The CDs are red as audio cd in Laptop always...

Hi wordlinx, I just want to ask you a couple of questions! What version of windows are you using? Your bootable cd, this is the original cd that came with your laptop and it has either xp, vista or windows 7 on it? Anyway, I don't know if you have heard of or are familiar with something called cmos setup? Well, when you first boot up your computer you get the black screen with all the writing and so forth well, on this screen somewhere there is a small message saying something like 'press f12 for setup' or 'press del'. You need to press one of these keys and you need to do it very quickly whilst you are still on the black screen with all the writing. The keys to press are different for each system. Anyway, once you press the key in question this takes you to what is called cmos setup. Once in there you are searching for the option 'Boot priority'. When you first bootup your system the computer looks for the location of your operating system, this will be on your hard drive and your hard drive will be number one in order of boot priority and it's likely that your cd rom drive will be number 2. You need to change the boot priority so that you cd rom drive is checked first when you first boot up your computer. Make sure that your boot up cd is already in the drive and then change these settings. Once you have done this exit cmos setup, make sure you save the settings, and then when your system boots up it will boot from the bootable cd and then you should be able to proceed in reinstalling windows. Once you have done this you need to make sure that you return to cmos setup and restore the original settings that you changed. Under boot priority make sure that you change it so that your hard drive is number one and cd rom drive is second. I'm sorry about all the information here and I hope that it's of some use to you. It's generally not wise to go into cmos setup unless you know what you are doing but if you go into cmos make sure you write down the original settings so that you can change them back afterwards, keep a written record of everything you do. Good luck and I hope that you are able to resolve your problem. Andrew

you need a boot CD which normally resides on the Windows CD, just like the DOS functions. If your CD is not inserted into the operating system boot sector then you can not using the CD to booting.