Boot to Live CD with VMWare

I have a CentOS6 virtual machine running on VMWare Workstation 7 and I need to boot to a LiveCD to increase my disk size. My problem is that I cant get the VM to boot to the ISO. It always boots to CentOS.

I downloaded the ISO and in the VMWare settings, I mounted the ISO to the CDROM. I start the CentOS machine, hit escape to get to the boot menu and select the CDROM as the boot device. I wait for it to finish and the normal CentOS login prompt appears.

What am I missing? Why wont VMWare Workstation boot to the CD?

Solution 1:

Sounds like you may need to modify your boot order. I'm looking at VMWare Workstation 8, not 7, but when my VMs are shut down, one of the options that I see on the power menu is "Power ON to BIOS" and if I choose that option, I get a virtual BIOS that lets me configure the boot order. I assume that v7 has the same, or something very similar, and you just need to ensure that it's checking the CD-Drive for a bootable image before the hard drive.

Solution 2:

It turns out that it was a stupid mistake. The CD-ROM was not "Connected at power on."

To change this, go to VM > Settings > CD/DVD. On the right site, there should be a couple check boxes for "Connected" and "Connect at power on." Make sure they are both on.

Solution 3:

In other versions of VM Workstation you can access the "Power On To BIOS" option in VM > Power > Power on to BIOS.