startup disk does not load CD driver

[trebor]

I am trying to install Windows 98 SE onto a newly formatted hard drive. The Windows 98 boot disk says it does not detect a cd drive and does not load the cd driver. The BIOS recognizes the cd drive. I put in two different CD drives but run into the same problem. Suggestions will be appreciated.

[DocWatson]

Take a look here. It should give you the information you need to get things moving again.

[trebor]

Hi Doc, Do you have any idea why it will not recognize three different CD drives. When I encountered the problem the first time, I pulled the first CD drive and put in a different one. Both were SAMSUNG's so when the second one did not work, I pulled it and put in a SONY. But again, the boot disk would not recognize it. Again, the BIOS recognized all three so they are properly connected, etc.

[DocWatson]

Hey Trebor,

It's not the CD drive but the PC itself. From the page I linked to ....
"This procedure is necessary in order to prepare a new system for the installation of Windows, because CD-ROMs cannot be read natively by the PC without a driver the way hard disks can. .... Note that you do not need to run this procedure to set up a CD-ROM drive for use on a system already equipped with Windows 95 or Windows NT, because these operating systems have built-in CD-ROM drivers. You need it only for installing DOS, Windows 3.x, or for setting up a new Windows 95/NT system that doesn't already have Windows installed."
HTH <img src=/S/smile.gif border=0 alt=smile width=15 height=15>

[trebor]

Hi Doc, what I ultimately did was to create a second partition on the hard drive and then put the hard drive into another system as a slave drive. I then copied the Win98 SE installation disk to this partition. I then reinstalled the hard drive in the original system and installed Win98 SE from the second partition on the hard drive. Finally got Windows 98 SE installed but lo and behold, there was still no recognition of the CD drive. What I finally figured out, by looking at the Device Manager, there is a Promise Ultra 100 IDE controller that needed a driver. After several search attempts, I found the proper driver and installed it. Now the system is recognizing the CD drive just fine. Sure took a bit but I think I finally have it working OK. Thanks for your input.

[bigaldoc]

Well, you used some good "creativity" to accomplish what you needed to do! But, for future benefit and for other Loungers who may come across this thread while searching, let me make an observation. Assuming the boot disk you mentioned in your first post was a floppy and you were in fact booting to DOS, one has to have a CONFIG.SYS and an AUTOEXEC.BAT file on the floppy disk that include calls to the driver that will "activate" the hardware CD drive for DOS. The driver for DOS for most CD hardware usually ends in a .SYS filename. It so happens that I came across a driver many years ago that will deal with just about every CD drive I ever encounter. So, I have that driver included in the Config.Sys and Autoexec.Bat file on my primary boot floppy disk, which is Win98SE based. I'm going to show you what those two files look like on my floppy in case it might help you in the future:

CONFIG.SYS
DEVICE=HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=EMM386.EXE NOEMS
BUFFERS=40
FILES=40
DOS=UMB
FCBS=16,0
DOS=HIGH
LASTDRIVE=Z
DEVICEHIGH=MTMCDAI.SYS /D:MTMIDE01
SHELL=COMMAND.COM /E:1024 /p
STACKS=17,256

AUTOEXEC.BAT
@echo off
prompt $p$g
set comspec=command.com
lh mouse
lh mscdex.exe /s /d:mtmide01
cd
cls

The lines I've shown in bold in each file are the CD drive driver (MTMCDAI.SYS) and the call to the MS program MSCDEX.EXE to tell it which driver to use. Sorry for the old and gorry DOS details, but...

!aeh!

[DocWatson]

Glad you got it figured out. It's tough seeing those controller cards from this end. <img src=/S/smile.gif border=0 alt=smile width=15 height=15>