Need help - can't detect CD when booting to install Windows

[Grimas3]

I in need of some serious help. I had Win ME installed and started screwing with the "Restore" features. When I rebooted, I couldn't get out of the "Safe mode". I decided to start over and I formatted my C: drive. Now when I reboot, I can't get to my CD drive to reinstall Win. My system detects my hard drive as the "primary IDE master" and the CD as the "primary IDE slave". With a boot disk in, it only detects my C: drive, I can't get to the CD rive to reinstall Win. Any suggestions? If I can get to my CD I should be able to reinstall Windows but I can't get there...

My system:
Abit BH6 (latest SS bios)
Celeron 566 (not O/Ced)
evga geforce MX
Toshiba CD
Yamaha 8x4x24 R/RW CD

I'm pulling my hair out...

Thanks!

Grimas

 

[Grimas3]

Forgot to add - I've got 128mb RAM and pulled ut my 2nd video card, sound card, SCSI card and network card.

 

[jblondi]

Did you check the bios to make sure that the CD rom is a boot device? I would use a boot disk if you have one. Usually they change the CD rom drive to drive E: because the temp drive is created on D:. Hope this helps

 

[jmorrell]

You must load DOS drivers for your CDROM to be recognized prior to installing Windows. If you didn't make a boot disk in ME, see if you can borrow a boot disk from someone with original Windows 98 or Windows 98 SE. These boot disks include CDROM drivers. If not, search the web for "Windows 98 ME boot disk" and you should find some sites that have downloads to create a good boot disk for ME.

Good Luck.

 

[KGB]

Blondi is right.

Set your CD as 1st boot device and WinME will start to setup at boot.
You do not need DOS drivers to get the CD running.

If you are having troubles with your disk, try booting with a Win98 setup disk and copy the WinME directory to your HD and run setup from there.

 

[ktwebb]

Everyone is right to a degree. There are still computers out there that wont boot to the CDROM but any contemporary, or relatively new computer should have that option in the BIOS. If yours does not, it is either an old PC or a really cheap Mobo. If yours does not, then do as suggested and make a startup disk from a 9X or ME machine. It will have generic CDROM DOS drivers on it that should work for ya. www.bootdisk.com is another option if you dont have access to a machine that you can make a startup disk from, like an NT box. What OS are you typing your post from?

 

[grimas]

(Changed Author as I've changed machines)

I've got Abit BH6 with the 440 BX chipset. My WinME disk is at the office so I was trying to reload both/either 95 or 98 that I had at the house.

In the Bios, I set the "Boot Sequence" to load the CD first (then C and A). The Bios sees my hard drive and CD player as my primary as master on the Primary IDE as it boots.

I then get the following:

Verifying DMI Pool Data

Boot from ATAPI CD-ROM: Failure

Invalid system disk
Replace disk and hit any key...


I've also tried downloading a generic boot disk from www.bootdisk.com (and setting the BIOS to see the A: first). I get the same message as above without the "Boot from ATAPI..." line. I can get to the C, D and E drive from DOS when I can get into it (C,D and E being partitions on the same hard drive) just not the CD.

Here's another thing I've tried: I noticed that my hard drive was partitioned (C,D, and E) so I modified the config.sys and autoexec.bat to point to the MSCDEX.sys as the "F" drive (figuring the comp. was having problems with a hard drive named D and the CD tring to be named D) Still same messages. Damn computer was screaming along until I tried to disable the "restore" functions in WinME (following a guide at www.tweak3d.com)

Any other suggestions?

 

[BobsBigBoy]

If you can get into DOS, use fdisk to repartition the hd so the D: slot is free. If you can't get into DOS with a boot disk, make sure you created your boot disk with a freshly formatted floppy (full high and low level format.) You also might try putting the CD-ROM on the secondary IDE channel.

-- BBB

 

[Grimas3]

Thanks for all the advice. I downloaded a different boot disk (Micron's) from www.bootdisk.com and finally got it to work.

Grimas