cd not booting

[ANGIE86290]

hi to anyone who can help
my problem is this a freind in england downloaded a copy of no install lynux for me using broadand i live in rural france and dont have broadband yet; i put the cd into the cd/dvd drive and booted but the computer just booted straight into windows i know that it does boot from cd because it says so, i have also tried going in from my computer but it brings up unopenable files and some text docs that make no sence to me can anyone tell me what the problem is and how to put it right in plain english please as some of the lanuage is alien to me
cheers
angie

[Harry Kuhman]

What is "no install lynux"?

Whatever it is, it seems very likely that your friend burnt it improperly and so you can't get that CD to boot.

Please tell us in as much detail as you can exactly what you see on that disc when you look at it under Windows.

There is a small chance, if your friend made the most common of the burning errors, that you might be able to extract the needed file and burn another disc correctly. That's why the answer to the above question is extremely important. Also, do you have a CD burner (and a blank CD, or even better a 700 meg CDRW)? And what burning software do you have?

If you decide to try to fix this yourself before I get your answers to these questions and can get back to you, be very sure to read the Downloading faq, reached by following the Documentation link near the top of this page. (And if you decide to wait for me to respond, respond to me first, then read it anyway).

And I'm assuming that you know about telling your BIOS how to boot from a CD. If not, well, remember what I said about the downloading faq? And can you ask you friend if he tested the disc after he made it, or if he just sent it to you?

[ANGIE86290]

so starts with this
KNOPPIX_V3.9-2005-05-27-EN (file folder 696 MB (729,854,646 bytes) read only)

when i open it i get this


KNOPPIX_V3.9-2005-05-27-EN.iso ISO File (D:\KNOPPIX_V3.9-2005-05-27-EN 695 MB (729,694,208 bytes) read only)

KNOPPIX_V3.9-2005-05-27-EN.iso.md5 MD5 FileD:\KNOPPIX_V3.9-2005-05-27-EN 65 bytes (65 bytes) read only

KNOPPIX_V3.9-2005-05-27-EN.iso.md5.asc (ASC File d:\KNOPPIX_V3.9-2005-05-27-EN 301 bytes (301 bytes) read only

KNOPPIX_V3.9-2005-05-27-EN.iso.sha1 (SHA1 File D:\KNOPPIX_V3.9-2005-05-27-EN 73 bytes (73 bytes) read only

KNOPPIX_V3.9-2005-05-27-EN.iso.sha1.asc (ASC File D:\KNOPPIX_V3.9-2005-05-27-EN 309 bytes (309 bytes) read only


KNOPPIX-CHANGELOG (Text Document D:\KNOPPIX_V3.9-2005-05-27-EN 32.1 KB (32,966 bytes) read only

knoppix-cheatcodes (Text Document D:\KNOPPIX_V3.9-2005-05-27-EN
9.22 KB (9,450 bytes) read only

ok so hope this is the info you need as to the question about burning cds i have a cdrw i think i have backed up files and photos etc onto cd also have copied music from on cd onto another i have no cd burning software as far as i am aware
also i have read faq i went there first and it says about bios but when the pc boots it does say booting from cd so i presume that it does
no install lynux is just the operating system that runs form disc so doesnt overwrite my windows or interfere with it in any way
cheers
angie

[Harry Kuhman]

OK, here's what happened. Your friend downloaded a bunch of files (very likely with BitTorrent so it is extremely likely that the download was good). He just put them on a CD for you. He did not make a bootable CD (and he clearly did not test to see that the CD will boot).

Your next step: Copy the files to directory (folder) on your hard drive. Read the downloading faq. Take it from the point where you have downloaded the files. I would strongly advise that you do the md5 test as covered in the FAQ. Then burn the ISO as an image. You will need some burning software for this, XP alone will not do it. Several soultions are covered in the faq, the Nero 30 day trial being one of them. When you burn the CD use a 700 meg blank and burn it slowly, as slow as your drive and software will let you. Make sure that your BIOS is set to boot from CD before hard drive, put the CD back in the drive, reboot, and enjoy.

[Harry Kuhman]

By the way, what you have is Knoppix, version 3.9, the English version (as opposd to the German version). There are many "Live CD's" in addition to Knoppix, so it wasn't clear until you listed the contents of the CD what you really had. You'll get more accurate results in the future if you refer to it here as Knoppix 3.9.

[ANGIE86290]

harry
thanks for your help in the end decided just to buy a copy it wasnt expensive and in the long run far easier
thanks again
angie

[Harry Kuhman]

harry
thanks for your help in the end decided just to buy a copy it wasnt expensive and in the long run far easier
thanks again
angie

Actually, you had exactly what you needed to burn a bootable copy, assuming that you download one of many available programs that would burn an ISO. I would recommend this over buying a CD that someone else made and very likely burnt at a high speed, as high speed burns are well know to cause other booting problems. And it's a good technology to learn, as the Knoppix CD's are updated frequently (we are expecting a Knoppix 4.0 CD "real soon now").