Hey guys, I'm Corey, first post so I thought I'd introduce myself.
Basically I got a free Dell Dimension 9100 from work, they gave it to me 'as is', not knowing what was wrong with it.
I take it home, and am having trouble installing Windows Vista on it.
I basically xcopied the Vista Install DVD onto a blank NTFS formatted hard drive and booted from that as the master (because I wasn't able to get it to boot from CD/DVD). I can get all the way into the install, and it prompts "A required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing". I've been reading forums for a week now on this error with no avail. I even unplug the "IDE/PATA" CD-ROM and it still prompts me with the above mentioned error and won't let me past.
If I try to boot with a blank HDD, with the Vista CD in the CD drive, it gives me a black screen after the "Dell Bootup Screen" saying "Floppy Diskette Seek Failure" and just hangs. (I think this used to have a Floppy drive, it's got an empty bay up front). So from that error I decide that I need to go into the bios and disable the Floppy drive. From that point, I notice I cannot enter the bios! I get two options after power-on and the Dell splash logo is up, F2 to enter setup, and F12 for Boot Sequence. I've tried both, and even the 'del' key, with no ability to access the bios. I've even reset the CMOS, bought a new CMOS battery, and moved the CMOS jumpers around, still with no avail.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Basically now I'd just like to gain access to the bios, but if you have an answer to the first issue of "A required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing", feel free to answer that one!
Thanks!
Basically I got a free Dell Dimension 9100 from work, they gave it to me 'as is', not knowing what was wrong with it.
I take it home, and am having trouble installing Windows Vista on it.
I basically xcopied the Vista Install DVD onto a blank NTFS formatted hard drive and booted from that as the master (because I wasn't able to get it to boot from CD/DVD). I can get all the way into the install, and it prompts "A required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing". I've been reading forums for a week now on this error with no avail. I even unplug the "IDE/PATA" CD-ROM and it still prompts me with the above mentioned error and won't let me past.
If I try to boot with a blank HDD, with the Vista CD in the CD drive, it gives me a black screen after the "Dell Bootup Screen" saying "Floppy Diskette Seek Failure" and just hangs. (I think this used to have a Floppy drive, it's got an empty bay up front). So from that error I decide that I need to go into the bios and disable the Floppy drive. From that point, I notice I cannot enter the bios! I get two options after power-on and the Dell splash logo is up, F2 to enter setup, and F12 for Boot Sequence. I've tried both, and even the 'del' key, with no ability to access the bios. I've even reset the CMOS, bought a new CMOS battery, and moved the CMOS jumpers around, still with no avail.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Basically now I'd just like to gain access to the bios, but if you have an answer to the first issue of "A required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing", feel free to answer that one!
Thanks!
