Changing the Boot Sequence on your BIOS

There are many reasons to want to boot your computer from your CD/DVD drive.
For one, when you buy a Linux distribution, it will come in CD or DVD form,
and booting from CD/DVD will be necessary to get yourself into installation
mode. Secondly, many modern Linux distributions, such as Knoppix, come in
"live" form, which allows you to run Linux a useful yet slower and more
limited version of Linux directly off of the CD/DVD.

Many systems are set to boot directly from the CD/DVD drive if bootable
media is found there. If your system does not, you may have to change the
BIOS settings on your PC. This is generally done by pressing or to enter the
Setup tool on your BIOS as the system is booting. (You will usually see such
a message before the operating system starts to load.) Because the menus
vary, it is impossible to cover them all, but look for a menu option that
specifies the boot order. You'll see something like A: first, then C: (in
other words, your floppy drive, then the hard disk). Change the boot order
so that it looks to the CD first, save your changes, then restart your
system.