Problem trying to reformat, winXP CD not being read

[madcat75]

I am trying to reformat my PC which has a Windows 7 install on it. The windows XP I put in the CD drive is not being picked up by the PC upon startup. The hard drive has gotten itself into a constant Windows 7 repair loop. I just want to get the winXP cd to read off the CD drive so I can reformat to winXP. I enabled the option in bios to boot from the CD drive first, but no go. What are my options? Thanks.

 

[Dinesh]

I am trying to reformat my PC which has a Windows 7 install on it. The windows XP I put in the CD drive is not being picked up by the PC upon startup. The hard drive has gotten itself into a constant Windows 7 repair loop. I just want to get the winXP cd to read off the CD drive so I can reformat to winXP. I enabled the option in bios to boot from the CD drive first, but no go. What are my options? Thanks.

Do you get any error message?

 

[chev65]

You will need to hit anykey to boot from the CD when the message comes up during boot up.

That message will come and go very quickly so you don't have much time to hit the key.

 

[madcat75]

The message does not come up during bootup to boot from CD, I have the boot order in bios set to CD/DVD first. I tried the winXP CD on another computer, works fine. It might be that the DVD drive got ruined somehow but seems kind of improbable as I was just using it a week ago before I took it down to the PC shop to just have the hard drive cloned. Could I maybe try an external CD drive or hit F12 during startup?

 

[madcat75]

Well that problem is solved, the cable was not connected to the motherboard

But now something is odd. The keyboard and mouse won't turn back on after windows XP loads, but they turn on before the win XP loading screen.

 

[kegobeer]

Please update your system specs - the link is in my signature.