I am trying to change from Win95 to Win98. I made a startup floppy, copied all the drivers to floppies and then run fdisk on the harddrive. (no partitions)
Starting from the startup floppy the CD drive runs for a second but quits and the computer does not recognize it. I don't know what the drive letter may be but assume D: or E:
Now I can't install Win98 from the CD. I'm stuck, someone please enlighten me.
By the way ITS A COMPAQ

Humm its a Compaq that explains it.Is the CD a upgrade or a full version?Also you need to format the drive before you install Windows.Put floppy back in and when it gets to the startup menue choose start computer Without CD-Rom support.Then at the a:/ type
format c:/s that should do it.I may have it mixed up if it don't work that way choose with CD rom support i don't think it really matters though.

Yikes a compaq of that vintage! If you don't have compaq dos and compaq windows you will never get a truely functioning machine. You can not just drop MS dos and windows on the box. I know from extensive experience from way back when and that's why I don't do compuc.

Your 98 startup disk won't have the correct drivers for the cdrom. Maybe someone out there can mail you a cdburn of the compaq cd disk and their utility disk [startup disk]

Best of luck bud!

Go to www.bootdisk.com and download a Win98 Startup disk available through bootdisk.com The bootdisk offered through their site come with CD drivers and may load the drivers you need for that drive. If it does, then it will also let you know which drive letter was designated as your CD Drive letter.

Please let me know how it goes.

Good Luck !

JLuna

Thank you Christopher: I did do the format but don't get to the point to choose with or without CD rom support.
Thank you Wanderer: That's bad news
Thank you Jluna: I will try www.bootdisk later.
Note: before I fdisked I had a program find all the drivers (about 77 files) and saved them on floppy. Are they of any use and how do I make use of them if they are.

You have a little bigger problem than you think.
Compaq has the bios on a hidden partition on the
hard drive. You will have to go to Compaq web
page and download a utility to partition the
hard drive and reinstall the bios. Otherwise,
you will never get it going.

The bios is not on the hard drive it is still stored on the cmos chip. Compaq does put a utility on the hard drive that allows you to access the bios setup using F10.

By Partitioning and Formatting the hard drive you should still be able to access the bios.

I would do as JLuna stated and go to bootdisk.com. Here is a link to the one I have used many times in the past with good luck.

Win98 Bootdisk

Download the Win98 OEM to the computer.
Selected the download and you will be prompted to insert a floppy. It will then extract the files making a bootdisk with Cdrom support.

This will give you the option to start with or without cdrom support.

If it still does not recognize your cdrom that can be overcome also by downloading the real-mode drivers for it and editing the autoexec.bat and config.sys files.

First try the new bootdisk and post back.

Good Day!
Mesich

Thank you for your interest Messich
Starting computer with downloaded win98OEM as suggested.
"Start with CDRom support"
It installs a CD-Rom driver.
computer works all kinds of things and refers to a virtual disk D but all too fast to absorb. Ends with
DEVICE DRIVER NOT FOUND 'MSCD001'
No valid CD-ROM device drivers selected.
Help says "if your drive does not function you must use the driver that came with the drive. Since I copied all drivers to floppies before I started I assume I have that driver. I just don't recognize the name and woudn't know what to do if I did.

What is the compaq model number of the computer. I.E. Presario 4502

Mesich

MY OLD COMPAQ IS RUNNING WINDOWS 98!!
Thanks to everyone's help and interst, but especially Mesich who steered me in the right direction.
I changed in Dos to drive E: and found that it would read despite the negative messages.
From then it was easy to setup and install Win 98. Thanks again.
Mesich, I find your website extremely helpful also. Good advise and great links.

You are welcome Anc thanks for posting back.

Glad everything worked out for ya.
Happy Computing!

Good Day All!
Mesich