Question

mscdex.exe (CD driver)

Asked by: ram_einstein

Consider this situation...

A computer with formatted HDD. Without changing the boot sequence in BIOS, I want to install a version of Windows (say XP) All the reqd files are on a cd. Now, I use  a boot disk (Standard Win98 boot disk) to create one FAT32 partition(say C:\) using fdisk. I want to copy all files from the cd manually to the HDD (using copy *.* _ _) The destination is C:\ but the source is the cd.  I have a dos driver for a cd drive on a floppy. Files on floppy: mscdex.exe, sscdrom.sys, mscdx221.exe and oakcdrom.sys

How do I use these files to assign a drive letter for my cd drive? Or do I need some more files? (If so please specify location: where to get them, and instructions for use)

After I manage to copy all the files on the cd to C:\ which file should I execute to begin the Windows XP installation? Setup.exe will not run on DOS.

Please post clear cut instructions because I am a total amateur at computers.

Thanks in advance and regards,

Ram

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Asked On
2004-03-16 at 23:21:09ID20921559
Tags

cd

Topic

MS DOS

Participating Experts
2
Points
175
Comments
11

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Answers

 

by: pbarrettePosted on 2004-03-17 at 07:35:49ID: 10615994

Hi ram_einstein,

In your bootdisk's CONFIG.SYS file, you will need:
DEVICE=oakcdrom.sys /D:MSCD001

In your bootdisks's AUTOEXEC.BAT file, you will need:
MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD001 /L:X
SMARTDRV.EXE

This should load your CD-ROM as drive letter X. You can change the X to another letter, or leave the "/L:X" off completely and the system will assign a drive letter for you.

After you have your CD-ROM loaded, you will need to copy the complete contents of the CD's "\I386" folder to a folder on your HD:
XCOPY X:\I386\*.* C:\i386\*.* /S /E

Where "X" is, again, the CD-ROM's drive letter.

SMARTDRV is a DOS drive caching program from Microsoft. It is needed to run the WinXP installer at the beginning.

Once you have the contents of the folder copied over, you can use:
C:\I386\WINNT.EXE

This will begin the WinXP installation proceedure.

You may want to start with a fresh Win98 bootdisk, or just skip it all and use a WinXP boot disk. If that is the case, look here for bootdisk images that you can use to create a fresh new bootdisk, many with CD-ROM drivers already set up:
http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

Hope this helps,
pb

 

by: ram_einsteinPosted on 2004-03-18 at 01:18:15ID: 10622241

Thanks a lot for your comments. But I have a few minor questions:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"In your bootdisk's CONFIG.SYS file, you will need:
DEVICE=oakcdrom.sys /D:MSCD001

In your bootdisks's AUTOEXEC.BAT file, you will need:
MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD001 /L:X
SMARTDRV.EXE"

What if my autoexec.bat and config.sys "have" these lines? Do you mean I should create a Win98 boot disk and then modify autoexec.bat and config.sys in that floppy with an ASCII text editor? If so, should I copy: autoexec.bat (modified), config.sys (modified), smartdrv.exe, and mscdex.exe to my HDD thereafter? As soon as I copy these 4 files and restart my comp, will my cd drive be recognised and can I start XP installation?

Are sscdrom.sys, mscdx221.exe and oakcdrom.sys useless then?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"If that is the case, look here for bootdisk images that you can use to create a fresh new bootdisk, many with CD-ROM drivers already set up:
http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm"

First: The process requires a number of boot floppies (10 I think) and I hate floppies: If one gets corrupt, I can't do a damn thing (It happened to me last time when I used 10 brand new floppies)!

Second: "The server has an internal error": I can't download the installation file.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I tried putting in a fresh floppy and telling XP to format it as an MS-DOS startup disk. It puts in some nonsense files that I don't know how to use (Some keybrd2.sys, keyboard.sys, display.sys...)

Thanking you yet again,

Ram

 

by: ram_einsteinPosted on 2004-03-18 at 01:25:57ID: 10622273

...and how do I extract a cab file (ebd.cab) on MS DOS?

 

by: AkulaPosted on 2004-03-18 at 07:12:44ID: 10624555

Have you tried and can your pc boot from cdrom?
WINXP should boot from cdrom (if your bios/motherboard supports it..it should unless it more than a few years old)

HTH,

Akula

 

by: pbarrettePosted on 2004-03-18 at 07:14:22ID: 10624578

Hi ram_einstein,

If your bootdisk's config.sys and autoexec.bat files already have these lines, then you should be able to boot from this disk and have the CD-ROM recognized and assigned a drive letter.

If you want to make your HDD bootable into DOS, then you will need "SYS.COM" and a valid DOS boot disk. You then boot from the bootdisk and use:
SYS A: C:

This will copy "IO.SYS" "MSDOS.SYS" and "COMMAND.COM" to the appropriate sectors of your HDD which will then make the HDD bootable.

You don't need to make your HDD DOS bootable, however, unless you plan on dual booting WinXP and DOS from the HDD in the future. WinXP has its own boot files that will be copied to the HDD when you start the installation.

