how do I make my laptop recognize the CDROM in DOS mode?

[CivilRightsLawyer]

i am trying to install win98 onto my laptop. however, there is only one drive bay, and i can use only the FLOPPY DRIVE or CDROM at any one time. i cannot use both simultaneously. big problem.

Presently, I have formatted the C drive and I am able to boot into the C drive. nothing exists in the C drive except command.com

How do I get my CDROM to be recognized in DOS mode so I can install a new O/S onto it?

The likely scenario is that I put the floppy drive into the laptop bay. boot into C. copy my CDROM-IN-DOS drivers from floppy to the C drive. shutdown the laptop. swap out the floppy and put in the CDROM. boot into C, and then RUN the CDROM-IN-DOS drivers.

but can someone tell me what precise files I need to make the CDROM drive be recognized in dos mode?

 

[jfunk]

You need your CD-ROM driver and MCSCDEX.EXE

You need to add the following line to your CONFIG.SYS:

device=c:\CDROM.SYS /d:cd01
*-"cdrom.sys" being your cdrom driver / "cd01" being a made up name for your device, anything will work


Then add this to your autoexec.bat:

c:\mscdex.exe /d:cd01
*-"cd01" matching whatever you called it in config.sys


If you don't have a DOS cd driver, try this one from USDRIVES called ATAPI.SYS, works on most IDE drives I've tried:


j

USDrives DOS CD-ROM Driver

 

[CivilRightsLawyer]

thanks!

 

[DaiShan]

man AT'ers never cease to amaze me, it would have taken me hours to figure out how to fix that and jfunk comes up with the solution in 13 min lol