Solved Boot Ready CDs/DVDs won't boot even after they are boot ready!

[IMAyNeed]

The screen says:

CD/DVD-ROM Boot Priority: Boot Ready

But it goes to the regular boot screen.

If it wasn't reading the disk, it wouldn't be saying Boot Ready.

It is arranged to boot from the CD-ROM, otherwise, it wouldn't be saying CD-ROM Boot Priority.

If it is reading the disk and saying that it is Boot Ready, why it is going to the regular boot screen?

This is happening with several disks, new disks, rewritten disks and I am not able to understand why.

Thank you.

 

[Brink]

Hello IMAyNeed,

When you get the "CD/DVD-ROM Boot Priority: Boot Ready" prompt or message below, are you pressing a key within 8 seconds to actually start booting to the CD/DVD? If not, then by default it will skip the CD/DVD and boot from the HDD as normal.

 

[IMAyNeed]

If it says Press any key to boot from CD or DVD, I am; but it only says that in Windows Recovery Disks or Windows Disks.
It doesn't say that in other DVDs. And I tried pressing F8 and Enter when the screen is saying:
CD/DVD-ROM Boot Priority: Boot Ready
Nothing happened.

This happens with Windows Recovery disks too.
The screen shows:
CD/DVD-ROM Boot Priority: Boot Ready

and after that, sometimes it says

Press any key to boot from CD or DVD...

as it should and I press a key, but sometimes (mostly) it just shows the Boot Ready screen and goes to the regular boot.
It is reading the disk, but not going for the CD boot.

 

[Brink]

What happens when you press Enter when you see the CD/DVD-ROM Boot Priority: Boot Ready message?

 

[IMAyNeed]

Nothing, it is like I didn't press it.

Boot Ready.
Boot Ready..
Boot Ready...
Boot Ready....

goes on and loads the regular boot screen.

I couldn't figure out why it is happening (Reading it but not booting to it).

I am trying several DVDs and most of them won't start. If I am lucky, I can boot to them after several times (after putting in and out different DVDs).
This happened both with old and new DVDs so I don't know why it is happening, but sure is very annoying.

 

[Brink]

Do you always get the "Press any key" message with the same specific DVDs that it works with, or sometimes not as well with them?

If those do always work while the other always do not work, then perhaps you may not have burned the DVD properly to make it actually bootable.

 

[IMAyNeed]

Press any key message just comes up with Windows CDs. And even I do it with old or new or rewritten to RW, it makes this error. Sometimes it will boot, sometimes it will not.

I have Linux Live CDs or Mac Install DVDs too. They don't say Press any key before booting. Same thing with them, sometimes boot, some times do not.

First, I thought that maybe the burning process were not done right; but the thing is they do boot sometimes.
Nothing to do for now. Just trying to pinpoint the problem.
I have used the same kind of DVDs for years, so it is not the brand or quality of the blank DVDs itself.
It is not the burning process; as they boots sometimes and also there is no reading problem in Windows.

I was thinking about the hardware, but is reading it fine.
As you said, only thing left at this point is the burning process.
Even though everything seems fine and they do boot sometimes; maybe something small happened at the burning process, I am not sure.

Thanks for your replies.
If I come across anything new about this, I will post here.

 

[IMAyNeed]

It is not the burning process.
I just checked all my (bootable) DVDs and CDs and except a rewritten one, none of them works. They all say Boot Ready though.
Something I realized that Windows is seeing some of those Boot Ready DVDs and CDs as empty even though they are not and they work on other operating systems (I will confirm this in the next post also after I check them again on Mac and Linux) and they are seen as Boot Ready by BIOS.
Either all my CDs had some kind of 'shock' effect somehow, but that is a remote thing since the BIOS is reading them and saying that they are boot ready and they work on other OSs.
I mean I would understand if it was just some, but all except 1-2 is suspicious.
Can a Windows/Software setting effect the BIOS somehow?
I will post more when I have more thoughts and check these CDs on other OSs.
So far only 1 boots and except 3, all seems to be blank in Windows (This didn't happen before).

