is there another way to start from CD without entering BIOS?

[Square]

My PC will not let me enter the BIOS at startup. It displays the keys I need to press, but when I press TAB, it tells me 'Can not find any FDD, ESC to continue POST' and carry's on booting.

I'm trying to format my HD, and start afresh with everything, but this seems to be impossible, unless there is another way I can boot from the Win2K CD?

[in5ane]

Why are you pressing TAB before the beep? To get to the BIOS, I would have said you need to press the Delete key usually, and you can do it after the beep, memory tests etc. Are you sure you are not doing something else?

To force it to boot from CD, you could try removing the cable from the hard drive, to force it to look for the next source (which hopefully is CD!)

Otherwise I don't think there is a BIOS-free way.

[Hohum]

Pretty sure that it's impossible unless you've specified it in the boot order within the bios.

[MonkeyWrench]

What about using a boot disk? I'm assuming the boot order is A: first followed by the HD?

http://www.computerhope.com/boot.htm#07

[Margoos]

I have an option on my motherboard where if you press F11 when its first boots up then it gives a list of boot devices to choose from without entering the BIOS.

Can give it a try and press F11 before it gets to windows screen, but ive only seen this option on my motherboard i currently use.

[Ginger Tosser]

What make is the laptop? I know some Toshiba ones are a right cnut to get into the bios (think it was a combination of alt and function key). Also if you need a boot disk try http://www.bootdisk.com/