# boot order



## lungsucker (Jan 8, 2007)

I dont seem to have a way to change the boot order in my bios. Unless im blind or its hidden. Isnt there a way to do this from the command prompt. Cant you change the boot order with the path command???? any help would be appreciated. What im trying to do is bootup with a knoppix disk i burned. I shut down, but it justs restarts in windows.


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## stirling (Jan 10, 2007)

lungsucker said:


> Isnt there a way to do this from the command prompt. Cant you change the boot order with the path command????


'fraid not. Boot order is determined by the BIOS. By the time you get a command prompt an OS has already booted and it's that OS that is providing the prompt.

Boot order _WILL _be in the BIOS somewhere.


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## JohnthePilot (Mar 30, 2006)

For information on how to get into your BIOS, have a look at this link.


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## poscaman (Jan 21, 2007)

stirling said:


> 'fraid not. Boot order is determined by the BIOS. By the time you get a command prompt an OS has already booted and it's that OS that is providing the prompt.
> 
> Boot order _WILL _be in the BIOS somewhere.


there are some tools with them u can get access to BIOS while working at windows
(my acer laptop has these tools)
pls give us your BIOS version/type,maybe we can help

also,there is no way u can't change the boot order!!


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## stirling (Jan 10, 2007)

Hi PATRINOS06

Don't understand why you've quoted me here.


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## poscaman (Jan 21, 2007)

stirling said:


> Hi PATRINOS06
> 
> Don't understand why you've quoted me here.


'cause i agree with the second one you say


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## lungsucker (Jan 8, 2007)

hardware.mcse.ms/archive17-2005-12-265626.html 
Hey guys i have enclosed this link. it seems im not the only one with the problem.
any suggestions?

heres another persons link
hardware.mcse.ms/archive17-2004-9-71395.html
different years, still the same problem


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## stirling (Jan 10, 2007)

we need to be clear what we're talking about here. Some older BIOSs don't support booting from CD. i.e. they'll only boot (for example) from floppy and HD.

Also some (OS) CDs arn't bootable regardless of whether the BIOS can boot CDs or not. Some distributions of Linux (particularly older one's) are like this and have the boot loader (for the install) on floppy.

These are different issues from changing the boot order in the BIOS.

It may be that your BIOS is a) not capable of booting CDs and b) old enough that the boot order is fixed. i.e. floppy then HD period.

The links you gave all refer to compaq - can you give us _your _make and version etc.


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## lungsucker (Jan 8, 2007)

yes, its also a compaq. model 5130 presario. I did a search on ask.com for "changing boot order on a compaq", these links were what if found. When you say old , what is old in your terms. my puter is about 8 years old and running great.
bios is vendor- compaq, version 686I4 256kb. I got this from freshdiagnose. pretty cool tool. oh, yeah bios date--5/18/99


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## stirling (Jan 10, 2007)

Personally I'd class 8 years as ooooold:smile:

OK FWIW I don't know this model but from what you've said and from reading the links you supplied I'd _guess _that your machine actually _doesn't_ let you change the boot order. It seems to be common for this era of compaq machines not to provide this facility.

Secondly I'd guess that even if you could (change the order) it would be between floppy and HD only i.e. it wouldn't offer you the option to boot from CD because of it's age.

I've had a quick google to see if you could upgrade the BIOS but HP/(Compaq) don't appear to offer anything for your machine. That age thing again probably.

Again FWIW I had this problem with an old (about 5 years) Award BIOS. Similar to you with knoppix, I wanted to boot the so-called 'linux brain dead install for emc" CD but although I could happily change the boot order between floppy and HD it just didn't give me the option of CD. I was told there may be a BIOS upgrade but quote "at 5 years old you should probably consider a new(er) machine..."

That all said - here's a quote from the knoppix page:

"To start the CD, set up the BIOS of your computer to boot off the CD, put the CD in the drive, and power up the computer. *If your computer doesn't support this option, you have to use a boot disk. You can create this disk from the image in KNOPPIX/boot.img on the CD.*"

So I guess all is not lost.


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## poscaman (Jan 21, 2007)

why don't you use a bootable floppy?load DOS and start knoppix from the console


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## JohnthePilot (Mar 30, 2006)

Hi,
Glad to see Sterling and Patrinos are on your case. Hope you get the problem sorted out between you.



lungsucker said:


> hardware.mcse.ms/archive17-2005-12-265626.html
> Hey guys i have enclosed this link. it seems im not the only one with the problem.
> any suggestions?
> 
> ...


For future reference, would you please try and paste links in? http://hardware.mcse.ms/archive17-2005-12-265626.html is easier to follow than hardware.mcse.ms/archive17-2005-12-265626.html 
Regards,
Pilot.


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## esam (Feb 7, 2007)

mmmmmm


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