Can't Boot From DVD Drive; DVD Drive Missing From BIOS!?

Ghot said:

I think you have to have something (CD or DVD), that's bootable, IN the optical drive as well.
Have you checked the F12 Boot Menu, recently?


I've read through your BIOS manual about ten times.
I can't see anything else, that would affect the Boot Priority options.

And even if you can't get those in the BIOS working... they should be on the F12 Boot Menu.

Just now checked by restarting computer and pressing F12 key.

There is just ONE boot device option listed, and it is the boot SSD. No sign of the DVD writer here.

I have to go away for a few hours. Get back to you later.

Thanks for the assistance!

I tried rebooting the computer again, but this time I had a bootable disk inserted within the DVD writer.

Pressed key F12 during boot sequence. The boot menu appeared with the DVD writer now showing together with the boot SSD as selectable boot devices! So I can apparently boot from the DVD writer provided I press the F12 key during (re)start/(re)boot!

But, it is still not clear as to why the DVD writer had disappeared from the Boot Priority Settings menu (after booting into BIOS and after pressing the F2 key during the boot sequence)!? And at this time there doesn't seem to be a way of restoring the DVD writer to priority boot either?

Still thinking I might reset/clear motherboard CMOS and see if that helps to resolve the situation.

Thanks for the comment!

Just a couple of minutes ago, I rebooted the computer (again) with a bootable disk inserted within the DVD writer. During the boot up sequence I pressed F2 key to bring up the BIOS menu. Opened the Boot tab within the boot menu, and the DVD writer shows up again together with the boot SSD for selecting boot priority! The DVD writer has come back!!??

I tried the same procedure earlier, but the DVD writer still didn't appear within the boot priority menu!?

This is still a mystery! Why the DVD writer disappeared from the boot priority menu to begin with. And now it has (mysteriously) reappeared!?

Post #9.

Odd that is was showing in bios and then the op somehow lost it. Presumably when bios found the bootable disc in the dvddrive it was added back.

Bastet said:

I believe one of my questions mentioned whether you had a boot disc in the drive during boot. Sometimes drives don’t appear as a boot option unless there’s a disc inserted.

Yes. It appears that this is the case here, where a disk has to be inserted within the drive in order for the drive to be recognized as a bootable device.

However, I did insert a disk within the optical drive earlier on as a test, but the computer still didn't see the drive as a bootable device!? I'm not sure why that happened. I checked for loose data and power cables and they were all firmly inserted into their respect slots. BIOS saw the drive as being connected to a SATA port and the port was enabled, but the drive didn't show up in the boot menu options.

Now for some unexplained reason, my computer once again sees the optical drive with disk inserted as a bootable option!?

I hope there are no further issues with this boot options mystery.