Cannot get cd-rom/usb to boot, what next?

*Got an email 2 days ago, went back and forth with the person, but never able to get it booting, so I eventually had to recommend "major surgery", removing the drive to backup the data since we couldn't get into the computer, even with other boot discs:

Hello Miles,

I have found your information very useful if I can only get to that stage.
I'm hoping your expertise can help me if you would be so kind.

This is the senerio:

error message, "NTLDR is missing"
press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart

go to set up utiliy, boot utility then:

(pick one)

hard drive
removable devices - this is the one I want!
cd-rom drive
realtek boot agent

I pick removable devices, cd-rom drive or realtek boot agent and the machine DEFAULTS to the hard drive each and everytime no matter what I do!

Note: yes I went to set-up scrolled down to removable devices, cd-rom drive, realtek boot agent then F10 to save and it defaults back to hard drive - it is NOT reading for the above locations

Now I have my sons laptop so I took his recovery disk and tried it again (I know it will not work as a recovery source) just to see if the recovery disk I have on order will work.....well guess what...it DEFAULTS back to hard drive - again, each and everytime no matter what I do.

How can this be overcome?

Thanks Miles,

*I then responded:
In your BIOS, I think you will want to have that "removable devices" appear above the hard disk. This is not always obvious how to do so you'll have to check around the screen that surrounds the hard drive/removable device/cd-rom.

Look for "Press U/D to move up/down" or "Press +/- to change the order" or something similar.

*They wrote back:
Hey Miles,

Thanks a million for getting back to me!
I did what you instructed and placed removable devices on TOP.
However, it make no difference in the boot.
Still boots hard drive but removable devices are highlighted.
What the heck could it be?

Thanks again,

*I responded:
I'd say try moving the cd-rom to top, and making that and booting.
http://ntldrismissing.com

*He responded:
Even with CD-ROM on top still booting from the hard drive.
It continues to default to hard drive no matter what I do.
Any other suggestions?

Thanks,

*I then had him chase down this rabbit hole of "was the disc made correctly" since that so often is the problem:
Well the next thing to look at usually is to make sure that the boot
"disk" is created successfully.

With the CD in the drive of a working computer, when you open it under
"My Computer" do you see files like 'ntldr', 'boot.ini',
'ntdetect.com'?

If you just see the one file named "fixntldr.iso" then we need to have
the CD remade.

The easiest way to remake that CD is to download the "ISO recorder"
program I mention. Once done you can just right click the ISO file
and choose an option like "Write contents to CD".

ISO Recorder:
http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm

My ntldr website:
http://tinyempire.com/notes/ntldrismissing.htm

*He responded:

Sorry to keep bothering you but both my (your diskette and CD-ROM) are correct.
Both are working but NOT booting. Neither is the Toshiba Recovery/Driver CD which should.
Not sure what the problem is.

*So I had to now recommend major surgery:
Is it possible to just "turn off" booting from the hard drive? And
thus "force" it to boot from the cd-rom/removalbe drive?

If you have a CD that's a "known good" bootable CD, and it's not booting either.
And if the BIOS is correctly set to boot from the CD first.
There must be something wrong with the CD-Rom drive. It's possible
it's just failed and not reading the CD's anymore.

Of course I guess we'd have to then say the same thing about the
removable drive. But it's not nearly as bulletproof as the floppy and
cd-rom are.

If we can't use something from outside the computer to boot it, and it
won't boot by itself, the next step will likely be to remove the hard
drive, and backup the data. You could then either just get a
replacement drive and keep the old one for backup/storage, or backup
the data, then reformat /reinstall.