My Windows installation is on it's last gasp of air and I need to reinstall it. The problem is, my Compal CL56 (an adequately powerful notebook COMPUTER) refuses to acknowledge that my CD drive exists until Windows is LOADED. As you are probably aware, you can't format the hard drive and install Windows FROM Windows. During the boot process, I press F2 to go to the setup thing, and it says my BIOS is 1.40.T1 or something like that. It also says "ATAPI NONE" which I think means "No CD drive detected: Fark you, loser!" I spent every last cent to my name on this computer, so losing it would quite literally be the end of the world for me. I'm completely out of ideas. I don't know if there is such a thing as an external CD drive with legacy USB support, and while knowing where I can find one would be nice, but do me no good as I'm completely penniless. What I need from all you nice people is a solution to make my CD drive recognized from the boot screen, not just Windows. I know it was nothing that I did to make it not recognize the drive, as it has always been this way since I got it. Perhaps the place I bought it from (Microexpress as the Microexpress CL5620) disabled booting from CD, which would really suck. If that's the case, is there a way around it? I don't think it's a problem with my Windows CD either, because I also have a Linux CD (Ubuntu 5.04) which my family's desktop computer boots from fine, but of course not my PRECIOUS personal CL56. I know I'm rambling, but I'm trying to provide as much information as possible. I know that the CL56 has two options for optical drives, one is a CD drive and the other a DVD+-RW drive. Mine is the DVD+-RW just so you know. My CL56's specs include a 2 GHz Pentium M, a/b/g WiFi, 1GB RAM (2x512), and 60GB 7200RPM hard drive. I am running Windows XP Professional SP2. If any more information is required to help me just ask! If any of you could solve my problem I would be more grateful than you can possibly imagine. Thank you for your time.Go into the BIOs, then standard CMOS features (or similar) and where it lists your drives highlight them in order:
usually pri master, pri slave, sec master, sec slave. Press enter and choose auto detect. If after that it still doesnt detect your drive then there is a hardware issue and you will need to get it checked.

If it does detect you may need to check the boot sequence to make sure that cdrom is before hdd.
You also need to press 'any key'when booting from the cd so the system knows you didn't leave it in the drive by mistake. Quote

My Windows installation is on it's last gasp of air and I need to reinstall it.

The problem is, my Compal CL56 (an adequately powerful notebook computer) refuses to acknowledge that my CD drive exists until Windows is loaded.

As you are probably aware, you can't format the hard drive and install Windows FROM Windows. During the boot process, I press F2 to go to the setup thing, and it says my BIOS is 1.40.T1 or something like that.

It also says "ATAPI NONE" which I think means "No CD drive detected.

I spent every last cent to my name on this computer, so losing it would quite literally be the end of the world for me. I'm completely out of ideas.

I don't know if there is such a thing as an external CD drive with legacy USB support, and while knowing where I can find one would be nice, but do me no good as I'm completely penniless. What I need from all you nice people is a solution to make my CD drive recognized from the boot screen, not just Windows.

I know it was nothing that I did to make it not recognize the drive, as it has always been this way since I got it. Perhaps the place I bought it from (Microexpress as the Microexpress CL5620) disabled booting from CD.

If that's the case, is there a way around it? I don't think it's a problem with my Windows CD either, because I also have a Linux CD (Ubuntu 5.04) which my family's desktop computer boots from fine, but of course not my precious personal CL56.

I know I'm rambling, but I'm trying to provide as much information as possible. I know that the CL56 has two options for optical drives, one is a CD drive and the other a DVD+-RW drive.

Mine is the DVD+-RW just so you know. My CL56's specs include a 2 GHz Pentium M, a/b/g WiFi, 1GB RAM (2x512), and 60GB 7200RPM hard drive.

I am running Windows XP Professional SP2. If any more information is required to help me just ask!

If any of you could solve my problem I would be more grateful than you can possibly imagine. Thank you for your time.

The CL56 does not have a floppy drive.

It does have an SD Card slot though.

And how do I get to the BIOS?*

Is that what I'm seeing when I press F2 during boot?

It flashes really quick: "Press F2 to go to setup"

The options on the screen I go to are VERY limited though, basically just select what order to boot from.

Right now I have it set to check floppy first*, then CD, then hard drive. Checking floppy is pointless though, as I don't have a floppy drive. By the way, would checking floppy count as checking legacy USB?

Because I'm considering getting an external legacy USB CD drive and booting from there, and what's a CMOS?