Laurie Forbes wrote:

Would appreciate it if someone could tell me why my computer (an older clone
with Asus A7V mother board) will not boot from an ISO CD file?? I've tried
several Linux OSs including Knoppix - it appears to read the CD but then
ignores it and goes on to boot Windows from the hard drive. BTW, I can boot
a DOS CD with no problems. If I configure the BIOS to boot from the CD
only, all I get with an ISO CD file is an Invalid System Disk message or
somesuch.

2.88 Mb of a CD is readable without a CD driver, and that is used for
the first of the boot up part. It needs to have the right driver for
your CD drive so the rest can be read.

I just went back over what you wrote and something puzzles me. If you
boot up Windows and look at the CD, do you see an "iso" file? If you
can, then someone goofed. An "iso" sort of an archive and the process of
burning a CD should involve opening it and copying to a CD.

http://www.linuxiso.org/viewdoc.php/isofaq.html#boot

"My computer won't boot from the cd. What do I do?

Make sure your system bios is set to boot from the cdrom _before_
booting from the hard drive. There are too many system variables for me
to tell you how to enable this setting. Check your computer
documentation or try searching Google. During the boot, watch your
monitor for wording that indicates the system is trying to access the cd
drive. If it is trying to access the cd but still won't boot, make a
boot floppy using the cd. From whatever OS you are using, view the cd
and look for README files or an Images or Disk directory. There should
be instructions on how to create and use a boot floppy when the cd won't
boot.


Why do I see one large .iso file on my burned cd instead of files and
directories?

This happens when you copy the downloaded .iso file to a cd instead of
burning it as a disk image. Some software will automatically recognize a
..iso file and burn it correctly. Some software requires a specific menu
selection such as 'Create CD From Disc Image', 'Burn Image', or
something similar. Instructions for several burning programs can be
found here."

"here" being:

http://www.linuxiso.org/viewdoc.php/howtoburn.html