The bare minimum of files that you will need for this are:
Bootable floppy (IO.SYS MSDOS.SYS COMMAND.COM)
CONFIG.SYS
AUTOEXEC.BAT
HIMEM.SYS
OAKCDROM.SYS
MSCDEX.EXE
SMARTDRV.EXE
XCOPY.EXE

Your CONFIG.SYS should look like:
DEVICE=HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=OAKCDROM.SYS /D:MSCD001

Your AUTOEXEC.BAT should look like:
MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD001 /L:X
SMARTDRV.EXE

You then boot with this bootdisk. At the A:\ prompt, type:
XCOPY X:\I386\*.* C:\i386\*.* /S /E

Then, at the A:\ prompt, type:
C:\I386\WINNT.EXE

You will then be taken to the WinXP installation proceedures.

Alternately, use the Windows 98 Custom, No Ramdrive bootdisk at Bootdisk.com. It contains the CD-ROM drivers and is already set up for you. It is 1 disk only.
The autoexec.bat file does not contain SMARTDRV.EXE, but you can add it, or run it manually from the command line:
http://files.frashii.com/~bootdisk/file01/boot98sc.exe

If you are using the standard Win98 bootdisk, you will have "EBD.CAB" which you do not need to extract. It is extracted automatically to a RAM-DRIVE when you use the bootdisk.

pb

 

by: ram_einsteinPosted on 2004-03-18 at 22:56:24ID: 10630888

Akula,

BIOS does not recognise my cd drive (actually a writer) for some reason. I installed it myself so I might have set the jumper to Secondary Slave and connected it to Secondary Master. To avoid opening up my comp and fixing the problem, I asked for an alternate solution.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

pbarrette,

Thanks a lot for clear-cut instructions.

Regards,

Ram

 

by: ram_einsteinPosted on 2004-03-18 at 22:57:08ID: 10630892

...how do I use that custom boot disk?

 

by: pbarrettePosted on 2004-03-19 at 08:53:59ID: 10634494

Hi Ram_einstein,

When you download the EXE, you run it and it will ask you to insert a disk. This disk will then be loaded with the custom Win98 bootdisk image.

You then reboot the computer with that disk.

When you reach the A:\> prompt, type:
SMARTDRV

Then type:
XCOPY R:\I386\*.* C:\i386\*.* /S /E

(The custom bootdisk assignes the drive letter as R:)

When it has finished copying, type:
C:\I386\WINNT.EXE

That will start the WinXP installation.

Glad to be of help,
pb

 

by: ram_einsteinPosted on 2004-03-19 at 20:43:48ID: 10638978

Thanks a lot!
I even learnt how to make my own custom boot disk by modifying config.sys, help.txt and autoexec.bat to suit my needs (using notepad). But the only item(s) that I failed to modify was:

Starting Windows 98....                                                      <-- THIS


Windows 98 Startup Disk                                                   <-- AND THIS
================

1. Use Custom boot Disk                                                    // MODIFIED
2. View Help file                                                                // MODIFIED

I figured out that these two lines of text are controlled by io.sys by method of elimination. So I opened io.sys in an ASCII text editor (notepad). Half of it was in the form of junk characters so I figured out I couldn't modify it that way. Is there any other way to modify it?

...and if I run WINNT.EXE from dos, I will be skipping the step "copying installation files..." that would normally appear when installing from a prevoius version of Windows. Will this cause a problem?

Thanking you for your time,

Ram

p.s- If you haven't noticed, I have awarded you a bonus fifty points (125 to 175)

 

by: pbarrettePosted on 2004-03-20 at 11:22:58ID: 10641327

Hi Ram_einstein,

Most of the Win98 display stuff is not in IO.SYS, but actually in MSDOS.SYS which is a plain-text file.

IO.SYS is the OS itself and is generally not editable.

If you look in the MSDOS.SYS file, you will see that you can configure the options yourself. A good guide to the options is here:
http://defiant.yk.psu.edu/~lxn/IST_226/ist_226_win9x_msdossys.htm

But, you probably just want:
BootGUI=0
BootMenu=0
Logo=0

That will get you as close to true DOS with a Win98 bootdisk as is possible.

If you use:
XCOPY R:\I386\*.* C:\i386\*.* /S /E

All of the installation files will be copied to your HD.

I was assuming that this will be a fresh WinXP install as opposed to an upgrade from a Win98 installation that already exists on the HD. If this is not the case, then you will have to boot into the Win98 installation that is on the HD to be able to upgrade.

Otherwise, if there is no OS loaded on the HD, then you can just run WINNT.EXE and it will install XP correctly. Just make sure you do not delete and recreate the partitions when you do the installation, or your C:\I386 folder will be gone and the install will fail.

pb

 

by: ram_einsteinPosted on 2004-03-21 at 00:24:34ID: 10643236

Hi pbarrette,

I don't think you understood my question because my msdos.sys on the floppy only contains ";W98EBD".

I wanted to change these lines when I boot from my boot floppy, not my hard disk!

So I posted this as a new question. It is located: (can't I hyperlink!?) <a href=http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/MSDOS/Q_20926273.html> here </a>

Question Title: Modifying io.sys: boot floppy
Author: ram_einstein
Points: 125
Date: 03/21/2004 01:40PM IST

(if the url fails)

I hope you will be able to answer it.

Regards,

Ram

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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