Installing CDROM support...

[RSPACE]

My son brought home an old 486 that was not working.
I re-formatted the hard drive but there is no CDROM support.
I have A and C drive but no D drive.
The boot disks with CDROM support don't work.
Any help would be great.

[davidgsmith]

Hello there,

If it's an older CD ROM that is connected to the sound card instead of the Motherboard you will have to have the sound card drivers load before the CD.

Your best bet is to open the case and get the make and model of the CD and go to the mfgs. site and get the DOS driver.

And if as above, you will need the sound card's drivers also.

Others will have more ideas.
Dave

[RSPACE]

Thanks..the pc is an older 486 but I know it works.
The cdrom itself is hooked up properly I just need to know how to configure it in dos??
I just reformatted it AGAIN and re-installed DOS 6.22.
Now I need to configure cdrom support so I can install win95 from an OEM CD.
Anybody know how to do this?

[davidgsmith]

No sense in reformatting AGAIN !

go to the mfgs. website and get the DOS drivers for the CD.
Then that driver has to be loaded in the config.sys file and mscdex.exe has to be loaded into autoexec.bat

The CD is hooked up properly. Just to satify my curiousity, is it connected to the motherboard, slaved to the HD, or connected to the sound card?

Try www.bootdisk.com and find another bootdisk with CD ROM support...

Check www.geocities.com\politalk for more help.

Dave

[Eeyore]

As David pointed out, if the CDROM is connected to the sound card or another special card instead of the IDE, Windows 98 Startup Disk will most likely not be able to load it. You need more specific drivers and syntaxes to get it working.

See CDROM in DOS (w w w .geocities.com/politalk/cdrom/) for more info.

------------------
My
Two Cents
Dennis
Visit Politalk

[RSPACE]

Thanks Dennis...but like I said above the cdrom is connected correctly.
It is connected to the Motherboard.
It won't boot with a win98 boot disk.
It's only had win3.1 on this pc.
I've already been to your website but found nothing there to help me with this.
I'm looking for what the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT should look like after the CD is recongnized.

I'll pop the case off in the morning and see what brand of ROM it is.
I'll post then......

[davidgsmith]

That's great.
When you find out the make and model of the CD go the mfg's website for the drivers. Some companies have an automatic install program that will edit your config.sys and autoexec.bat files. But if it does not, then check back and we'll give you the proper syntax for the driver.

Also, just a note, if you're loading Win 95 having DOS on the HD is not necessary. We'll talk about that when you get back to us tomorrow.

Dave

[Eeyore]

I'm looking for what the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT should look like after the CD is recongnized.

Your CONFIG.SYS must contain:
LASTDRIVE=Z
DEVICEHIGH=C:\CDROM\CDDRIVER.SYS /D:IDECD001
before you boot. CDROM\CDDRIVER.SYS must be replaced by the path and file your drive needs.

If the drive worked before and has not been physically reconnected, then it is most likely an IDE/ATAPI CDROM. However, many older drives require their own specific driver file. Therefore you need to know what model and brand of CDROM it is. Packard Bells often use Panasonic (MKE) drives. These seldom work with generic drivers.

The AUTOEXEC.BAT needs:
LH C:\DOS\MSCDEX.EXE /D:IDECD001 /v
MSCDEX.EXE may be in another path. The /V will show what drive letter is assigned when it loads along with other info.

That's it!

------------------
My
Two Cents
Dennis
Visit Politalk

[RSPACE]

The only thing I can get off the CDROM is that it is IDE INTERFACE and a 16X speed.
Can we not go with a generic?
The last person to own it said that is what they used but couldn't tell me where they got the drivers.
So this is where I'm at today.....

They say they remember the CDROM\CDDRIVER.SYS folder...
Thats all the info I can get.

Where can I get these drivers?

[tiberiuscan]

Hi somewhere there must be a brand name for the CD-Rom drive. If it came with the system then go to the computer manufacturers site. To answer your other wuestion, yes you can download generic drivers. (You can also download programs designed to identify your CD-Rom. Use a goole search to find generic cd-rom drivers. The drivers will be installed using DOS and will edit your autoexec.bat and config.sys files to give you access to your CD-Rom drive. I found a program called CDGOD that has dozens of CD_ROM drivers on it. You try each until it works.

[RSPACE]

I've heard of CDGOD but the website where this program is located is not up and running.
So I don't know where to get it.
I'll go and do a search now...

[Eeyore]

You can download the file at:
http://themezz.com/files/pub/apps/
At DOS put a blank formatted 1.44 floppy in drive A; and type:
cdgod55 /a
Boot with that disk and a menu will come up with about 50 choices of brands. You can try each one until one works. You can then have it put the codes in your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT. Or you can manually copy them and set them up (which you will ultimately have to do for a floppy boot).

I searched for CDGOD55 on GOOGLE.COM. Most links don't work. Rumblesoft, who created it, has switched to racing and no longer provides it. Many pages point back to Rumblesoft.
------------------
My
Two Cents
Dennis
Visit Politalk

[RSPACE]

Thanks Eeyore..I downloaded it to a floppy.
Do I run the CDGOD.EXE file on the old one...then install the Formatted floppy??
I'm lost ..
Or do I run the EXE on my PC to create the Floppy???

[AlaricD]

Originally posted by RSPACE
Thanks Eeyore..I downloaded it to a floppy.
Do I run the CDGOD.EXE file on the old one...then install the Formatted floppy??
I'm lost ..
Or do I run the EXE on my PC to create the Floppy???

Originally posted by Eeyore
At DOS put a blank formatted 1.44 floppy in drive A; and type:
cdgod55 /a
Boot with that disk and a menu will come up with about 50 choices of brands. You can try each one until one works. You can then have it put the codes in your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT. Or you can manually copy them and set them up (which you will ultimately have to do for a floppy boot).

What Eeyore appears to be saying is that once you have downloaded the file (presumably to the hard drive), go to a DOS prompt, change to the directory containing cdgod55a.exe, and type cdgod55 /a with a blank formatted floppy in the A:. This will make cdgod55 create a bootable floppy using the formatted disk in the A:. (I haven't tried it myself, but having written similar utils, as well as used others, I would expect that's how it works. Some of them will format whatever's in the floppy drive, hence the warning to ensure the disk is blank.)

[RSPACE]

OK I copied the cdgod55.exe file to the hd on the old pc.
I then formatted a floppy and then ran the cdgod55 /a at the dos prompt but it only says:

Usage: CDGOD55 [/d] [/s] [/t] [drive:]

/d Display image description
/s Supress overwrite prompt
/t Test image integrety
drive Drive letter of the target diskette drive

NOTE: THE TARGET DISKETTE MUST BE FORMATTED


Looks like it is not working or opening properly???