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I switched the boot order via to the IBM bios so it's first thing to try is booting from a CD. This doesn't work... it contniues to boot via to the hard drive. I've tried messing with it for about two hours now and I'm fed up with IBM... can anyone explain wha's happening? The disk I'm using is a DVD+R with a .iso file burned to it... if this helps. I really need help figuring out what's causing this. Could it be my cd drive is out of date? Keep in mind that this server is a IBM Xseries.

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    There's two striking possibilities. The DVD drive doesn't like +R media. No idea about the age of the machine, but it used to be that -R had wider compatibility. Also, if you literally bured the ISO to the disc it's not a bootable image. How was the disc burned? If you put it in another computer and only see an ISO file, it's not done correctly. Jan 21, 2011 at 22:13
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    I'm going to dogpile a little bit here and repeat my earlier comment on your other hardware question. If this is just an amateur project, and you don't mind spending two hours getting frustrated trying to get a CD drive to read a DVD, go for it. We learn a lot by making mistakes, after all. But if this is in any way an important or commercial project, please seek out a professional to assist you. Getting "fed up with IBM" because of your own inexperience is kind of silly.
    – mfinni
    Jan 21, 2011 at 22:42

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Can you boot that DVD on another machine? It could have not burned properly. Or it might not be a DVD drive?

In the vendor's part spec PDF (which I pointed you to in one of your other questions) it specifically says that the server has a 24x CD-ROM drive. Unless you or someone else has swapped it out, it will never boot (or even read) a DVD of any variety.

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  • The product says a CD-Rom drive... and I'll try booting it from a different computer now.... Jan 21, 2011 at 22:14
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    Dude - you know it's a CD drive and yet you try to boot from a DVD? You do understand that they're different things, right? I mean, they're both silvery disks, but ...
    – mfinni
    Jan 21, 2011 at 22:18
  • I just tested the cd on another computer and it works like a charm. Any other ideas? Jan 21, 2011 at 22:18
  • Already told you - CD and DVD are different technologies. A CD drive cannot read a DVD. Full stop. You either need to burn the ISO to a CD, or if it won't fit on a CD, you'll need to find a USB DVD drive, or find out if IBM sells one that will fit in that server.
    – mfinni
    Jan 21, 2011 at 22:20
  • LOL. It's probably not a DVD drive. Funniest question today. :)
    – JohnThePro
    Jan 21, 2011 at 22:27

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