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by thorpe322

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I am trying to load a fresh install of WIN98SE on a laptop. I ran Fdisk then Format C: /s. Checked my boot order and made sure it was set to 1. Floppy, 2. CDROM, 3. HDD. Put my CD in and restart... but it NEVER loads from the CD, or any CD ivetried so far. It simply goes straight to the HDD. I cant figure it out and have never seen this before. Now, if I swap out my CDROM drive and put in the floppy drive, then put in the Win98SE floppy boot disk it detects that and prompts me for what to do. Anyone have an idea? Thanks!

9 replies

by maelgwyn

So.. I am guessing that you cannot have the floppy and the CD-ROM in the computer at the same time. If you can, change the boot sequence to CD-ROM Floppy then HDD. THis should get the thing to recognise the CS on the first time. Another problem may be that the CD isnt bootable. If that is the case, put a stock standard set of CD drivers on the harddisk

type copy con config.sys then type in
device=c:\[cdrom driver] /d:mscd000

Reboot. It should pick up the HDD quickly and find the CD module. Then, grab a copy of MSCDEX.EXE (C:\Windows\Command on a spare PC) and type in mscdex /D:mscd000

Goto the CD drive (Usually D:) with a D:
then type setup. EASY

Hope that fixes it!

Maelgwyn

by espet

Any chance you are using a burned copy of Win98SE? And if you are how old is that CDROM drive? Some of the older (and a select few of the newer) CDROM drives cannot read from a burned cd.

by thee loopster

sometimes when booting even if the cdrom is configured to be bootable before the hdd you have to let the system know that you want to boot with a cd support look that up see if you get that prompt.

by otl

Probably would have worked better with Format C: /v (verify) skip the /s, this puts a system boot record on the HD. Ensure you have a bootable Floppy/CD to be able to get back into the computer. Most older computers will default to the HD for booting.

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