Thinkpad 755CD windows install

[M@$t3r_N30]

I acquired an IBM Thinkpad 755CD laptop from a friend and I am having some problems installing windows. It is currently booting to DOS 6.2. I have both the internal floppy and cd-rom which are interchangeable (only one at a time). The floppy drive works fine and boots and runs from the DOS prompt. I cannot, however, get the CD drive to be recognized at startup or in DOS.

In the BIOS, with the CD-ROM in, I can run the test and it comes back OK. I think this is a driver issue. But, I don't know how to install Windows with only a floppy drive. I am hoping that there is a way to get a startup disk to recognize the CD-rom.

Here is the software I have in case it is of some assistance.
Windows 95 cd
Windows 98 (upgrade and full)
Windows 3.11 (cd)
Dos install disks

Thanks,
Neo

 

[Samm]

Are you using a windows 98 boot disk with the mscdex & 3rd party cd rom drivers on?

 

[M@$t3r_N30]

How would I know? I am using the one that I got from BootDisk.com

 

[Samm]

OK, so you don't know which version of bootdisk you downloaded then?

Do you have access to a windows98 system? If so, go to control panel -> add/remove programs and select the create startup disk tab.
If not, go back to bootdisk.com & download the win98 bootdisk.

What you are looking for is a boot disk that has a generic CDROM driver which loads from autoexec.bat & config.sys (files on the bootdisk). If you open these 2 files in notepad, you should see something like :
device=oakcdrom.sys /d:mscd001 in config.sys
mscdex.exe /d:mscd001 in autoexec.bat

 

[M@$t3r_N30]

OK, Unfortunately, I don't even have a diskette around. The one I had is now unreadable for some reason. I will get from a friend tomorrow. So if I make a Windows 98 boot disk (I do have a 98 machine) then the driver should work?

Because when the boot disk loads the CD-ROM is not in the notebook. This seems to be where I run into trouble.

 

[Samm]

Of course, I was forgetting about that, apologies.

Get the boot disk, load it then format the C drive (format c:/s)
then copy the following files from the floppy disk to the C drive :

autoexec.bat
config.sys
himem.sys
display.sys
ega.cpi
keyb.com
keyboard.sys
mode.com
edit.com
mscdex.exe
oakcdrom.sys
scandisk.exe
scandisk.ini

then switch to the c drive by typing C:
then type edit config.sys
this will open config.sys in text editor - delete everything except for the lines :
device=himem.sys.....
device=oakcdrom.sys.....
& leave all lines under the [common] heading in tact but delete the [common] tag itself.
Save & close

Next type edit autoexec.bat
delete everyting except the lines :
set temp=c:\
set tmp=c:\

then add the line :
c:\mscdex.exe /D:mscd001 /L

save & exit

shutdown laptop, remove the floppy drive & replace CDROM & reboot.
system should now boot from hard drive & load CDROM drivers. If sucessful, you should see a message flash up re. cdrom being found & assigned drive letter 'D'

 

[M@$t3r_N30]

Very awesome! If all goes well, I will have it done by tomorrow afternoon. Thanks for your help! I'll check back if I have any problems!

 

[M@$t3r_P430n1x]

M@$t3r_N30 is the shizz. rofl.

 

[M@$t3r_N30]

Ok, I am confused again. I have tried a few boot disks and not all of them have the files you listed. I tried the 98 SE Disk from Bootdisk.com but it didn't have:
display.sys
ega.cpi
keyb.com
keyboard.sys
mode.com
edit.com

on it. What should I use?

 

[Samm]

Hi, stay on line a minute, I am just typing out instructions for you but may take me 5-10 mins!