[rodeogirl]

Hi I have a dell lattiuted cpi with swappable drives. I formatted the hard drive to put windows 2000 on it, but it will not see cd drive. I made a bootdisk(98se) and booted it without cdrom support and tried to load something called cdromsetup and mscdex.exe and everytime i do, it says please insert disk setupa: or setupb: What in the world did I do? I know that I need the cdrom driver loaded but How?
Thanks for any help.

 

[Wet Chicken]

Can't you download the CD drivers from their web site

 

[rodeogirl]

Well I have looked there and no luck, it is not as simple as that anyway. I need to know how to load a driver without cdrom support. I have tried booting with 98se bootdisk and entering cdsetup, it doesn't see the driver that someone told me to use.
I need someone to tell me what drivers to use and what to type at a: prompt. so far what I have been told to do is not working.
WARNING: Do not ever format a laptop with swappable drives without knowing how or having the neccessary files on floppy disks, you lose all drivers when you do this.
Little late for me, but maybe I can stop someone else from making that mistake.

 

[A Hawk]

Try formatting again with the 2000 cd.You might have to change the first boot device to cd in bios first.Then reboot with the 2000 cd in the cdrom. If that don't work try doing fdisk and then format with the 98 boot disk then when it asks you if you want startup with cd rom support click yes and it should boot from the 2000 cd.

 

[rodeogirl]

Hi A Hawk, I can't use the cd rom at all. When I formatted the hard drive it lost the drivers for the cd rom. I have to load these drivers and know how to do that in the A: prompt only. Let me say what I have done so far. I made a 98SE boot disk and put mscdex.exe file and cdsetup.exe. When I boot up, I select startup without cd support(since I dont have any) and in the A: promt, I type cdsetup and it is suppose to load those drivers but it doesn't. It gives me a message like Insert disk in setup A: or setupB:and put in that disk. I even tried to put those two files on a seperate disk and insert it in when told to do, but that doesn't work either. I never heard of B: prompt. I just do not know what to do.

 

[dai]

when you format with the 98 bootdisk add /s on the end

 

[brykMantra]

Hi Rodeo, I had the exact same problem last summer with a used IBM thinkpad. After going through all the runaround of everybody's suggestions (from CNet, not here), I finally went to a local hole-in-the-wall computer repair place and paid them $10 to load CD drivers on using an external floppy drive -- only because I couldn't find anybody with an external floppy I could borrow.

It's not the best solution, I know, but it may save you days of frustration.

 

[brykMantra]

Okay, wait a second, I just re-read your posts and it looks like my problem WASN'T the same! But in the same neighborhood, so here goes:

You've got a floppy drive, right? And the CD drivers (MSCDEX.EXE, etc.) on a floppy disk, right? So all you need to do is to know how to copy them in DOS?

If that's the case:

(Assuming that those are the correct drivers) at the C: prompt type:

copy a:mscdex.exe c:\windows\dos
copy a:cdsetup.exe c:\windows\dos

(Um ... folks? Is that the right directory to copy them to? I'm a little rusty on my DOS ...)

Also, you need to put a reference to these files into AUTOEXEC.BAT, too, I think ... but I forget exactly what that reference would be, too ... um, li'l help, folks?

<sarcasm>LOL, I'm really making a good impression on my first day here!</sarcasm>

But serious: If I understand your question right, Rodeo, that might be pointing you in the right direction ... maybe ... And maybe somebody else who's not as scattered as I am at the moment can point you the rest of the way?

 

[rodeogirl]

I will give that a try.
copy a:mscdex.exe c:\windows\dos
copy a:cdsetup.exe c:\windows\dos
sounds like that would copy them to the c drive that way.
Thanks for the advice. I will let yall know if that works in a couple of hours, still at work right now. This laptop had windows me on it and was trying to load win 2000, but it will not work on this old of a laptop. I should of left things well enough alone, but I fireworks and flash programs will not work with windows me, as a lot of programs are not accepting win me.

 

[rodeogirl]

Well that is not working either.
I don't know what to do. someone please help me.............................

 

[mobo]

try having the cdrom in the drive and reboot with the C key pressed and hold to see if the drive begins to load the cdrom..

