General discussion

  • Creator
    Topic
  • #2311537

    not reading cdrom

    Locked

    by glyn ellis ·

    pc has been formated, now wont find cd when booting up to reinstall os.
    cdrom shows in bios but not in dos?
    replaced cdrom and cable still same.
    fdisked; formated; updated bios tried cdinst; still same cd in bios.. not in dos!! any ideas what i’mmissing????

All Comments

  • Author
    Replies
    • #3463488

      not reading cdrom

      by thechas ·

      In reply to not reading cdrom

      What version of Windows?

      Only Me, W2000 and XP have bootable CDs.

      If you have W95 or W98, you need to boot from a startup floppy that includes the DOS CD-ROM drivers.

      If you are using W98, and have access to another PC with W98, just go to add/remove programs and click on the startup disk tab to create one.

      For W95, you will need to download one of the startup disk images from http://www.bootdisk.com
      Then, extract the files onto a bootable floppy.

      Chas

      • #3463484

        not reading cdrom

        by glyn ellis ·

        In reply to not reading cdrom

        using w98 and booting from boot floppy. tried making new boot floppy too.

    • #3463479

      not reading cdrom

      by syscokid ·

      In reply to not reading cdrom

      If you’re booting from a floppy you made in Win98, does it ask if you want to install CDROM support? Do you say yes? And it still doesn’t find the CDROM?

      The Win98 boot disk only intalls support for IDE drives. Is it possible you have a SCSI CDROM drive? If so, look here:

      http://www.bootdisk.com/readme.htm#scsi

      • #3463477

        not reading cdrom

        by glyn ellis ·

        In reply to not reading cdrom

        thanks but no, its an ide drive, i’ve replaced the cables too! boot option with cd-rom support, when loaded finds drive e: & when i load a cd lights flash. but when i ask e:\dir. says not ready abort etc

    • #3463474

      not reading cdrom

      by ann777 ·

      In reply to not reading cdrom

      You may not be “missing” anything; it sounds as if you’ve done everything correctly.

      Check your Win98 cd (not the drive) in another computer.

      It sounds as if the cd is bad. Is it an original or a copy? You might need to borrow another copy, but use your license to re-install Win98.

    • #3463462

      not reading cdrom

      by thechas ·

      In reply to not reading cdrom

      How new of a CD-ROM drive is it?

      It is possible that the default W98 bootdisk CD-ROM drivers do not support your drive.

      If this is actually a DVD or CD-RW drive, I would realy suspect it to be the case.

      I believe there is a link at http://www.bootdisk.com that shows you how to modify the W98 startup disk to use a specific CD-ROM driver

      You may need to create a boot disk using the specific DOS driver for your CD drive.

      Another thought, what IDE channel is the drive connected to?
      And what IDE channel is the HDD connected to?

      If you are using an add-on IDE controller, you need to start with the HDD and CD drives connected to the primary and secondary IDE controllers, then move to the add-on controller after Windows is installed.
      I would also follow ANNa’s suggestion, and see if you can access a diferent CD in the drive.

      I know that W95 cannot deal with the chipset on some of the newer motherboards. I wonder if W98 may have some install problems if this is among the newest motherboards?

      Chas

    • #3463451

      not reading cdrom

      by opatzg9 ·

      In reply to not reading cdrom

      If you can’t get a new 98 cd disk you could try cleaning the one you have. You could try running water on it and brushing outward with a soft cloth do not clean circling the disk as that is how it reads and will cause more problems, or the game dr from best buy does a fair job of cleaning dvd’s/cds/ps2 games. When it’s dry try it again.
      Good Luck

    • #3463448

      not reading cdrom

      by sgt_shultz ·

      In reply to not reading cdrom

      and of course, you have double-check the BIOS settings and CD-ROM is set as boot device?

    • #3463020

      not reading cdrom

      by cg it ·

      In reply to not reading cdrom

      humm, after reading the answers thus far, I think Anna is right, you’ve not done anything wrong nor is anything missing. Your reference to DOS is a misnomer. If your booting from a W98 floppy boot disk that’s all your doing. Basic boot programs and utilities are on the floppy not DOS. The boot disk will load MSCDEX and CD Rom generic drivers into memory so it can use the CD Rom to install an operating system but that’s it.

      I’ve had problems with W9X boot CD seeing a CD Rom after I’ve formatted a hard drive and has to reboot. What I’ve found is that having the boot sequence Floppy, CD HDD-0 a glitch happens where for some reason the CD isn’t seen, therefore won’t boot. I change the boot sequence to CD, HDD 0 and choose boot from CD and after that have no problems installing the O/S. I just see it as a glitch of some sort.

    • #3472725

      not reading cdrom

      by edsdave ·

      In reply to not reading cdrom

      Do you have a copy of MSCDEX.EXE being loaded on the hard drive or on the floppy disk to be loaded on the hard drive? A copy alone is not enough but it also must be executed. Best thing to do is copy the file to the root of the hard drive and execute it.

    • #3472724

      not reading cdrom

      by edsdave ·

      In reply to not reading cdrom

      Also might try setting to none in bios setup.Hope this helps.

    • #3463070

      not reading cdrom

      by franjent79 ·

      In reply to not reading cdrom

      you might want to try setting the boot order in the bios to the right order. YOu would want the cd-rom to boot first so make sure the order starts with cd-rom. it sould be under boot order or something dealing with boot. good luck.

    • #3458282

      not reading cdrom

      by glyn ellis ·

      In reply to not reading cdrom

      This question was auto closed due to inactivity

Viewing 10 reply threads