My laptop's internal DVD player stopped working a year or more ago. It
is not a software problem but hardware that was confirmed already. Now
my laptop will not boot. The battery is dead and the cord became
unplugged from the transformer as it was starting up. Now it asks for
the A drive floppy disk but cannot get back to C drive. Am I screwed?
I can't get it to boot in safe mode or any way other than the start up
98 floppy. The external USB drive is an Iomega. Is there a way to use
the boot floppy with added USB CD drivers for the Iomega on it to get
it to work and if so what would I need to do? How would I put the
drivers on the floppy? I also have a backpack external parallel CD-Rom
drive that also can be run from a PCMCA card I have. Would I have a
better chance of using the Windows 98 CD with it through that type of
interface? Or is my only option to try to track down and buy a CD-Rom
for the inside of the computer. I tried running scandisk with the
floppy booted up but it said something like could not find the boot
log for C drive.

DJW wrote:
That's not a nice problem.
First check in the bios setup(Del or Esc, during boot) if there is a
hard disk recognized and the order the computer tries to boot from the
different media.
Iomega would have the drivers to install it under Dos, (your start-up
disk and you would have to load those drivers in config.sys (or edit
your config.sys so it will recognize the Iomega drive) and the usb port.
That might be the hard part here [ usb port ], no clue how to do that.
Running the external cd-rom, if you can install it(see the
manufacturer's web site I guess)
If you start up with the floppy disk and it can't find the Windows CD,
then you're at a dos prompt:something like this a:>
You could try and type c: then "enter" if it accepts that you have a
hard disk. If you can get into the directory c:\windows\ [ c:> cd
windows ] then a scan disk is possible from there. That might give you
some clue's what went wrong. [ c:\windows\> scandisk ]
Just for this kind of mishaps I have the windows install CD copied to
every hard drive I have, then I can always reinstall when needed.
Good luck.
Richard

"DJW" <ddwr@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:c2619903-5d70-4717-a852-c82f5eb9bf8f@d4g2000prg.googlegroups.com...

Check the bios and be sure your HD is even detected
and of course listed as a boot option.
If your HD is not detected it has probably failed...
but to me it sounds like your bios setting may have been lost when the cord
was pulled

On Feb 18, 7:05 pm, "philo" <ph...@privacy.net> wrote:
The hard drive shows as detected being there and the boot order has CD
first then a then c. also because the CD is bad that is not detected
at startup. I brought up some screen that indeed shows the info about
the hard drive and it being there on the bus. Some time during the
startup it says the boot record for the hard drive is not found or
something to that fact. Would it help if I list here the exact wording
that the computer is telling me at startup?
One other thought I have a flash/jump drive would it be possible to
copy the win 98 installer CD to it and try to install with it. What
would be the a prompt I need to type in to get the USB to load? When
things were working it was D drive. In the boot order can I add drive
letters or is that just for IDE bus's items?

DJW wrote:
1) not really, your boot sector is toast.
2) you can list it here, but I don't think that it will hold the clue to
solve it
3) flash drive might work if your computer recognizes the usb port in an
early stage of the boot
4) you can only pick media that your computer registers at boot up.

If you start with the floppy, you have the options install windows
/command prompt only / with or without cd drive or something like that ?
Then you could choose command prompt only and you're left with a c:\>
the Dos prompt. then you could type there [ scandisk /all ] to find
out what is wrong. or [ scandisk /? ] to see all your options.
If your start-up disk doesn't bring you there try a dos boot disk and
take the same solution.
Let us know how it goes/works

DJW wrote:
<Snip>
DJW:

You can get access to a USB flash drive from a DOS boot floppy if you
load the drivers for it.

In your DOS config.sys file you need these lines

device=usbaspi.sys /w /v
device=di1000dd.sys

The /w switch causes the driver to pause so you can connect a USB device.
The /v switch causes the driver to give verbose messages.

And, of course, you need the referenced files on the boot disk as well.

Archive files that contain the drivers:

usb_dos_drivers.zip
http://www.toolsthatwork.com/downloa...os_drivers.zip

hd352u_dos.zip (The page is in Japanese but the file nanes are in
English.)
http://www.driver.novac.co.jp/driver...d352u_drv.html


If the boot floppy has FDISK and FORMAT on it, and the flash drive has
the Win98 install files on it you could then partition/format the HDD,
copy the install files to the HDD and them reinstall from the HDD.
Don't know how the install program would react to installing from the
flash drive.

HTH & GL

John


--
\\\||///
------------------o000----(o)(o)----000o----------------
----------------------------()--------------------------
'' Madness takes its toll - Please have exact change. ''

John Dulak - Gnomeway Services - http://tinyurl.com/2qs6o6

John Dulak wrote:
an old laptop going again
DJW how are you getting along?

"DJW" <ddwr@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:e558403c-565f-46a3-8126-a9fcc9d8abf4@62g2000hsn.googlegroups.com...

Ok...
just boot from your win98 floppy
then issue the command sys C:
that should fix the boot record

If your windows installation is good otherwise, you should boot up...
otherwise you will end with just the C: prompt

winfan wrote:

Winfan:

Glad it worked out for you. You can also use the drivers on a bootable
CD for laptops without a floppy.