 

[brykMantra]

Remember, Rodeo, I said that there needed to be a reference to the driver in AUTOEXEC.BAT -- did you add a line to that batch file? If not, that may be why it's not working.

Also: Now that I'm home, I'm checking my own laptop, and I'm finding that MSCDEX.EXE is also in two other directories:

C:\MTM (that's probably specific to my computer's CD drive); and
C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND

While we're at it, just for fun, also copy it to:

C:\

and

C:\windows

Now try running CDSETUP.

You said that you tried running it before and it couldn't find the driver (MSCDEX), so maybe now it can, and maybe it'll add that pesky line to AUTOEXEC.BAT for you ... (and me!)

Or MAYBE one of the helpful folks out there can tell us what that autoexec line should be (and one for CONFIG.SYS too, now that I think about it), since I'm drawing a blank ...

(Sorry, I told you I was rusty! I've been using XP for over a year now ... )

 

[rodeogirl]

well the c doesn't work. I thought why don't I try the c: prompt like this
c: copy autoexec.bat and it said copied 1 file
then tried c:cdsetup.exe and that copied as well
but still not seeing cd rom
any more suggestions

 

[brykMantra]

Okay, assuming that's not what you're saying: Go to C: prompt and type CDSETUP, hit the enter key and see what happens -- assuming you copied MSCDEX.EXE to those places I suggested. (Um ... you didn't need to copy AUTOEXEC.BAT, but I don't think it should hurt ...)

Then reboot and see if the CD-ROM drive shows up. (Hint: At DOS prompt type D: -- put a CD in it first -- and see it if fails to give you an error ...)

 

[kilowatt1]

Hello rodeogirl,

Here's how I do it:

Note: These instructions will work only with a Windows 98 or Windows Me startup disk. Also, this process will only work if the laptop computer has only one hard disk or partition. If your laptop has multiple partitions, you will need to remove them before proceeding with the instructions below.

To do a clean install, follow these directions:

Start your computer with the floppy disk drive in place, and with the startup disk in the drive. When asked if you want to start with CD-ROM support, select Start the computer WITHOUT CD-ROM support.

You will eventually see the following prompt:
A:\>
(Above that, you should see a line reading "The diagnostic tools were successfully loaded to drive X:". Throughout these instructions, replace X: with the drive letter specified by this line.)

At the A:\> prompt, type:
format c: /s [press enter]
This command will take a moment to complete, and at the end it will ask you to specify a disk label. Enter an 11-character name or simply press Enter.

Once you are back at the A:\ prompt, type:
copy oakcd*.sys c: [press enter]
When the A:\ prompt appears again, type:
X: [enter] (Make sure that you type in the letter specified in the ......successfully loaded to drive X: line)
You should now see an X:\ (or whatever) prompt. type:
copy mscdex.exe c: [enter]
Type edit [enter]. This will open the text editor in DOS. Type the following line:
c:\mscdex /d:mscd001
Press Alt-f and select Save As... . Name this file c:\autoexec.bat .

Press Alt-f again, and select New.

Type the following line:
DEVICE = C:\oakcdrom.sys /d:mscd001
Press Alt-f and select Save As... . Name this file c:\config.sys .

Turn off the laptop, insert the CD-ROM drive, and restart. The computer will come back up with the A:\ (or possibly C:\ ) prompt as before. Now, type D: and press enter.

Put the Windows CD in the CD-ROM drive, at the D:\> prompt, type setup then press enter. This should start Windows Setup.

Hope it works for you.

Kilowatt

 

[dogbonz]

The win98 startup disk should load the CD-Rom drivers by itself.

After that loads, use the Win2000 CD to install the OS.

Should be no prob.

-Dogbonz

 

[rodeogirl]

well killowatt1 i got as far as enter x: but it says invalid drive, now what?

 

[kilowatt1]

Hello again rodeogirl,

I have edited the instructions in my prior post to make it a little less confusing. Please try it again and let me know any errors you recieve. I will be on and off the forum at various times today.

Thanks,

Kilowatt

 

[rodeogirl]

Ok I am so stressed, I didn't realize what you meant by x:, I will try this stuff out tonight. I will post back this evening.

 

[kilowatt1]

I kind of thought that was what was happening.

Take care.

Kilowatt