the new instalation direct from the xp cd, but this isnt a proper fresh install as you know, please help

 

dont have a floppy nevermind floppy disks haha

 

Keep trying and press a key at the right time. This just happened to me a few days ago. It does work.
Also, you could try to disable the boot sequence from the HD to force a boot from optical drive.

 

Is your XP disc an original holographic disc?

 

its a copy, but ive used it before when it did a format ages ago, i booted from cd and got the usual procedure to install new xp and format the hard drive completely etc, the disk has worked in the past but i have got a new cdrw drive, could it be somehtin to do wiht my cd drive ? its a TSST corp cdrw drive...............

 

I hate to say it, but can you swap out the drive and try another optical drive? I did an ME to XP upgrade recently and the same thing happened to me, except I got a General Protection Fault. I researched and finally decided to swap out the cd-rom with a newer dvd-rom device and voila, she worked nicely. Solved! Let us know if this is an option for you. It's just too odd that the XP cd has worked for you before and the only change in the equation now is the optical drive. Give it a try and let us know.

 

That makes sense, I only just realised that its a new drive otherwise id have mentioned it from the start lol, thanks for that, ill try and borrow one from someone...cheers