CD-Drive recognition program?

[White_Wolf]

My computer will not boot from the CD-ROM drive. I recently tried an old CD-ROM drive and it was the same thing. This is a big problem when trying to install an operation system onto a blank hard disk.

I was able to install WinXP by downloading a 6 floppy disk program from Microsoft that was specifically made to install WinXP on a computer that won't boot from CD.

But how do I go about installing other operation systems from a CD if my computer won't run the CD-ROM until Windows loads?

What I am asking is: is there a program that can be put on a series of floppy disks that will create a CD-ROM drive capable environment?

Perhaps I should rephrase that question: is there any program that exists that can allow my computer to read from the CD-ROM drive (for the sake of installing an OS) without having to load an operation system to do it?

I tried MS-DOS 6.22 and typed in "D:" to "Z:" and all it told me was "invalid drive specification". So either DOS won't recognize my CD-ROM drive, or I'm not typing in the right command to make it look at the CD-ROM drive.

 

[KSoD]

Go into your BIOS and allow it to boot from CD before the Hard Drive.

 

[White_Wolf]

Already done that.

I also just figured out that win98SE startup disk with CD-ROM support will in fact allow me to recognize my CD-ROM.

But this still doesn't solve my problem.

When putting in the win98 installation CD and typing "dir" I can't seem to figure out what to do to get it to begin the installation process. I try shellexec and it says "cannot run in DOS mode". I type "autorun" or "autorun.inf" and it says "bad command or file error. With winxp there is a setup.exe program. I type "setup" and again this program cannot be ran in DOS mode.

So even though I can now access my CD-ROM from DOS, everything I do gives me a "bad command or file name" error, or isn't able to run in DOS mode.

Apparently an OS installation CD is meant to autorun without an operation system being present, and yet it is not doing it from within DOS mode. So what mode is it doing it from? More specifically, how, from a dos command prompt, can I make an installation CD go into its autorun sequence?

 

[lancec2c30]

Ya, your right. To install a operating system all that is required is the motherboards BIOS. The CD is for the most part self contained. I am at a loss as to what is causing your problem.

 

[KSoD]

The CD you have is not a bootable CD. That is the problem. You can not use a Win98 Startup Disc for this cause Win98 doesnt recognize NTFS at all.

There is a boot disc for XP. Can you guess where?

Bootdisk.Com

Bootdisk.com.

But i will guarentee you that the CD isnt bootable. That is the problem more than anything.

 

[White_Wolf]

The CD you have is not a bootable CD. That is the problem. You can not use a Win98 Startup Disc for this cause Win98 doesnt recognize NTFS at all.

There is a boot disc for XP. Can you guess where?

Bootdisk.Com

Bootdisk.com.

But i will guarentee you that the CD isnt bootable. That is the problem more than anything.

The drive I am trying to put win98on, and are using a win98 startup disk, is in fat32.

I'm pretty sure out of all the CD's I own that are made to be used when you have no OS installed, or the current one isn't working, that at least one of them has to be bootable.

I've tried Ultimate Boot CD, Win XP Installation, Win98 recovery/install, and the HP recovery disk that came with this computer. At one time or another these CD's have been used with a drive that is in NTFS, and FAT. Also unpartitioned hard drives as well.

the CD drive I am using didn't come with this computer. And so I assume the problem is that my motherboard and BIOS were setup to work with the CD drive installed from the factory, and this new one will not run from the BIOS alone, and requires at least a generic driver.

perhaps I am going about this all wrong. Is there anyway I can load up my WinXP and then install windows and Linux to a different drive?

 

[KSoD]

Okay so you are trying to put Wni98 on the PC?? Why use a OS that isnt supported and hasnt been updated in over a year? Three ahs been no patches to it since last year and every flaw is still wide open. You are better off with XP.

The Win XP bootdisks will not allow you to install Win98.

To isntall Win98 use the Win98 bootdisk. From there go to your CD drive and type in C:\windows\setup32.exe and it should run. From DOS you can NOT use Autorun. That is a Windows only feature. You have to run setup from the actual executable.

If the drive is not formatted to FAT32 right now it wont do anything for you as Win98 does not see NTFS and can not format a NTFS drive back to FAT32. You will need to sue the fdisk command on teh Win98 Bootdisk and do that.

Again FAT32 is very limited. Cant go over 130GB of space and files can not be over 1GB in size themselves. Let alone FAT32 isnt very secure.

Now you have all teh info needed. If it still doesnt see your CD ROM drive then you have a bad connection to it. Is it even recognized in the BIOS??

 

[White_Wolf]

Okay so you are trying to put Wni98 on the PC?? Why use a OS that isnt supported and hasnt been updated in over a year? Three ahs been no patches to it since last year and every flaw is still wide open. You are better off with XP.

The Win XP bootdisks will not allow you to install Win98.

To isntall Win98 use the Win98 bootdisk. From there go to your CD drive and type in C:\windows\setup32.exe and it should run. From DOS you can NOT use Autorun. That is a Windows only feature. You have to run setup from the actual executable.

If the drive is not formatted to FAT32 right now it wont do anything for you as Win98 does not see NTFS and can not format a NTFS drive back to FAT32. You will need to sue the fdisk command on teh Win98 Bootdisk and do that.

Again FAT32 is very limited. Cant go over 130GB of space and files can not be over 1GB in size themselves. Let alone FAT32 isnt very secure.

Now you have all teh info needed. If it still doesnt see your CD ROM drive then you have a bad connection to it. Is it even recognized in the BIOS??

I found out the problem with the win98 disk. It wasn't a full installation disk; just a recovery disk. This disk assumes win98 is already installed.

I got a new Win98 install disk and I can install it from a DOS prompt. Same with Win95. I never actually tried to install the Windows Melinium installation disk that came with my computer, from a DOS prompt via Win98 startup disk. But I do know that WinXP won't install from a DOS prompt.

Nope, my BIOS doesn't even recognize my CD-Rom drive. But the CD-Rom does work once I get windows loaded up. I even recently installed another CD-ROM drive and still the BIOS wouldn't recognize it.

I think what I need is a BIOS upgrade, but I can't seem to find the right upgrade because I don't know what my chipset is, plus I am scared to mess with the BIOS.

I've been searching the web using the term "Virtual BIOS" in an attempt to find a floppy disk that can create a sophisticated BIOS environment without actually altering the real BIOS. No luck so far.

Oh, and the reason I want Win98\95 as backup OS's is to play old games on. I found some old PC games that I absolutely loved. They either don't work or don't work well with WinXP, so hopefully Win98/95 will do a better job. I might even have to try Windows 3.x. I am desperate to make these games work. I ran one of them from a full DOS install and it worked but without mouse support and without sound. These games, Defender Of The Crown, Dungeon Master, Maniac Mansion, are to die for.

So I can install older versions of Windows on a CD from a win98 startup disk's DOS prompt. But when it's time to install Linux and FreeBSD on multiple partitions on the same drive, I'm not sure how I'm going to pull all of that off. I suppose that's a subject for a different thread.

 

[KSoD]

Alright where to begin...

If you CD isnt recognized in BIOS you haev a issue. You do need a BIOS upgrade. Easy way to find your chipset. CPUz. It is free.

Win XP can play old games from Win 95/98 era. It has a Compatability mode just like Vista does. Not many people use it or even know about it. It is there. You can still run those games. While being secure.

The Win 3.1 wont happen. You have to much memory to isntall it. Win 3.1 doesnt work on over 64MB. Remember back then Memory was a lot hard to come by. I have several version of Win 95 and Win 98. PM me or hit me up on MSN if you need some help. I will try my best to help you out.