How do I know a CDROM drive is bootable ?

[ScottH]

If I am shopping for a bootable CD/DVD ROM, what feature do I look for to
determine if it is bootable ? Obviously I would look for "bootable" in the
product description, but failing that, is there some technology or acronym I
would look for that would give it away ?

Thanks, Scott

[Daniel Ganek]

ScottH wrote: If I am shopping for a bootable CD/DVD ROM, what feature do I look for to determine if it is bootable ? Obviously I would look for "bootable" in the product description, but failing that, is there some technology or acronym I would look for that would give it away ? Thanks, Scott

All CD drives made in the last few years are bootable. They
only need be SCSI or ATAPI. BUT, the drive isn't the issue.
It's your BIOS. Most BIOS's produced in the last few years
will boot a CD drive as long is it's a SCSI or ATAPI drive.

/dan

[ScottH]

How can I verify that my drive is ATAPI ?

I have Sandra, and I cant even get it to tell me if it is ATAPI compliant or
not.

I know this CDROM drive booted once upon a time, and now it won't. Can't
figure out what is going wrong. I do have it set as the second boot device
in the BIOS.

Scott


"Daniel Ganek" <ganek@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:c25d7n$rii$1@pcls4.std.com... ScottH wrote: If I am shopping for a bootable CD/DVD ROM, what feature do I look for
to determine if it is bootable ? Obviously I would look for "bootable" in
the product description, but failing that, is there some technology or
acronym I would look for that would give it away ? Thanks, Scott All CD drives made in the last few years are bootable. They only need be SCSI or ATAPI. BUT, the drive isn't the issue. It's your BIOS. Most BIOS's produced in the last few years will boot a CD drive as long is it's a SCSI or ATAPI drive. /dan

[Paul Murphy]

If the first boot drive set in the BIOS is bootable (eg has an OS installed
on it then your PC won't bother trying to look for a bootable CDROM drive,
you need to make the CDROM drive the first boot device and make sure it has
bootable media (eg a recent Windows CDROM) in it in order to boot from it.

Paul
"ScottH" <fakeaddress@newsgroupsonly.com> wrote in message
news:6cadnQCS7qeG09rdRVn2uA@giganews.com... How can I verify that my drive is ATAPI ? I have Sandra, and I cant even get it to tell me if it is ATAPI compliant
or not. I know this CDROM drive booted once upon a time, and now it won't. Can't figure out what is going wrong. I do have it set as the second boot device in the BIOS. Scott "Daniel Ganek" <ganek@comcast.net> wrote in message news:c25d7n$rii$1@pcls4.std.com... ScottH wrote: If I am shopping for a bootable CD/DVD ROM, what feature do I look for to determine if it is bootable ? Obviously I would look for "bootable"
in the product description, but failing that, is there some technology or acronym I would look for that would give it away ? Thanks, Scott All CD drives made in the last few years are bootable. They only need be SCSI or ATAPI. BUT, the drive isn't the issue. It's your BIOS. Most BIOS's produced in the last few years will boot a CD drive as long is it's a SCSI or ATAPI drive. /dan