Okay. I still haven't fixed my damn CD-ROM. I have formatted the hard drive for FAT32 and intend on installing win98se on it. But the cd-rom WILL NOT DETECT. i've tried the regular win98se boot disk, start with cd-rom support, cannot read drive E abort retry fail (c is the hard drive, d is the RAM memory drive thing windows uses and it pushes the drive letter back to E). tried many very specific drivers for this thing and it wont work. the cd-rom is a torisan model cdr-u200-z 20x max. its a bit finicky but will read cds. i dont know what else to do. PLEASE HELP

also sorry the computer i'm using is a dell insprion 3200 laptop.

try to install cd rom driver, from floppy and restart the system, after formating transfer system files to your hard disk and boot from your hard disk, and install cdrom driver from floppy and restart it will detect the cdrom as well as you can access. try and revert back to me bye dildar

what are the dos commands to do that? i never used DOS a whole lot and only know the simplist of commands.

what are the dos commands to do that? i never used DOS a whole lot and only know the simplist of commands.

http://www.computing.net/howto/advanced/laptopinstall/ Or, (Ref.; http://www.computing.net/windows95/wwwboard/forum/104436.html) Name: Krystyna Date: February 23, 2002 at 04:00:22 Pacific Subject: laptop boot paradox Reply: CDROM Drivers on Laptop with swappable CDROM / Floppy 1. Make the hard drive bootable by using FORMAT C: /S or SYS C: 2. Copy these four files to the C: drive a. mscdex.exe b. cdrom.sys ( which is your own specific cdrom driver ) c. autoexec.bat d. config.sys 3. AUTOEXEC.BAT needs only this line C:\MSCDEX.exe /D:MSCD001 4. CONFIG.SYS needs only this line DEVICE=C:\CDROM.SYS /D:MSCD001 5. Mscdex.exe is on the Win 95 boot disk 6. Autoexec.bat and Config.sys can be edited using Notepad 7. Change the config.sys to show your own cdrom driver. Drivers that might work are ATAPICD.SYS or VIDE-CDD.SYS You will need to download a driver if you don't have one handy 8. Once the files are on the hard drive, you can boot with the cdrom in place and the drivers will be accessed from the hard drive. Your cdrom will be D: drive ============================================= EXAMPLES; copy a:\config.sys c:\ copy a:\autoexec.bat c:\ copy a:\mscdex.exe c:\ copy a:\cddriver.sys c:\ then, edit c:\config.sys delete all unnecessary lines, make the path changes then, ALT F X and ENTER same with autoexec.bat; edit c:\autoexec.bat make the path changes etc. then, ALT F X and ENTER

Liz, this may be a bit old school but it works .. if it doesn't and you have the right driver and recieve a cdr101 error accessing the drive, try a different cdrom drive, it may indicate your cdrom drive is bad .. anyway ... first determine the manufacturer of your cdrom drive, make and model ID. Then go to that manufacturers web site (from the public library if ya don't have other access to the web) and download the (real mode or MSDOS cdrom driver to a floppy disk. It will be named (something).sys Also, create a win98 boot disk while your there on another floppy disk. (control panel\add remove programs\windows setup\create boot disk)or something like that. When done make sure the sys.com and emm386.exe files are on the boot disk, if not coppy them over to the floppy disk from c:\windows\command directory (on the library or borrowed computer) Now access the floppy disk from windows and right click on autoexec.bat and select edit. once open delete everything in here and then type in c:\mscdex.exe /d:mscd001 smartdrv Close it and select to save changes. Next open your config.sys file on the floppy disk by right clicking the file and select open with, a window will open (slight delay) First, make sure and remove the check from "always open with" at bottom left, then scroll down and select notepad from the list and then okay. Once opened edit the file by deleting anything present and then enter these commands, DEVICE=himem.sys DEVICE-emm386.exe Dos-umb Files-40 buffers=30 DEVICEHIGH=(your drivers filename.sys) /d:mscd001 lastdrive=f again close it and save changes. Now Boot to the boot disk on your system and at the A:\ prompt type format c: /Q to reformat due to everything you have tried thus far to clean the drive, this will do a quick format. When completed hit enter for no drv label. Then type sys a: c: to make the hard drive bootable on its own. Then type (from A: prompt) copy autoexec.bat c: and hit enter, repeat for config.sys, mscdex.exe, emm386.exe and himem.sys. Next put the floppy disk with the cdrom driver in that you downloaded and do the same for the file on that disk .. copy filename.sys c: and hit enter. Now remove the disk and reboot your computer (no disk in floppy drive now) it will now boot to your hard drive. You should be able to access your cdrom drive now, from a c:\ prompt type e: and enter .. let me know if this works for ya. Also, make sure you cdrom drive is active in your bios as well. email me at fugaroo@hotmail.com if ya need more help ron