Kaz asked me via PM how to set the pc up to boot from the CD so I have written this to try and help her, maybe we can edit to improve it with possibly adding some screenshots of the various BIOS screens from various BIOS types and make it a sticky somewhere later Simon, in order to help others who dont know about the BIOS?
Some newer PCs, especially with SATA hard drives, use F8 to select the boot sequence, if yours does then just press F8 and a list of bootable options should appear, if it does use the UP and Down keys to select the CD or DVD drive and press Enter, have the bootable CD in the drive before you press enter.
It should then boot off the CD.
If yours doesnt give you that option then you need to go into the BIOS setup.
When you start your pc, depending on the model you have to press certain keys to get into the BIOS screen.
As the pc starts you should see the writing flashing past, sometimes a bit too quickly, you should see a line that says Press "X" for Setup.
I have put "X" to cover all the options.
99% of pcs use the DEL key some use F1 or F2 so see if you can see which one it says as it starts up, its on the first screen that appears justafter it tells you the speed of your pc and the memory size.
Once you know which key to press restart your pc and keep pressing the key repeatedly until it either make multiple beeps or the BIOS screen appears.
If it boots into windows then you have missed it and have to start again.
Once you see the BIOS screen, there are 3 or 4 different types so I cant say just where the option is on yours, you need to look for a section called BOOT along the top of the screen or sometimes you have to look in different parts of the menu, usually in Advanced, for something that says BOOT Order or BOOT sequence.
You cant use the mouse at this time, use the keyboard to select the various lines or options.
Sometimes you need to use the Page Up and Page down buttons to change values, sometimes its the arrow keys, it will say at the bottom of the screen which one works for your type of BIOS.
The ESC key takes you out of the part of the menu you are in and back to the sub menu or the main menu, depending where you are.
Once you have found the BOOT menu, make the first bootable device the CD or DVD and then select the Save Changes and Exit option, sometimes you can use the F10 key to do this but again it will say at the bottom of the screen.
A box will come up asking you to confirm save and exit, type Y and then press enter and it will reboot and boot from the CD.
After you have done what you need to do go back into the bios and set the boot sequence back to what it was before, usually boot from the hard drive as the first boot device.
Hope this helps, it sounds complicated but thats because I have tried to explain it fully and clearly and mentioned some of the options for the different types of BIOS.
Post here to let me us if you found it easy or difficult to follow please Kaz and if you can think of anything to add to make it easier to understand once you have seen the BIOS screen
