# WAPCHT-- magic key to boot from cd? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 5, 2004, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wapcht-magic-key-to-boot-from-cd/222782 "2004-01-05T09:03:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wedgerat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@wedgerat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgerat)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2004, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wapcht-magic-key-to-boot-from-cd/222782/1 "2004-01-05T09:03:27Z")
Yet Another Pathetic Computer Help Thread: I’m trying to install the linux distribution ‘Gentoo’ on my computer. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to boot from CD. I have set my bios to boot from CD, then Floppy, then HD. When I turn the computer on, after it does the memory check, it has a little prompt saying “boot from cd…” and it waits for half a second, then it continues to boot into Windows. I know it’s possible to boot from CD, and I remember having this same problem when I installed WinXP. I just forgot what magic key I pressed at the “boot from cd…” prompt. Oh, and I have a Shuttle SN41G2 and I’m pretty sure my bios is version FN41S00X. Just tell me the magic key! (yes, I’ve tried key mashing, but I can only take Windows fussing that it didn’t boot up properly so many times before I go berserk.) ---
**Author:** ![wedgerat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@wedgerat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgerat)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2004, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wapcht-magic-key-to-boot-from-cd/222782/2 "2004-01-05T09:05:27Z")
I knew I made some sort of mistake. It’s 3 AM, I can’t think. I messed up on the thread title. I don’t care. (you know, maybe installing new operating systems on my computer at obscene hours of the night isn’t such a great idea… nah…) ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2004, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wapcht-magic-key-to-boot-from-cd/222782/3 "2004-01-05T09:25:44Z")
Bah. What’s more fun that re-allocation your partitions for the 3th time at 3am 'cause you forgot /boot has to be within the first X cylinders? Dunno about the CD. You sure you burned it from a bootable iso? No idea about keys, but having a copy of Tom’s [root boot](http://www.toms.net/rb/) disk around is always handy. You can boot with that, then mount the CD filesystem by… doing a bunch of stuff I’ve forgotten years ago. But it’d work. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2004, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wapcht-magic-key-to-boot-from-cd/222782/4 "2004-01-05T15:34:03Z")
Normally you do not have to press any special key combination to boot from CD. Windows XP CDs have a special “Press any key to boot from CD” prompt, but they are the exception. It is more likely that there is a problem with this particular CD. Can you access it ok from within an operating system? Older CD-ROM drives can have trouble reading CD-Rs. If you also can’t boot from pressed (non-burned) CDs then the drive may be bad. ---
**Author:** ![wedgerat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@wedgerat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgerat)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2004, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wapcht-magic-key-to-boot-from-cd/222782/5 "2004-01-05T18:39:33Z")
I’m sure it’s a bootable ISO. Also, now that I think about it, I think I also had this problem when installing Mandrake (a system wipe ago). I guess it’s just an oddity of my system. The solution then was to mash buttons, but I was hoping there was a standard key combination. I guess I’m back to mashing keys. Thank you all for the advice.