How do you boot from a Live CD on a non-Mac computer?

Answer

If by non-Mac, you mean PC, the process is not overly difficult. On most newer computers, you should be able to put the CD in the CD-ROM drive on the front of the computer when you turn on the machine. The computer will then boot from the Live CD. If for some reason, it does not, you should restart the computer and put the CD in another drive if you have more than one CD-ROM drive in the computer. If this fails, restart the computer again. When it turns on, you should see some text that says "BIOS Menu" or "CMOS" or "Setup" or something to that effect. Next to this should be the name of a key on the keyboard that you can press. It is commonly Escape, F12, or Delete. When you press this key, you will see a screen come up with things to choose. You want to go through the menus (there should be directions on how to do this on the bottom or top of the screen - typically you use the arrow keys and the Spacebar or Enter button). You will eventually find an option/options that says something like "First Device" or "Boot Sequence." You want to go the one that has First next to it. Select here, and find an option that will say "CD" or "CD-ROM 0" or something like that. Select this option. Make sure that "Second Boot" is set to whatever "First Boot" was, and so on. A good order for booting is typically:
1)CD-ROM (0)
2)Floppy (if present)
3)Harddrive (0)
When you restart the computer with the CD in the drive, it should now boot off of the Live CD.

If you have no option for CD-ROM booting in your BIOS, your computer is likely quite old and you will have to upgrade. Also, if it's not working, and you know you set the option correctly, make sure you are not putting a DVD into a CD-ROM drive. That will not work - a DVD must be put into a DVD-ROM drive.

First answer by ID3624310986. Last edit by ID3624310986. Question popularity: 15 [recommend question]

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