[DOSnovice]

I OWN A CTX EZBOOK 800 SERIES LAPTOP WITH AN AMD-K6 333MHZ PROCESSER, 160MB RAM, 4 GB FUJITSU MHC2040AT HARD DRIVE, EXTERNAL PCMCIA 8GB IBM TRAVELSTAR E HARD DRIVE, 1.44 FLOPPY DISK DRIVE, 56K MODEM, AND A Q-LITY 4X4X6 CDRW (MODEL: ECW-043).

PROBLEM:

A FEW DAYS AGO, I DELETED MY WINDOWS 98 OS BY REFORMATTING THE FUJITSU HARD DRIVE BECAUSE I WANTED TO REINSTALL WINDOWS. SINCE I HAVE A USB CDRW DRIVE AND FLOPPY DRIVE, I TRIED BOOTING WINDOWS 98, 98SE, XP HOME, AND XP PRO USING THE WINDOWS FLOPPY BOOT DISKS, AND USED THE WINDOWS INSTALLATION CDS WITH MY USB CDRW DRIVE. HOWEVER, I'VE BEEN VERY UNSUCCESSFUL WITH INSTALLING ANY OF THE OS'.

DOS WILL NOT EVEN RECOGNIZE MY HARD DRIVE OR CDRW DRIVE. THE ONLY COMMAND PROMPTS I CAN ACCESS IS THE A:> AND B:>, NO C:>, D:>, ETC. I SEARCHED EVERYWHERE ON THE NET FOR ONLINE SUPPORT THAT WILL HELP FIX MY PC PROBLEM. I FOUND A FEW GOOD TIPS FROM FORUMS AT http://www.computing.net ON USING USB 4 DOS DRIVERS TO INSTALL WINDOWS; I MADE SEVERAL BOOT DISKS FROM http://www.bootdisk.com/usb.html AND http://www.stefan2000.com/darkehorse/PC/DO...OS/DRIVERS/USB/. I TRIED USING ALL USB DRIVERS I COULD DOWNLOAD (DUSE 4.4 & 4.9, MOTTO HAIRU, DATOPTIC'S DAT.EXE USB BOOT, PANASONICS KXLRW21A.EXE, ETC...). HOWEVER, STILL NO LUCK. MAYBE I'M ENTERING THE INCORRECT COMMANDS IN MY CONFIG.SYS AND AUTOEXEC.BAT. ???????? I'M ENTERING THEM EXACTLY HOW I SAW ON THESE WEBSITES.

THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT APPEARS ON THE SCREEN WHEN I USE A USB DOS CD-ROM BOOT DISK I MADE FROM http://www.stefan2000.com/darkehorse/PC/DO...OS/DRIVERS/USB/

Starting Windows 98...
A:>duseldr a:\duse.exe

DUSE VERSION 4.4 Build 110 Release (General)
DOS USB Stack Driver with USB Storage Extentions
Copyright Cypress Semiconductor, 2000-2002

OHCI USB Controller initialized (BASE 0xd1000, IRQ 10)

USB CD-ROM Support enabled
CD-ROM: 'Q-Lity CD-R/RW ECW-043'

UCB Drive support enabled
Drive C: <Not Installed>

Insert diskette for drive B: (what diskette???) and press any key when ready

(action when I press enter key)
Insert diskette for drive A: (again what diskette???) and press any key when ready

(action when I press enter key again)
A:>MSCDEX /D:USBCDROM /S /M:15 /V
MSCDEX Version 2.25
Copyright © Microsoft Corp. 1986-1995. All right reserved
Drive D: = Driver USBCDROM unit 0
449392 bytes free memory
0 bytes expanded memory
13388 bytes CODE
2112 bytes static DATA
31212 bytes dynamic DATA
46976 bytes used

A:>_

AND THAT'S IT

I EVEN TRIED RESETTING MY BIOS/CMOS SETTINGS TO ITS ORIGINAL SETTINGS WITH USB SUPPORT ENABLED, BUT NO CHANGES HAVE BEEN MADE. MY PRIMARY MASTER HD STILL READS AUTO, AND WHEN MY COMPUTER BOOTS, MY BIOS READS MY HARD DRIVE AS FIXED DISK 0: FUJITSU MHC2040AT (WINDOWS XP CANT EVEN FIX IT).

