Booting off a Firewire CD-Drive?

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2008-05-07 09:50pm

Yay Laptop! Either a virus or Voodoo magic have given me a BSOD on load that has killed my laptop.

The BSOD states quote
A problem has been detected yada yada
UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME

Which I take to mean a boot-sector virus or a dozen corrupt sectors in the WRONG area.

However I need to know if it's possible to boot from a Firewire drive or even a USB drive. My laptop has no built in cd-rom anymore(Don't ask) so I need to boot off the external cd-drive

How?

Braedley · Post by **Braedley** » 2008-05-08 01:47am

If it were a Mac, it would be easy (although I forget which key would need to be held down), but since you apparently have a PC, it's a little more difficult.

In your BIOS settings, see if there's an option to boot from external media. That's your best chance, although it's possible that it'll limit you to only USB.

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2008-05-08 11:46am

Braedley wrote:
In your BIOS settings, see if there's an option to boot from external media. That's your best chance, although it's possible that it'll limit you to only USB.

Dell BIOS so no chance there, it's an Insperion 8500 Laptop just over four years old now to give you an idea.

Any other suggestions?

Braedley · Post by **Braedley** » 2008-05-08 12:00pm

From quick google search:

I have always found it easiest to pull the hard drive, put it in a different laptop (or get an adaptor and hook it up to a desktop), install Linux, return the drive to the original machine, then run any setup/installation scripts.

Unfortunately, Windows isn't as nice for doing this. Another option is to try and find a BIOS update. There's an open source BIOS project that you could check out, but I don't know how far along they are. (I don't use it, and have only seen word of it on /. )

Kitsune · Post by **Kitsune** » 2008-05-08 12:32pm

Is the connector for your CD Rom operational? If so, you might be able to just put in a new CD Rom...

I think I know of a fairly cheap place if you live in the US.....

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2008-05-08 04:30pm

Kitsune wrote:Is the connector for your CD Rom operational? If so, you might be able to just put in a new CD Rom...

I think I know of a fairly cheap place if you live in the US.....

Dell=Proprietary Laptops=Dell only drive=Shit out of luck

Shit I might end up sending it to dell in the end. Or junking it, it's only worth about 230$ thanks to hordes of cheap laptop's hitting the area.

Kitsune · Post by **Kitsune** » 2008-05-08 04:44pm

I have a Dell Laptop and I got mine used. It did not come with a DVD or CD ROM when I bought it and bought one second hand....That one broke so I got a new one....

http://www.priorityelectronics.com/dell/313-1540-1.htm

Forty smackers.......shrug

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2008-05-08 05:03pm

Kitsune wrote:I have a Dell Laptop and I got mine used. It did not come with a DVD or CD ROM when I bought it and bought one second hand....That one broke so I got a new one....

http://www.priorityelectronics.com/dell/313-1540-1.htm

Forty smackers.......shrug

Tempting

Kitsune · Post by **Kitsune** » 2008-05-08 05:18pm

Probably the easiest way to be honest.....

I have Dell C600 but it landed on its PCMIA slot with a wireless card and killed the slot...Yes, I tried another card in the slot

Just ordered a Dell C640 today from an E-Bay Shop as a replacement....
$229 before S/H with 2 Ghz Pentium-4M Processor with 1 Gig of Ram / 60 Gig HD / DVD Rom (don't need a writer for my laptop) / XP Professional

This way I can use my roommates wireless broadband card at work