Can't boot to Windows install disc

I'm trying to do a clean installation of Windows XP SP3 from the install disc provided by Acer, but I have been unable to boot to the disc provided. I've changed the boot order so it attempts to boot from the USB CD/DVD drive first and also picked the CD/DVD drive from the boot selection menu (via F12), but it just skips over that device and attempts to boot to the SSD or network card. I've also turned the SSD and the network card off as bootable devices in BIOS, with no luck. I just keep getting the message saying "No bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key"

Any thoughts on how I can get my AspireOne to actually boot to the recovery disc so i can reinstall Windows?

 

1. Attempt to boot the disk in another machine, but DON'T actually run the recovery, just check to see if it's bootable.
2. If it doesn't boot, open and view the contents of the disk and you will probably find the disk you are attempting to use is actually just a disk either containing an ISO (or similar) CD/DVD image, or a recovery image that requires another bootable disk with the recovery software on it, which is then used to load the recovery image.

 

It was option #2.

Thanks.

 

I have the same problem except that I dont yet need it. So I'm looking for a program that will give me a master CD of my rig , including SP2 & SP3, before it happens.

 

A bit late but! When I went to rebuild my A1 I ran into the same issue, what it turned out to be was inserting the the wrong disk first. You need to boot off the Acer disk it will load its stuff then ask for the XP disk, I spent several days trying to boot off the XP disk before I tried the Acer disk started to think I somehow bricked my mini.
I would like to know how to load my mini with just the OS and the drivers needed for the mini, I am sure one of the sharper guys has done this.

Phil

 

Easiest way is to download all the drivers you need from the manufacturer and grab a program called "nLite" from http://www.nliteos.net. Its a free program for customizing your Windows disk. With nLite you can integrate the drivers, integrate Service Packs and Updates and customize the OS to your hearts content.

The end result is a single Windows XP CD which will install Windows and automatically configure most, if not all your drivers and other system settings you tweaked while nLiting.