Can't get Windows 98 machine booted - Please help

[djpritchard]

Have a 200 MHz Pentium with Windows 98 installed. Computer has been working fine, but all of a sudden today, it won't reboot. The Windows 98 window comes up and the HDD light flickers as usualy. The screen flashes briefly, and then the HDD light stops, and the Windows 98 screen just sits there.

I have a copy of Windows 98 SE, but can not get my CD-ROM recognized. It was rem'd out in the Autoexec.bat and the Config.sys, with a comment that it was rem'd out due to issues with 98, and only being needed for DOS operation of the CD-ROM.

How can I get the CD-ROM set up so I can install Windows 98 SE. That is, of course, there is some other solution that will get me running Windows 98 again.

Thanks,

Dave

 

[jsjerb]

You need to bootup from a Windows 98 startup floppy disk. With the startup disk you can boot and gain support for your CD-ROM which will allow you to run SETUP from your Windows 98 CD-ROM. During the re-install process you will have the oppoetunity to create a new startup disk.

Regards,

Doc

 

[djpritchard]

Doc - how do I get the start-up disk for Windows 98 - I just have the CD. Can I create a start-up disk on another machine? My other machine has Windows XP on it.

Thanks,

Dave

 

[jsjerb]

Dave:

A Windows98 Startup Disk must be created with Windows 98. I can e-mail you the the startup disk content with instructions if you desire. When you boot your system with this disk your CD will be drive e: and setup.exe will be in the root directory. Running setup.exe from the CD will re-install Windows 98 SE.

Doc

 

[djpritchard]

Hi Doc - I was able to creat a Startup Disk from the DOS prompt - found how to do it on the Microsoft site. I got that done, and can boot off the Floppy, but still can't access the CD-ROM.

The drive is the E: drive, but when I try to do a "dir" on the CD-ROM, I get an error - "CDR101: Not ready reading drive E:"

Is this a problem with my CD-ROM driver? HOw can I see what Windows 98 was loading as a driver fot the CD-ROM? If so, how can I load the same driver that Windows is loading. It looks like the only way to get back running is by loading up Windows 98 SE.

Thanks,

Dave

 

[jsjerb]

Dave:

What you did won't work because just making a DOS bootable disk does not have the necessary files to add drivers for the CD-ROM during bootup. You need the Windows 98 Startup Floppy. I can e-mail it to you in ".zip" file format. Once extracted directly to floppy disk, this floppy disk can be used to boot your Windows 98 system and will install drivers for your floppy which will be drive e: after bootup.
Give me an emial address and I'll send you the file right away.

Doc

 

[djpritchard]

Hi Doc - my e-mail address is: djpritchard@juno.com

Thanks a bunch,

Dave

 

[edfair]

Or download one from bootdisk.com Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
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