Pentium 2 cannot boot from cd?

Question

I tried to install windows xp when the drive has only 500mb of free space left....f8 won't work to try and get into safe mode and windows won't let me delete the partition because it is so full, which in my opinion is really dumb why would windows make it that way....when i tried to reformat in recovery console ( format c: /fs:ntfs) i hit enter and it says do you want to partiion the drive i hit y for yes and it acts like it doesn't even do anything and i'm back a t c:/windows and have tried it multiple times. I tried Active@kill harddrive wiper and it doesn't seem to recognize the cd in the drive and boot it in dos mode like it should. My next thing i will try is Bart PE any other suggestions? I have tried to burn DBAN to cd and it still just acts like thier is no cd in the drive and asks wether i want to install xp home or pro and then after a few secs goes to the blue screen where it wants me to dlete the partition etc and i cant do anything at that screen cuz the disk is to full. also tried burning livecd ubuntu doesn't even recognize cd in drive i tried both theses cd's on the computer i am useing right now and when i restarted it they both work so they should work on the p2. i'm burning bart pe sometime today fingers crossed it recognizes it or i'm out of ideas on how to wipe my pentium 2 :( please someone give me the solution! lol what about putting a magnet too it Thanks, Aubrey

Answer 1

Trash it and buy a new comp for $500. Seriously a Pentium 2 sucks, its not worth time and effort to reformat and repair.

Answer 2

PCs that old couldn't boot off the cd-rom. What you need is a windows 98 boot disk. You can get one here. http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm stick with the 98SE OEM, not a custom version. you just stick a floppy in and run the exe, it will make a boot floppy for you. It will load up the cd rom drivers and get you to a dos prompt so you can install XP. You are aware though, that once you get XP on there, it's going to run pretty slow, if at all. I wouldn't put anything newer than Windows 2000 on a computer that old and slow.

Answer 3

Does the cd drive work correctly?

change bios settings to check for cd before booting hdd.

if you have a floppy drive, and can get ahold of a boot disk floppy.