okay, so I formatted my lab PC

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by Arroryn, Dec 2, 2005.

  1. Arroryn

    Arroryn we're all dooooooomed Moderator

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    this thing is ancient. Original Pentium ancient. I wanted to try and dual boot 95/98 or 98/2000, so I did a format first.

    Have done a restart, and it won't boot from the CD. I've looked in the BIOS settings, and it should. I've tried the boot disk, and it's saying that the media is invalid.

    When I formatted, I did a restart.

    1) Have I lost my drivers, or am I being thick?
    2) Help me repair it!!?!?! Please?
     
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  2. _omni_

    _omni_ Megabyte Poster

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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).
     
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  3. simongrahamuk
    Honorary Member

    simongrahamuk Hmmmmmmm?

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    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.
     
  4. Arroryn

    Arroryn we're all dooooooomed Moderator

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    I'm installing 98.

    I have the boot disk - it's saying that the CD is invalid.
     
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  5. simongrahamuk
    Honorary Member

    simongrahamuk Hmmmmmmm?

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    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.

    8)
     
  6. Arroryn

    Arroryn we're all dooooooomed Moderator

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    I can't access the drive, although it seems to detect in BIOS. And soz, it is 98 SE :oops:
     
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  7. simongrahamuk
    Honorary Member

    simongrahamuk Hmmmmmmm?

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    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/

    8)
     
  8. Arroryn

    Arroryn we're all dooooooomed Moderator

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    I'll give em a whirl.

    Thanks Si!
     
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  9. Neall

    Neall Byte Poster

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

    Neall
     
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  10. Bluerinse
    Honorary Member

    Bluerinse Exabyte Poster

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    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:\win98), will ensure that you are never prompted to insert the CD media ever again!
     
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  11. Clyde

    Clyde Megabyte Poster

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    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.
     
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  12. Bluerinse
    Honorary Member

    Bluerinse Exabyte Poster

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    Hmmm, 95 wasn't bootable :rolleyes: 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 :oops:

    What about Windows 95 OSR2? :biggrin
     
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