XC600 - Unable to boot from the DVD Drive

I have Acer Aspire XC600, originally with Windows 8.1 and now with Windows 10 HOME. I want to install Windows 10 Pro. I have the DVD and licence key but I CANNOT get it to boot from DVD.

I want to wipe the whole disk using Partition Magic and start again.

I know about Shift restart which gets you into various obscure startup options such as safe mode, but UEFI/Legacy is not in the list of options shown, and anyway the screen freezes and does not allow any of the options to be selected.

When booting I see the UEFI startup screen for an instant and (I think) it says press delete for UEFI or F12 for startup options but I can't press delete/F12 fast enough to get in.

Ideas please?

Accepted answers

All comments

IronFly

i suggest you to create a bootable USB flash drive, instead of using the DVD, since you can download from Microsoft the latest windows 10 release, without having to download tons of updates.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

use the download tool, plug an USB flash drive and follow on video instructions.

about F12, try to spam it just after pressing the power button

about formatting the HDD, you can do it from windows 10 installation, just choose Custom installation and the delete any listed partition until you have a single Raw storage.

Simonbrew

As follow-on to my post above, I decided to use Windows 10 reset facility to "reset all hard drives". It took about 4 hrs and when it finished, I got this error message when booting: "An operating system wasn't found. Try disconnecting any drives that don't contain OS. Press Ctl/Alt/Del to restart. "

3 problems:

1) This process was supposed to reset Windows 10, not delete it!

2) Ctl/Alt/Delete doesn't do anything, but PC is now frozen

3) I STILL can't get into the UEFI on startup..

I'm getting desperate!!

IronFly

ok, let's start from the bottom.

unplug the AC power cord

open your dekstop case and unplug every HDD and DVD drive, look at the CMOS battery (the round silver battery), take it off.

now press the power button twice, put back the CMOS battery, plug the AC power cord (not the HDD/DVD).

press the power button and press Del key to enter BIOS.

are you able to enter BIOS?

ok, check if is set to UEFI (under BootMenu tab - LaunchCSM must be never), remember to enable F12 key boot menu too, then press F10 to save and exit.