okay, so I formatted my lab PC

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its saying the floppy is invalid? u sure its the right one for the particular OS? if you have another computer you could maybe reformat the floppy and download the necessary files from somewhere (assuming you dont have the previous OS installed on this computer).

 

You don't have an upgrade Version of W2k do you?

Win 98 didn't by default boot from CD I believe, so you will have to make a boot disk for it.

Which OS are you trying to install 1st? - W2k should have no problem booting from CD, as long as it's not an upgrade version.

 

This isn't an upgrade version of 98 is it? Also it is 98 Second edition?

can you access the CD-ROM drive and view the files on the CD? If so you should be able to copy the Win98 folder to the hard disk and run setup from there.

 

What I think is the problem is that the Boot disk isn't loading the CD-ROM drivers properly.

Try creating a new boot disk which includes CD-ROM drivers. You can get disk setups from http://www.bootdisk.com/

 

I would be leaning more towards your windows 98 disk.
Try it on a computer with an operating system to rule it out.

Neall

 

Modern PCs all boot from Windows CDs just fine regardless of whether they are the upgrade version or not. Your problem is that the PC is older and booting from CDs was a bit hit and miss. A BIOS upgrade might solve this but that would spoil the fun.

You just need to boot from a floppy that has the DOS CD ROM drivers on it. A windows 98 start up disk is perfect. Then copy the contents of the Win98 folder on the CD, to the hard drive.

At the command prompt type the follwing;

C:
CD\
MD Win98
D:
CD\
CD Win98
Copy *.* C:\Win98

After the file copy process is finished.

C:
CD Win98
setup

Copying the installation files in this manner and running the install from there (C:\win9, will ensure that you are never prompted to insert the CD media ever again!

 

hang about bluerince.. not all MS CDs were bootable - 95 for example. But yeah, 98 should be ok. Its either a dodgy CD or boot floppy or BOS issue at a guess.

 

Hmmm, 95 wasn't bootable lol probably not Clyde, it was about that era that BIOSs started supporting booting from CDs. I didn't have access to a single machine that could boot from a CD anyway. The vast majority of computers I bought for the company, when we (the company) switched to Windows from DOS (1997) couldn't boot from CD either. So it was an era of practical experience rather than theoretical knowledge. All I know is that once I finally got my hands on a computer that could boot from a CD, it could load any operating system CD of my choosing. I guess I never chose Windows 95

What about Windows 95 OSR2?