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I've just finished a new PC build using a Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 AM3+ motherboard and SATA DVDROM and HDD.

I've set up the bios to use the following boot order:

CDROM HDD

I know that the CDROM drive is connected properly and working, since I can boot from it if the HDD is disconnected. But when the hard drive is connected, the HDD boots first. It's driving me nuts, the boot order is set properly-- why would it not boot from the CDROM?

Other points:

  1. the boot preferences / order are being saved in the BIOS so I don't think it's anything obvious like the battery being dead or settings are not saving.

  2. Hitting F12 on reboot and manually selecting the CDROM as first boot still results in HDD boot

  3. I've double checked that the CDROM is plugged into SATA port 0, and the HDD is in port 1, since some posts have said that the SATA boot order will follow the port number by default

  4. Even after setting boot order as CDROM DISABLED DISABLED (so nothing should be booting except CDROM) the same issue occurs and HDD boots.

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I've now set all three items in the boot order to CDROM and it STILL boots from the HDD. Also, the USB keyboard is recognized if I want to go into the BIOS setup, but once it displays the Windows "safe boot" options or GRUB loader screen (with a different HDD using dual boot Windows/Linux) the keyboard is not recognized. Any ideas? – user101289 Feb 19 '12 at 2:41
I'll continue this conversation with myself-- the keyboard issue was resolved by setting "legacy USB support" to true in the bios. – user101289 Feb 19 '12 at 2:56
not an actual solution to your problem, but a workaround: have you tried booting from a usb-stick? if you have a liveCD-image there are tools like unetbootin that can copy them to a stick. – Informaficker Feb 19 '12 at 18:52
@WalterMaier-Murdnelch-- actually, yes, I have. It doesn't seem to work either. I would like to boot to a Win7 install disk so I can reinstall Windows on a partition that is set up for it. But I simply cannot get the CDROM to boot! Thanks. – user101289 Feb 19 '12 at 18:57
There is boot order, then there is boot priority, check you bios settings again, try using another port on the motherboard for the cdrom if it is available. – Moab Feb 19 '12 at 19:05
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