Hello, Okay I am really stuck. I have an IBM Aptiva and I reformatted yesterday, that went fine. Now I am stuck in DOS because it tells me there is a "MSDC001" error and says that my cd-rom may not be connected correctly. I have tried everything, I was told I need the recovery disk for it load the drive again but I don't recall my computer coming with one. I do have to Aptiva CD's that came with the computer but if the computer won't read the CD-Rom drive what good are they. I have tried starting the computer with the windows 98 startup disk in the floppy drive and nothing, someone, please help!

The driver loaded via c:\config.sys has a device label (/D:)to identify the device to the system. Such as; (your paths/drivers/labels will differ but the structure is the same)

DEVICEhigh=e:\command\hit-dvd.SYS /D:dvdIDE01

The /D: is the switch naming the device. In your c:\autoexec.bat the device handler is loaded (mscdex.exe). This also has a device label to identify which device it's handling. The syntax is the same, and the labels inserted MUST match the one in config.sys. IE:
LH C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MSCDEX.EXE /D:dvdIDE01 /M:10

Most times the name most often used is MSCD001, but it can be any eight character name you desire. Mine is an IDE type DVD (in this particular system) so I named it (in BOTH files) dvdIDE01. Case does not matter.

Check both of your files for a difference in the label name.

Check your email...

I am having similiar problems wiv an old dell desktop pc. The machine did'nt come wiv a cdrom, so after getting a s/hand one, i installed it into the machine, along with an ide cable but i keep getting this message on bootup:

starting MS-DOS............
This driver is supported by Oak Technology, Inc..
etc,etc
Device Name : 'MSCD001'.
No Drives found, aborting installation

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

the config.sys is as follows:

LASTDRIVE=Z
FILES=30
BUFFERS=20,4
COUNTRY=044,437,C:\DOS\COUNTRY.SYS
DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS /TESTMEM:OFF
DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE /RAM
DEVICE=C:\DOS\SETVER.EXE
DOS=HIGH,UMB
DEVICEHIGH=C:\CDROM\OAKCDROM.SYS /D:MSCD001
SHELL=C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM /P /E:384

and the autoexec.bat is:

@ECHO OFF
PROMPT $P$G
SET TEMP=C:\TEMP
SET TMP=C:\TEMP
PATH C:\DOS;C:\WINDOWS;C:\MOUSE;
C:\DOS\KEYB.COM UK,437,C:\DOS\KEYBOARD.SYS
SET MOUSE=C:\MOUSE
C:\DOS\SMARTDRV.EXE /X
C:\MOUSE\MOUSE.EXE /Q
C:\CDROM\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD001

I have downloaded (with my other pc), an updated bios for the dell, but i do not know how to execute it from dos! It is an .exe program. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated as well.

Connie & stealthie,

It may be that both of your CDROM's are proprietary drives, ie; connects to a sound card or other small interface card.

If the data cable is 50 pin as opposed to 40 pin, they're scsi drives. Both of these types need entirely different drivers than IDE. This should be checked.

Another way to check to see if it's a proprietary drive is that there will not be a master/slave/etc jumper at the rear of the drive.