Originally posted by jonex
can anybody tell me how to burn a bootable CD?
:/ your windows xp cd is already bootable!!! (if not, then chances are, its not legit - i have never seen a legit windows cd that wont boot - try using only one cdrom drive - unplug the other)
it might be a good idea for you to go into the BIOS and change the boot procedure so that your computer boots from the DVD/CDROM first. Chances are that the company who built your computer didnt change that as its not always needed for the majority of operating systems... plus, its the default in ALL motherboards that I have come across since first building computers.
what hardware do you have?
1. make/model of motherboard
2. cpu type/model/speed
3. memory type/speed/amount
4. dvd or cd drives make/model/speed
5. psu xx? watt
Usually in the Award BIOS (press del when prompted to on boot), changing the boot procedure is in the BIOS setup from A,C,SCSI (i think default is) to CDROM,C,A will sort your problem out.
give it a try
edit: i recommend checking master/slave settings on the IDE devices - a mate of mine told a company what he wanted in a computer and they built it for him - didnt install windows though. he got the pc and it was just plugged in - cables wrong way round... harddrive wasnt even plugged into the power, both his cdrom and cdrw were set as master on the secondary cable etc... he basically had to rebuild it himself. (strange how the company went bankrupt a month or two later isnt it??)