Boot

[mayorredbeard]

wmorri has the right idea.

Make sure the CDROM is set to be the first boot device in the BIOS. With the CD in the drive, boot your computer and look for a prompt saying "Press any key to boot to CDROM".

+1 more for the same idea. Your hdd naturally boots before your CD, so if you don't go into your BIOS and tell it to boot from the CD first, it will never boot from the CD before your HDD. Meaning you'll never boot from the CD. I believe you can also press f8 on startup to access the 'Windows Advanced Options' menu and choose which device to boot from. This way you don't have to go back into your bios later and change the boot sequence twice.

 

[wmorri]

I wouldn't recommend changing your boot sequence in your BIOS unless you are absolutely sure you know what you are doing. I still believe just using the boot loader is the way to go for the beginner.

Cheers!

 

[mayorredbeard]

I wouldn't recommend changing your boot sequence in your BIOS unless you are absolutely sure you know what you are doing. I still believe just using the boot loader is the way to go for the beginner.

Cheers!

Or just hit f8 on startup and choose what to boot from. No messing around in BIOS and settings automatically reset when the computer is turned off/restarted.

 

[Celegorm]

Or just hit f8 on startup and choose what to boot from. No messing around in BIOS and settings automatically reset when the computer is turned off/restarted.

f8 doesn't always give you the boot options like "boot from CD" though.

Outta curiosity, when you burned the CD, did you burn it as a data CD, or "burn the image to disk"?

 

[blackjack]

1 reboot computer, press Delete to access the bios, select Advanced Bios Features then change the first boot to CD, then reboot, once XP is installed reboot and repeat step one and change it back, ALSO when you burnt your ISO did you make sure your disc was bootable, a program like Magic ISO would do that.