 

[IMAyNeed]

It must be my harddrive.
On Mac and Linux, the disks also showing up as empty.
Either the CD-DVD Reader is failing completely or it needs a good cleaning with what I don't know.
Would the DVD Cleaners we see at the stores work? I will have to try I guess.
Unless there is some other problem in the Device Driver or something.
So, if I think what it is; either something get corrupted and now all the OSs are not seeing all the disks as blank.
Disks are working in other computers.
In the end, now the problem is my DVD Drive seeing all DVDs as blank in all Operating Systems.
Do you think you can help me about that?


EDIT: I restored the main Windows partition from a backup, but still seeing some DVDs and CDs as blank. It started to see some of the DVDs, which is good news I guess. There must had been some corruption somewhere, and probably still is since it is still seeing some of the DVDs as blank. I am thinking of doing a full system (disk) restore (from an image)if I can't figure out what it is today. I am wondering what is this corruption and where does it come from. Most likely, I will do a full system restore in a couple of hours and this time I will use an older (6 days instead of 3) disk image.

 

[Brink]

Not much you can do other than burn new DVDs if they are corrupted. I've always had good results using DVD+R discs with a ISO file and the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool.

 

[IMAyNeed]

No. The corruption is on the computer or DVD-Reader as I tried the DVDs on other computers and they work.
So, DVD-ROM was seeing all DVDs blank. Then, I made a restore on the main Windows partition and some started to work, some were seen as blank still. I have another system image of like a week ago. In a couple of hours, I will do a complete disk restore and check the results. I was having a couple of problems with my softwares anyway since I made a 'drivers update' after I made this image; so it will be good I hope.
I will check that software, it seems useful. And since it is for Windows 7, it is newer than my software.
I am using Cyberlink PowerGO for burning images and it seems to work fine for years. But it has not been updated also (It is shareware). The tool you suggested seems very helpful.
Thank you so much again as always!

 

[Brink]

You might check to see if you may have a newer BIOS or DVD drive firmware update available from the manufacturer that may help resolve this.

 

[IMAyNeed]

I checked. No updates.

I made a drivers update and installed several drivers days ago. And I noticed a couple of glitches in the computer. I will go back to the image before the drivers and see what happens.

If I had $60, I wouldn't be needing to go through this. I would get a Zacman E-300 and load my ISOs from there! (Of course, I still need my DVD Drive to read and write DVDs; I am just talking about ISOs that I may need).

I still have the external SATA Drive so I may put a boot manager in there and boot to ISOs from there (by SATA to USB) if this problem doesn't go away. I am hoping that it will though. If necessary, I will burn new DVDs of essential ones and hope that it will work right.

I will inform what happens after the disk restore (Most likely tonight or tomorrow).

 

[IMAyNeed]

Not much change after the restore. At least the couple of glitches were gone. I didn't install those 2 drivers which caused the glitches. If necessary, I will burn new DVDs for ISOs. Right now, handling things with USBs.

 

[Layback Bear]

Sorry if I missed something. Did you try a different DVD player?

 

[IMAyNeed]

Yes, I tried on another computer and the other Windows were seeing it, but my DVD Driver is seeing some DVDs as blank and my BIOS is reading them as Boot Ready, but not booting. I am not sure what the problem is. I will have to make USB Disks for a while or install a boot manager to an external disk and try to load ISOs from there. The thing is even Windows sees the DVDs right, with all the files in it; my BIOS is still not booting from them even after reading them as Boot Ready. No BIOS option seems to be related. So I have both problems with my DVD Reader/Writer and my BIOS.

 

[Layback Bear]

Let me put it another way. Remove the old DVD Player (hardware). Install a new or different DVD Player (hardware) of known proper working condition. Use the same harness connectors. Install needed drivers. Now try the same DVD's disc and see if things work as they should.

 

[IMAyNeed]

It is a notebook.

 

[Layback Bear]

Sorry I missed that.

 

[IMAyNeed]

No Problem.