Equipment: PC clone; CD-ROM is LTN382 WL2A 40 max. Ran Windows 98 before I had to format the C drive. I had to wipe my C drive as it crashed in the middle of loading Windows. The drive had a lot of garbage on it which I wanted to get rid of in any case. Could not make a start up disk. Before formatting it I saved the CD-ROM driver, something called Cybide.sys, the command.com, config.sys and mscdex.exe files. I have a Windows 98 start up disk but made up on another computer. I formatted the disk with the /s command so that the system files were transferred, then placed the above mentioned files back on the C drive. After that I booted up with the Win98 start-up disk in drive A. All went well; it booted up with the BIOS settings, then loaded a virtual D drive and warned me that the drive letters may have shifted down a letter. The computer did load the CD-ROM driver. It said so on the screen. It gave the device name as CD003. The E> prompt was successful, but trying to do a list direcory it came back with the message: "CDR101: Not ready reading drive E" The Windows 98 start-up disk loads a device with a name MSCDR01. I tried to change the lines in the config.sys to that device name and tried to initiate with that device name, but that created an error message as being an illegal command. I cannot find an updated driver (if there is any) for the CD-ROM drive at the Web site for LITE ON which manufactures the CD-ROM. In fact, it must be an old drive as it does not even list the model any more. But it worked before and it should be able to work again. Any help on how I can get this computer to recognize the CD-ROM would be most appreciated. If it does that I can re-install Windows 98 fom the CD. Hugo

It sounds like you booted from the floppy. You seem to have done everything right and should be able to boot from the hard drive. Have you tried that?

You can do a search for cdromgod 5.5 and see if one of their drivers work, but usually the oak driver that Win98 uses will work for most cdroms. Why don't you try a format without installing the system files see if that will work. Perhaps your botched setupleft corrupted files on the disk.

First of all the 98 boot disk sets up a ram drive and loads the cdrom driver on that. Secondly, If for example you have two partitions on your hard drive C and D respectively, obviously your cdrom is going to be set up as E. In your config.sys file, add this line: LASTDRIVE=F, and reboot. Always add one extra drive letter than you actually have.

Sorry for the late reply. I was the person who originated the question to which you all replied with very good advice. It turned out that the CD drive was faulty. I bought a used replacement and all worked fine after that. I like to thank you all very much for your advice. This Web site is excellent and I have bookmarked it if I need any help in the future which is bound to happen at some point in time. Thanks again, Hugo