laptop w/ broken cd rom, how to reformat?

AMD-playa · 19-July-05, 08:32 PM

i unfortunatly have a laptop (dell inspiron 5100) with a broken cd rom, itll open but wont boot from any 3 of my operating system disks.... here are the things i have tried

-2 different usb cdroms, wont boot from either
-taking out harddrive, put it into inspiron 600m, install windows and put back into 5100 (didnt work)

im out of ideas, anyone got some?

RBIEZE · 19-July-05, 09:00 PM

Um.. without sounding patronizing. did you change the bios to boot from cdrom

AMD-playa · 19-July-05, 10:16 PM

yes, at first the cd-rom wouldnt even come out so i took it out and a screw was just rolling around inside and it fell out so i put the cd rom back in and it would start coming out. I hit f12 to do boot menu and i select cd-rom but still wont boot from it. any ideas?

Bane · 21-July-05, 03:17 AM

Out of curiosity, how old is this particular laptop.
In terms of getting the laptop to boot from the cd-rom, you've tried everything that i would try....short of purchasing a new cd-rom unit. Good luck to you.

subdismal · 21-July-05, 03:25 AM

If you've tried booting from that CDROM, and two USB CDROMs, then there's something wrong with the computer-end of things. You need to get to BIOS and change the boot sequence to access the optical drive before accessing the hard drive.

If you just needed to reformat, and not reinstall a copy of Windows (don't think this is applicable) but you could always boot to DOS and do a format from there.

michaelwolf59 · 23-July-05, 08:17 AM

I just recently had this same issue with, A 5150.. went to dell forums , it said something to do with and iso file ,heres how i got around it, since there is no floppy, i created a bootable cd rom i did this with nero, using the nero espress , in the data link there is make bootable cd rom. , i popped it in a presto created boot sector, then fdisk and then loaded in xp,>>Hope this helps>>Mike

smallmanz · 19-August-05, 08:39 AM

Not sure if this will help but I;ve had successes booting from usb drives when that happens. I was only booting spinrite, but if you've got the space on a flash drive you could give it a shot, I think the windows disk only takes up about 400mb.

Nerdz · 20-August-05, 01:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by subdismal


	If you've tried booting from that CDROM, and two USB CDROMs, then there's something wrong with the computer-end of things. You need to get to BIOS and change the boot sequence to access the optical drive before accessing the hard drive. If you just needed to reformat, and not reinstall a copy of Windows (don't think this is applicable) but you could always boot to DOS and do a format from there.

But once you reformat, how will you reinstall and OS if the cd rom drive doesnt work?

19-July-05, 08:32 PM		#1 (permalink)
AMD-playa Apex Master Tech	laptop w/ broken cd rom, how to reformat? i unfortunatly have a laptop (dell inspiron 5100) with a broken cd rom, itll open but wont boot from any 3 of my operating system disks.... here are the things i have tried -2 different usb cdroms, wont boot from either -taking out harddrive, put it into inspiron 600m, install windows and put back into 5100 (didnt work) im out of ideas, anyone got some?

23-July-05, 08:17 AM		#6 (permalink)
michaelwolf59 Apex Master Tech	,lappy I just recently had this same issue with, A 5150.. went to dell forums , it said something to do with and iso file ,heres how i got around it, since there is no floppy, i created a bootable cd rom i did this with nero, using the nero espress , in the data link there is make bootable cd rom. , i popped it in a presto created boot sector, then fdisk and then loaded in xp,>>Hope this helps>>Mike

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19-July-05, 09:00 PM		#2 (permalink)
RBIEZE Apex Tech Demi-God	Um.. without sounding patronizing. did you change the bios to boot from cdrom

19-July-05, 10:16 PM		#3 (permalink)
AMD-playa Apex Master Tech	yes, at first the cd-rom wouldnt even come out so i took it out and a screw was just rolling around inside and it fell out so i put the cd rom back in and it would start coming out. I hit f12 to do boot menu and i select cd-rom but still wont boot from it. any ideas?

21-July-05, 03:17 AM		#4 (permalink)
Bane Apex Tech Fanatic	Out of curiosity, how old is this particular laptop. In terms of getting the laptop to boot from the cd-rom, you've tried everything that i would try....short of purchasing a new cd-rom unit. Good luck to you.

21-July-05, 03:25 AM		#5 (permalink)
subdismal Apex Tech Demi-God	If you've tried booting from that CDROM, and two USB CDROMs, then there's something wrong with the computer-end of things. You need to get to BIOS and change the boot sequence to access the optical drive before accessing the hard drive. If you just needed to reformat, and not reinstall a copy of Windows (don't think this is applicable) but you could always boot to DOS and do a format from there.

19-August-05, 08:39 AM		#7 (permalink)
smallmanz Apex Techie Lite	Not sure if this will help but I;ve had successes booting from usb drives when that happens. I was only booting spinrite, but if you've got the space on a flash drive you could give it a shot, I think the windows disk only takes up about 400mb.