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da2beauFlag for United States of America

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CD-Rom recognized during boot, but not accessible via dos

I am attempting to install Win98SE on a computer and not having any luck.  This computer recognizes both the HD and the CD-ROM during the boot process.  When the Win98 startup menu prompt comes up, it prompts me to choose either with or without CD-Rom support.  When I choose with CD support it locks up.

I have changed ribbon cable.  I have changed CD-ROM devices.  I have changed boot order.  I have set the CD-ROM as slave and run from the primary IDE.  All scenarios provide the same conclusion.

If I boot into DOS, I can access the A:, C: and D: drives (D drive is RAM Drive in this scenario).  I can change the drive letter to E:, but if I try to do a directory on this drive it gives me a CDR101 error and can only Abort, Retry or Fail the command.

Any ideas or assistance would be appreciated.
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drcodrco

Hi da2beau,

just a few suggestions.
1.   You say the CDROM drive is detected correcly by the BIOS. If it set to AUTO detect change it to CDROM or vica versa.
2.   Have you tried booting from a windows 98 boot floppy disk. This gives the option of booting with CDROM support. Get this floppy at http://utils.skull-tech.com/bootdisks/boot98.exe. If this loads the drivers then it is possible that there is a problem with your CDROM. If the drivers load successfully then you should be able to change to the e:\ drive and access a CDROM. Try another CDROM rather than your Win98 one. If possible get another Win98 CD.
3.   If the drivers do not load successfully it is possible that your CDROM drive is not supported by Win98 boot CD drivers. Try downloading DOS drivers for your particular CDROM drive and then access the CD.

Let me know if this helps.
Hi...
Try to use WinME "DOS with Universal CDrom Drivers" startup disk instead of win98...

Go to     http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

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ASKER

m_3sam:
I tried the WinME boot disk as you suggested with no positive results.  Still getting same error.  Thanks.
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ASKER

drcodrco:
Thanks for your suggestions...
1. The BIOS was set to Auto and I changed it to CDROM.  No change.
2. I had been booting from a Win98se boot disk, but I downloaded the .exe you suggested with no change.  
I have tried a total of (3) three different CD-ROM devices and (2) two different Windows startup disks.
3. I downloaded the specific drivers for my Acer 40x CD-ROM device.  Loaded them to my C: drive and edited my config.sys to the specs of the readme file.  Still no change.

any other ideas out there??
So, try to get a bootable CD for win98SE, change your boot sequnce(in BIOS)  to start with CD dirve, boot your machine with the CD and start installing windows.
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ASKER

m_3sam:
I've tried this too.  I removed all devices in the boot sequence except the CD-ROM.  
The error reads: Boot Failure: System Halted.
da2
Okay try to do this, download the dos 6.2 version from www.bootdisk.com

1.  Once you are booted into dos, go to fdisk, and deleted all partitions, and create a partition of the size you want.  Once you do that, make sure you make the partition active.

2.  restart back to the bootdisk, and format c:

3. ONce that is done, boot from your CD rom of windows 98, make sure in bios that it is booting from the cd.

it should work like that.
Avatar of joinaunion
is this a new hard drive? you may want to try loading your bios default settings ,because you may have a conflict with other hardware:)
Back to basics - Have you verified the CD-ROM drive actually works?  Could it be dirty?  Do you have a cleaning CD you can run in it?


My first guess is that the drive is inoperative / defective.
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drcodrco

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drcodrco
Thank you for your willingness to assist me.  I apologize for the delay in my awarding of these points.