AS YOU CAN SEE, I AM IN NEED OF MAJOR PC HARDWARE HELP. I AM VERY, VERY NOVICE AT USING DOS, SO IF YOU HELP ME, WE WILL HAVE TO START EXACTLY FROM THE TOP. THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR ALL OF YOUR REPLIES.

 

[dai]

set the bios to boot from cd first
pop in the xp cd
reboot
choose install
windows will offer to format the drive for you.
to use a 98 bootdisk to load the cd drivers use the command line
A:/format c: /s
p.s.
turn your caps off when you post

 

[DOSnovice]

Hi dai,

Below are the DOS error messages I receive when following your instructions:

1.) NTLDR is missing
PRESS Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart
(I received this message when my BIOS is set to boot from 'Atapi CDROM'. Keep in mind I have a USB CDRW Drive.)

Format not supported on drive C:
Format terminated.
(I received this message using command line A:/format c: /s using my windows 98 boot disk)

What is NTLDR? I received this error many times.

 

[TeknoSiS]

NTLDR is the "NT Boot Loader" Why it isn't 'NTBLDR' I don't know.

It happens when you've deleted the file that contains the information used by the boot loader. I believe in the NT/2k/XP root directory there is a file named NTLDR, and boot.ini. These files use each other, and allow you to have multiple OSses.

You're going to have to reformat completely in NTFS for Windows XP. Get a copy of FDISK, or use the XP CD to format the drive for you.

 

[dai]

if you are trying to install xp,use the xp disk and let it format for you.
xp does not support dos as we used to know it.
i have no knowledge of usb cd drives.
make sure usb is enabled in the bios is the best i can come up with.
usb cd in the boot sequence could come under scsi

 

[dai]

i just noticed it is a laptop when rereading your inicial post does it have a restore disk or partition

 

[DOSnovice]

I recently purchased this laptop on eBay with Windows 98 already installed on it (software not included). I just want to reinstall Windows, whether it be 98 or XP.

 

[dai]

you need some one who knows about laptops to come online
pm rollinrog and ask him to have a look at the problem

 

[DOSnovice]

okay dai. i'll do just that. thanks for the advice. Technosis and you have been a great help

 

[DOSnovice]

Okay, here's where I'm at now. With TeknoSis's advice, I was able to reformat my hard drive back to a FAT32 file system using FDISK. However, I'm still having trouble installing Windows 98 because it will not detect my USB CDRW drive, and when I try to install XP, it will not give me the option to reformat in NFTS, neither will XP detect my USB CDRW drive. When I get to the Windows XP installation screen it gives me the following three options:

1. To continue Windows XP installation, press Enter.
2. To access Recovery Console, press R
3. To exit setup, press F3

When I first tried to install XP, I chose option 1 to continue installation, and it took me to the screen to choose NFTS file system. Now when I choose option 1, all i get is 'setup cannot detect a CD-ROM Drive' press F3 to restart computer. Any further assistance will be appreciated.

 

[dai]

i'm not sure if 98 supported usb
when win xp is installing when it is getting prepared to setup it asks if you want to install any third party drivers,have you tried installing your usb rom drivers at this point

 

[DOSnovice]

Just repeated XP Home installation, and was able to reformat to NFTS file system. After format is complete, I get an error like this:

Windows XP Home Edition Setup
__________________________

The following value in the .SIF file used by Setup is corrupted or missing:

Value 0 on the line in section [SourceDisksFiles] with key "SP1.cab."

Setup cannot continue. To quit Setup, press F3.

Any thoughts on this error message.

 

[DOSnovice]

Dai,

I was able to get XP to recognize USB CDRW running the setup again. Thanx

 

[dai]

it looks like it is looking for cab files for sp1