Invalid Drive Specification!

[saqi2000]

I have formatted hard drive of my pc and I try to boot it up from windows 98 cd rom but it does not recognise cd rom at all. When I try to access d drive error message is displayed Invalid Drive Specification!

Can anyone tell me how can I bootup with the cd rom please. The manufacturer has gon bust the one I bought the pc from and also I don't cd drivers.

Did try another startup disk but does not work because it has different cd rom drivers.

Your help will be appreciated.

Saqi Knowledge is something no one can steal from you and it increase as time goes by. Saqi

 

[wolluf]

To boot from CD Rom you need to change the bios settings - so CD is first boot device. To do this you need to access said settings. You may get an instruction on screen when PC is booting up telling you which key to press to do this (eg Del key). There are many other alternatives eg

http://www.bootdisk.com/txtfiles/zbios1.txt.

If no joy with this, go to

http://www.bootdisk.com/original.htm

and download a win98 boot disk. This will have drivers for most CD roms. Create boot disk from download and boot PC with it - with CD support (win98 CD in drive). You should now be able to start the install process (x:\setup, where x: is CD drive).

 

[saqi2000]

Wolluf,

thanks for your reply but it did not work. I have tried both options:

set cd rom as 1st boot device and second downloaded that startup disk but still can't get the cd rom to work. The following errors came up when i tried to bootup with that stsrtup disk:

Searching for boot record ok
MicroSoft Windows 98 Startup Menu


1) Start with CD ROM Support
2) Start without CD ROM Support
3) View help file

Device Name MSCD001

No Drivers found, aborting installation.

Preparing to start your computer

This may take few minutes please wait

The diagnostics tools were successfully loaded to drive D.

Device driver not found: 'MSCD001'.
No valid cdrom device drivers selected

To get help, type help and press enter Knowledge is something no one can steal from you and it increase as time goes by. Saqi

 

[Marcs41]

Download the (DOS) drivers for your CD-Drive and add them to the bootfloppy.
Surely the CD drive's brand is still on the net The solution is out there.

 

[wolluf]

Is the CD Rom drive definitely working? (and/or connected properly inside the case) - if it won't boot from CD and the win98 boot disk is finding no CD, I'd begin to suspect the drive.

(I'd still try Marc's suggestion though)

 

[saqi2000]

It was working before I formatted the hard drive as I inserted a diosk and it launched it automatically. The drive is Pioneer DVD 303S. If anyone got the drivers or can put me in the right direction.

I have been searching on the net but no luck but I will keep trying.

Thanks

Saqi Knowledge is something no one can steal from you and it increase as time goes by. Saqi

 

[Marcs41]

Hold on a minute . that is a SCSI drive ???
The solution is out there.

 

[Marcs41]

Number 8 on this page, a SCSI driver for DOS, i think, cannot test that myself.

http://www.cc-solutions.com/drivers.html

The solution is out there.

 

[wolluf]

Marc,

same file as on the pioneer site - so should be ok.

 

[wolluf]

saqi2000 - you'll need to change config.sys/autoexec.bat on your boot floppy to reference the proper driver (which should also be on the floppy, instead of the generic one(s), if you need the space on floppy). There's a text file manual_e.txt in that download which will tell you what entries need to be in autoexec.bat and config.sys.