Installing W98 - cannot boot to floppy. 1

[amgg888]

Hey, I'm trying to install W98 on an old computer. I have a W98 Install boot disk but for some reason the computer won't boot to the floppy and I can't get it to do what I need from the command prompt.
I've tried downloading drivers for the cdrom so I can install it that way but they just dont work, even ones made for this drive.(Toshiba 8x XM-5602B)
Oh and I looked for a setting in the bios for booting to the floppy but I couldn't find anything. - amgv84

 

[butchrecon]

Read through your BIOS slowly and Carefully. Look for anything that that may look like it has to do with boot sequence. What type of BIOS is it? That can help us out a lot

 

[amgg888]

The boot sequence is set to: c,a,scsi And the Bios is version 1.0A (ROM PCI/ISA BIOS[2A5LDH09])
I've tried messing with the boot sequence (like putting a: before c but that didnt help.
I don't know a whole lot about this stuff so any help is good! - amgv84

 

[Shad007]

Change the boot sequence to A: C: SCSI...save the change and close down...open your case and check your floppy drive connections (power and fdd cable)..make sure when you boot your PC as it's finishing its post you get a light flare up on your A:..(if the light is constantly on your fdd cable is around the wrong way)...if the light flares up and it goes straight to C: boot-up then I would say your floppy disk is not a bootable one...also..try and get a bootdisk from win98SE as it has generic real-mode cd drivers...

 

[amgg888]

Ok, I tried that - when it boots the floppy light comes on for a sec and the drive makes noises like its reading and then the computer just sits there like its going to boot to the floppy but it doesn't. I checked the floppy wiring and it all looks fine. - amgv84

 

[Shad007]

Sounds like a faulty floppy drive...try another bootdisk just to be sure...if it does the same thing I would install another floppy drive..

 

[amgg888]

Thanks! The whole time the problem was the Boot Disk! I made a new boot disk and now its booting to the floppy.
Thats the fastest solution I've gotten on here yet. - amgv84

 

[amgg888]

Hey now that its booting to the floppy I have another problem: the cdrom drive.
When I boot to the W98 startup disk I choose "Start computer with CD-ROM support" it boots, makes a ramdrive and then I try to read the cdrom - it won't. It just says its not ready. Suggestions? - amgv84

 

[Shad007]

when the ram drive is created it "pushes" your existing cd-rom label forwards ie....C: is your hard drive, D: will be your ramdrive and you will have a new E: which will be your cdrom....try going one letter up to reach the cd...

 

[amgg888]

yea I did that and thats when it wouldn't read the drive. - amgv84

 

[Shad007]

I have had this problem before. Unfortunately it means the generic drivers supplied on the win98se bootdisk do not cover your particular cdrom drive. I would instead find a later model cd drive and slave it to your pc...much easier than downloading and configuring the toshiba specific cd drivers (this involves adding a .sys driver to your config.sys and running mscdex.exe with various switches on your autoexec.bat). If you do attempt this you will have to create a specific bootdisk instead of using the w98 one.

 

[amgg888]

Thanks! W98 is currently installing. I borrowed a cdrom and it worked right-away. - amgv84