Back to XP Pro from W7 Pro 64 Bit...But....

Suddenly, my pc will no longer boot to my XP CD.

Into the BIOS I go, checking my boot order. It's still set to boot to CD first just like it has been for months. I pretty much leave all of my pc's that way.

Once the pc restarts, it sits with the media card reader and DVD drive lights solid for approx. 1 minute, then immediately boots to W7.

Put my W7 DVD in to see if it would do the same thing with it, but it works fine. Not sure what's going on here. I need to format the drive and get my XP back on, but I don't think I can pull that off unless I can boot to my XP CD. Also took the CD to my laptop and my wifes pc to test it out, both of those will boot to it no problem. Not sure if it has something to do with the way the drive is currently formatted or what. Is this a 64 bit to 32 bit thing?

I'm certainly up for suggestions, and ANY help at all would be greatly appreciated.

Apparently your PC just doesn't want to run Windows XP anymore

Just curious, why are you going back to XP?

I'll be installing the copy of W7 I have on another pc. But like you said, doesn't appear as if it's going without a fight. :)

How many hard drives in your PC?

I have 2 drives. The other drive I have mapped to my other pc's for additional storage. I don't install my OS there.

SATA or IDE?

SATA...both drives.

OK. Sometimes I have this problem with mixed SATA and IDE devices, that's why I was wondering.

have you changed anything in your PC as far as hardware or BIOS settings?

Didn't change a thing. If I recall correctly, it's been close to a year since I was even in my BIOS. Typically don't have any need to be in there. That was part of the reason I was surprised when I could not boot to my XP CD.

Hardware wise, changed a sound card out a few months back, but nothing recent.

I don't know if this helps anything at all, but I can't boot to anything I have except for the W7 DVD. I have a few CD's here at home that I use at work. They are all used outside the Windows environment so they're all bootable. Memory & hard drive testing utilities along with a few others. Can't boot to any of them, but it loves that W7 DVD. The pc will boot to that baby in a flash. Anyway, may not help at all, but wanted to add that.