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Windows98 wont start unless CD is drive!

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18 replies

by dmwebsites Apr 27, 2002 last reply May 22, 2002

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I've inherited a PC with a peculiar problem.

It's running Windows98 and has two hard drives (on one IDE cable), one CD drive and one CD-RW (both on the secondary IDE cable).

I have to have a CD in the CD-RW drive (doesn't matter if it's the Windows disk or a music CD) otherwise it won't start Windows. Once the PC has started Windows I can remove the CD and use both drives perfectly well.

I cannot find any reason for this. Does anyone have any ideas? I looked using sfc.exe and msconfig but cannot find anything out of the ordinary. I don't really want to start formatting the drives or re-installing Windows as everything else works fine.

Dave Mead

18 replies

by c_cee Apr 27, 2002

You might have tried this already, but all I can think of is that the you might need to have a look at the boot sequence in bios. See if you can change it around to boot from hdd.

by dmwebsites Apr 29, 2002

Tried this. Boot from C only but still need a CD in the CD drive.

by dmiles Apr 27, 2002

Check the drives to make sure the jumper settings are set properly for master and slave on the specified cable

Check the Device Manager to see if both the controllers are listed and their is no yellow exclamation mark on the secondary controller,now boot the computer and enter setup to see if drives are designated properly for configuration.

by dmwebsites May 22, 2002

Jumpers are set and no exclamation marks that I can see. I am giving up and going to learn to live with it.

by the scruffy1 Apr 28, 2002

Gidday,i would have a look in the bios for the boot sequence and change one of the HDD with a cdrom so there is a cdrom and an HDD on each of the IDE's and change the jumpers to suit.It may not work but it is a thought.

by dmwebsites Apr 29, 2002

Have made the primary IDE C:Drive & CD drive and secondary IDE is D:Drive and CD-RW. Boots into Windows98 but only if the CD is in the CD drive.

by humaid_ihsan Apr 28, 2002

Hi,
Try this:
Unplug the power cable from both CD drives. Go in the bios save configuration then exit. See if that helps. If the IDE devices are configured manually change to auto after you write down the settings. If it boots properly then plug power back in and go in the bios then save and exit. Good luck.

by dmwebsites May 12, 2002

Poster rated this answer

by azraelissime Apr 28, 2002

You're talking about Msconfig; did you untick the autoexec.bat and config.sys. If not, try that. If it works, edit autoexec.bat and place "REM" in front of each line (one at a time, then restart) to see where the problem comes from.

by dmwebsites May 12, 2002

Tried this but to no avail, though it seems it gets to the WIN command and that's when (if no CD present) it hangs.

by hinrgman Apr 28, 2002

Another possibility is that one of the programs on your computer is configured to run from that cd drive. ie. an encyclodedia or a catalog / refference program. When you start windows it looks to confirm that there is a disk in the drive and freezesif it is not. After startup you need to see if there is any such program and then reconfigure it or uninstall that program.

by dmwebsites May 12, 2002

There are some programs that have been deleted but not uninstalled properly. It could be one of these I suppose.

by the_roamer Apr 29, 2002

Here's my two cents.

I had a similar problem. You will need to look on the motherboard of the computer where the IDE cables connect. The two places where the IDE connects to the motherboard are labeled "Primary" and "Secondary" or "1" and "2".(The Hard Drive with the OS HAS TO BE ON THE PRIMARY). Make sure that the hard drive with the OS installed is connected to the Primary or "1" IDE connector on the motherboard. Next, (as stated in previous posts), check the jumper to make sure that the hard drive is jumpered as master and the other (CD?) drive is jumpered as slave. I have had problems mounting two hard drives on the same IDE cable and even with proper jumpering, the computer will not recognize the boot drive and still goes to the slave, so I connected one hard drive and one CD drive on each cable and made sure the bootable HD was on the Primary slot...worked great.

The 3rd, and last step (again, as mentioned before) would be to check the BIOS and make sure the boot order is set to "A:,C:,CD-ROM". You can use the "C:,CD-ROM,A:" also if you want (kind of a low level security configuration to make sure your computer can't be overridden by booting from floppy). Just make sure the C: is before the CD-ROM on the boot order.

by dmwebsites May 22, 2002

Hard drive with the OS is on Primary. I checked and swapped to every combo the leads will allow me to boot with. I have also set changed the boot order to only C:Drive but no avail.