Win 98SE new install-stall!

[locodrvr]

I have a Dell Latitude CPiD300XT. Pent. II 64Megs 6gigHD. The HD has been Wiped out using KillDisk. I have WIn98SE (full LEGAL version) on floppy and CD-Rom. I have installed this very program on several older desktop computers that have a cd-rom and floppy, so the install goes on without a hitch. This Laptop has a one bay, so, I instert the floppy bay, start it up, and it gives me all sorts of good info. then,
"cd-rom driver not ready"
"(A)abort or (R)retry?
at this point, I pull out the drive (which has the floppy in it.) and replace it with the cd drive, which has the Start Here Win98SE cd.
and I hit "R" - enter
More fun info ending with
"Device driver Name = MSCD001
IDE CD-ROM devise installed.
The following file is missing or corrupted: HIMEM.SYS
There is an error in your CONFIG.SYS file on line 2
The following file is missing or corrupted: COMMAND.COM
Type the name of the command interpreter (e.g., C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM)
A>_
That is as far as I can get with this. I have tried "d:\setup" command and nothing. What am I doing wrong here? any ideas?
thanks
art

[tetonbob]

Did you format the drive (format c: /s) so that it has system files on it after running KillDisk?

Are you booting with a Windows 98 startup disk first? Does the floppy have on it the proper boot files such as himem.sys and command.com? Has it become corrupted? (will it boot another system?)

Are you sure the letter assigned to your CD ROM drive during the startup process is D? It may be E (D is often temporarily assigned as a RAMdrive), or R if you use a bootdisk from www.bootdisk.com.

Some thoughts to start......

[BDP]

I have a Dx300 as well. Do you not have the floppy drive dongle?

Anyway, sounds as if you are not putting the floppy drive back in to finish off the loading configuration. You could create a ramdrive like tetonbob is talking about but just more work.
If it normally completes boot up with the Floppy (except using Fail for the CDROM) and if it doesnt tell you it has an error with the HIMEM.SYS then its just because you are removing the disk drive.

Simple Solution: While it is reading the disk drive right before it starts to say "Starting Windows 98 or Starting MS-DOS", Just press F8. It will show a menu (if you dont get the menu just keep rebooting and pressing F8 during Disk Read), Select #4 - Step-By-Step Confirmation. Note* F5 during boot will bypass the O/S to Command Prompt.

Select Yes to everything until it needs your cdrom drive. Install the CDROM, hit Retry, then reinstall your disk drive and continue with the Yes's.

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The Long Boring Solution:
The entire point of this is that the config.sys file will run first. It will execute all the lines of code then the autoexec.bat file will execute all of its lines of code.

You are removing the Disk drive that has the data file on it DURING the config.sys read/execute procedure. This means that there is still code to be read directly after it initilizes the CDROM but it just bypasses it and gives you an error because it cannot locate the A:\.

---------------------------------------------------

This is what you do... put your boot disk into your other computer (one thats working) edit the autoexec.bat and config.sys files.

in there you would see lots of nice things but you are looking for something that says MSCDEX or MSCDEX.EXE or MSCD001 in the same line.

MSCDEX is a device driver for the CD-ROM. The config.sys file will have a DEVICE=a:\something.SYS /d:blah blah MSCD001 or something close to that.

Since you are pulling out the disk drive to install the CD ROM, you will need this to pause or be the last entry. I would copy the entire line and place it at the end of the file. Then I would put a "PAUSE" at the very top of the file on its own line. I think pause is still a command you can you. That way it won't initialize the batch file until you have time to reinsert the diskdrive.

Edit the Config.sys file. It will have a "DEVICE=A:\HIMEM.SYS" or something to that nature, you need to make sure that specifies where the himem.sys file is. You will see another "DEVICE=" and it will be your cd rom (usually ATAPI...SYS or MITSU...SYS, should be a really long line with lots of numbers that one line from above "DEVICE=a:\something.SYS /d:blah blah MSCD001". Copy this ENTIRE line and put it at the very bottom of the file. This way your CD ROM will initilize after all the other data has been already done.


I think I might have really confused you :P
If you need more assistance on it, you can post a screen shot of the files or something.

Or get with me on my forum. NWAImports.com/forums

[renegade600]

Originally Posted by locodrvr

I have a Dell Latitude CPiD300XT. Pent. II 64Megs 6gigHD. The HD has been Wiped out using KillDisk. I have WIn98SE (full LEGAL version) on floppy and CD-Rom. I have installed this very program on several older desktop computers that have a cd-rom and floppy, so the install goes on without a hitch.

first of all if you installed Win98se as you say, "this very same program on several older destops" then you are violating microsofts eula by installing it on another computer. Each computer is supposed to have their own cd copy of Win98se - full legal version, not share one cd.