I formatted the hard drive on an ibm thinkpad 760xl and want to install win 98. The problem is that bios cannot be setup to boot from cd. The floppy drive and the cd drive are swappable and I tried booting from the floppy and then swapping to the cd, but that didn't work. Thanks everybody!

You should be able to go to www.bootdisk.com download a win98 bootdisk.

Boot with cd rom support.

Insert the cdrom drive

Insert the Win98 CD

Choose the correct CDrom drive letter D: ect..

Then type> setup

I forgot the file you download from bootdisk.com creates a bootable floppy,you don't just copy it to a diskette.It is used to create the bootable win98 floppy.

With a floppy/cdr swappable set up you have to modify the setup squence. First you need a bootable floppy. Then you have to transfer the start with CD support to the hard drive. Then with the CD drive installed you can boot from the hard drive and install from the CD. I think this is all explained in the howto's in the left column.

Street1

I think this line "I tried booting from the floppy" rather implies the poster already has one. No harm trying another one I suppose, but I think #3 is on the right track.

DerekW

thanks everybody! I will try wizard-fred's option, but how do I transfer files to the hard drive after I boot from floppy?

I've posted one way to do this at:

http://www.computing.net/windows2000/wwwboard/forum/41453.html

and included a reference to Krystyna's variation too; Krystyna's routine is also available at:

http://miataru.computing.net/dos/wwwboard/forum/9414.html

Mesich (mesich.com) also has a copy of Krystyna's method on his web-site... but just now that site appears to be down???

Down for a while now - those instructions (and files) were quite handy for the ever popular swappable drive 'issue'

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mmm - pity about Mesich; he and the Count are are a useful pair/resource when it comes to '98 etc...

Try:

http://83.67.55.228/swapable.htm

One variaton/addition to all of the above routes:

Create a small (fat16) Primary; make it around 100-150Meg and active. Partition balance of drive as Extended; subdivide into at least two logical-drives. Make Primary bootable to dos and install cdrom drivers there.

Any OS is now installed into the first logical-drive...; second one is for data etc.

'9x/ME (system -files) will happpily go into the logical-drive; as will NT etc...; respective boot/start-up files etc. will reside in the small primary...

Benefit of this approach? It creates a small Primary which is there more or less permanently (unless one really careless/unlucky) which will allow a boot to dos and access to a CDROM - at any time... Should there be a future need to re-install the OS... one merely cleans out the logical-drive (if need-be) and re-installs the OS. One would still have access to the CDROM (via the standard drivers in the small active Primary) and thus access to the CD as usual is available - immediately - no need of bay swapping or a rerun of any of the above routines...

Data in separate logical-drive secures it from OS predations/problems... and can also be accessed via an appropriate dos prompt (6x if fat16, or 7x if fat32) from c: (or a '98 bootdisk).

Even if you install the OS on a logical drive, the boot record is still installed in the C primary drive. The only thing this does is confuses the install of some programs. Having multiple partitions and multi-OS's is nice but beyond the needs of the poster.

True regards the boot-record... The main advantage is that the CDROM drivers will "still" be there even if the OS goes belly-up, and thus a need to start afresh (with regard to the OS at least); there is thus an immediate ability to access the CDROM if need-be. Unless one is realy careless/unlucky the small dos primary will generally be safe and sound...

As regards the current poster, it may be beyond his/her needs, but might perhaps of value to others anon. Posts like this one frequently crop up; frequently are divined by a google trawl too from "out there".

Also whilst it can be extended to multi-OS installations, I deliberately left that out of the above suggestion/addendum...

It still best to keep a good copy for a boot floppy and the required drivers. Having the CD drivers on an extended partition still requires a boot floppy.

The cdrom drivers will be on the Primary partition at all times... Thus they are avaialable from a dos prompt/boot... But wise nonethelss to have a floppy set around regardless...