Weird Experience on Clean Install using Win98 SE.

[beyonddc]

Here is my system spec:
AMD 300 mhz
160 RAM
Voodoo 3
Quantum 6 GIG
Western Digital 18 GIG

Primary Master is Quantum 6 GIG
Primary Slave is WD 18 GIG
Secondary Master is CD-ROM

Last night, I was installing Win98 SE from bootable 98 CD-ROM. It booted into Win98 setup, but after that, it kept on asking me to insert the cd-rom. There is a cd-rom inside, but somehow it seems like it can't detects it.

My fix was to disable my WD 18 GIG in BIOS, after that, the installation ran smoothly. After everything is setup, and I got into the Windows. When I went to the System Performance Screen, it said that A: is in all dos mode. I can't remember what is the exact line. I thought that it might be because I haven't enable my secondary HD yet, so I booted into BIOS and enable it. Now it works all fine.

My question is how come during my installation, the system kept on asking me to insert Win98 CD when I already have one there? How does that relates with my secondary harddrive, because I disabled it and it worked afterward.

My thought was Win98 is not smart enough to find the cd-rom, because it assumes that it must be the D drive. However, the D drive was taken by the secondary harddrive. I am looking for comments on this, thank you.

 

[EmMayEx]

I've installed Win98 SE from CD with two HDDs before and not had a problem so it's possible that in this case the fault does not lay with Microsoft (much as it pains me to acknowledge this ). Or it could be that the default IDE drivers don't play nice with your motherboard or BIOS.

Given the vintage of your machine (AMD 300 MHz) it's possible that the motherboard bios for the IDE interface is less than up to date and has a glitch or two that keeps you from installing the way you want to. You might check for a BIOS update. If you use VIA drivers it's possible that the default drivers Win98SE uses.

As for A: drive operating in DOS compatibility mode, again this sounds like either a BIOS issue or a motherboard driver issue. I'd check for BIOS updates and go to the motherboard manufacturers web site and see if there are updates for the motherboards onboard I/O system (IDE, USB, AGP, Sound etc. ). You should have a flashable BIOS and VIA is the most common chipset so there is a good chance you can update things.

Hope this helps,
Max L.