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Make CDRom bootable?

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10 replies

by ballyb

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Does anyone know how I can make an older PC's cdrom, bootable? This is the situation:

(133mhz, 64 mb, 1gig scsi HD, floppy and cdrom drives)
Want to fdisk and format it (clean).
I want to load up NT4 (for simple testing, etc):

I have a '98 boot disk; it sees the HD (c:) and the Ramdrive (d:). When I do e: (etc) dir...it doesn't see the cdrom drive. I know there is a way to add the cdrom command to the boot disk, eg. adding mscdex.exe to the autoexec.bat...or something?! But am confused!

Appreciate any help?

10 replies

by nigel100

to make the machine boot from cd you need to enable it in bios (reset the computer and hold down del). unfortuatly older bios will not have this option.
i think that you are using a "rescue disk" which should have the cd drivers on it. the disk that you are using may not assign the cd to e: it may well be O: so try other letters.
you could also consider having it dual boot nt. i think that the instructions are on the nt install disk

by highorbit

If you are installing NT on it then you can format and partition the drives as part of the install process.

The NT CD-ROM should be bootable and provided the CDROM drive is set as first boot device then it should be fine.

by zlitocook

If you have a proper 98 boot disk it should see all most all cdroms and boot to it. I would suggest compleatly blowing away the hard drive, repartitioning and reformating. There could be things left on the drive that are stopping you from doing the things you want. I can tell you how to add the cd to the autoexc and the driver but you really dont need to.

by zlitocook

Use a 95 boot disk to fdisk and remove partitions. Then format with /u /s. With a clean hard drive use a good 98 boot disk to load the cdrom. Go to the cdrom drive letter and type setup. Or use the NT boot disks.

by guenter.matthaeus

Autoexec.bat
LH /L:1,40352 a:\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD000 /M:12 /V /L:F
@ECHO OFF
PROMPT $p$g
MODE CON CODEPAGE PREPARE=((850) a:\EGA.CPI)
MODE CON CODEPAGE SELECT=850
KEYB GR,,a:\KEYBOARD.SYS

config.sys
DEVICE=a:\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=a:\EMM386.EXEnoems
BUFFERS=15,0
FILES=30
DOS=UMB
LASTDRIVE=F
FCBS=4,0
DOS=HIGH
COUNTRY=049,850,a:\COUNTRY.SYS
DEVICE=a:\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,,1)
STACKS=9,256
DEVICE=a:\teac_cdi.SYS /D:MSCD000

Hope it helps

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