John


--
\\\||///
------------------o000----(o)(o)----000o----------------
----------------------------()--------------------------
'' Madness takes its toll - Please have exact change. ''

John Dulak - Gnomeway Services - http://tinyurl.com/2qs6o6

On Feb 20, 6:38 am, John Dulak <Jo...@Boogus.com> wrote:
Hey I am the guy with the problem not winfan! I did try to run
scandisk and it gave me a message that it could not do it not sure of
the wording. Could it be as easy to fix as

When it comes to dos and its commands I am a novice I think for 10
bucks I can just replace the bad DVD player in my laptop with a CD_ROM
and hopefully do the windows reinstall like a normal person. Thanks
for all the help I am assuming the Win 98 install CD or boot floppy
will allow the new (used) CD-ROM to work if I reinstall 98 will all my
files and programs remain or should I just run Fdisk and wipe it clean
then do the install? I am due and have no files on the Hard drive I
need to keep anyway.

DJW wrote:
Giving up so easy
I have no floppy and no CD but I managed to get windows installed
The system was running Dos so I used interlnk and intersvr to copy the
win install cd to the old laptop over the parallel port with a $15
cable. Once installed I could get a LAN to work and now it's just a
storage and check computer in the network. And with John's tip I might
be able to run a wireless from it and hook up a web cam so I finally
have my calf-cam and I don't have to go through the snow to see that
nothing has happened in the barn at 2 am.

A non technical solution for you, slide the hard disk in another laptop
install windows and slide it back in the original one. Should work but
you'll have to open up two laptops .

Good luck

DJW wrote:

DJW:

I realize that. Winfan thanked me for some information he found useful
and I was just acknowledging his thanks.


I did try to run
Yes, follow philo's advice and issue the "sys c:" command at the DOS
a:\> prompt. If the HDD is not total toast this should make it
bootable and it may work or you will be in a better position to repair
it. (BTW most DOS commands have help pages that can be displayed by
"<command name> /?")

As to wheather reinstalling Windows 98 from the CD would preserve your
old applications and data it depends on the type of CD it is. A full
install CD can be used for a fresh install or a re-install. A
re-install WILL preserve applications and data but the concensus is
that it also is prone to problems so a fresh install is preferred.

If the CD is a "Restore" CD that came with the laptop it will do a
fresh install, deleting all data and application files. The intention
is to restore the laptop to the state it was in when you first took it
out of the box; hence the name.


HTH & GL

John

--
\\\||///
------------------o000----(o)(o)----000o----------------
----------------------------()--------------------------
'' Madness takes its toll - Please have exact change. ''

John Dulak - Gnomeway Services - http://tinyurl.com/2qs6o6

On Feb 20, 3:36 pm, John Dulak <Jo...@Boogus.com> wrote:
John,
The CD is I regular ms windows 98 installer CD. Winbook talks about a
restore CD probably made by or for them with there name and model on
it however this laptop cam with the OEM windows 98 disk and a CD with
various drivers on it and give instruction at
http://www.winbookcorp.com/_technote/WBTA07120138.htm

Well sys C: did not work I got a cannot specify default drive
response. Was I to do it at the A:\> prompt or type in on a blank line
as in C:\> sys C: ? I tried it all different ways with no luck. And
do caps or spaces mattered?
Two things I did not mention above was when this problem first
happened after the computer got unplugged during startup there was
some mention on the screen of a D partition on the hard drive, which I
did not have. I only had one partition on it being C drive. I did
something in response to that, don't remember and then of course did
not get into windows at all for the first time.
I have gone back and now have the exact wording I get when it tries to
boot up. It says .. windows 98 has detected that drive C does not
contain a valid FAT or FAT32 partition. May I have done something with
the only partition on the hard drive when I thought I was being asked
about the second partition that I never had on the drive?
I see that above I got my answer as to when to use the sys C: command
that indeed I do it at the A prompt.
And above as far as slipping the HD out and putting it into another
laptop to do the install. I have no access to another laptop and if I
get a used CD-Rom drive on ebay then in the future I finally got an
optical drive back up and working in this old laptop. About the same
effort to remove the HD for a temporary swap or remove and replace the
DVD with a CD_ROM.

DJW wrote:

DJW:

It sounds to me as if the file system on your hard drive has become
corrupted to the point that it is no longer usable. (Not unuseual
since you had a power failure while boting.) The fact that it is
still identified correctly by the BIOS indicates that the drive is
physically and electrically OK but it needs to be re-partitioned,
formatted and Windows 98 re-installed. You mentioned in a previous
post that you had no data files you absolutely had to recover from the
hard drive so this seems to be your best approach.

DO YOU HAVE THE PRODUCT KEY TO INSTALL WINDOWS (25 CHARACTERS!)?

The windows 98 boot floppy should have the DOS FDISK and FORMAT
programs on them that should let you salvage the drive.

- Boot from the floppy.

- At the A:\> prompt type FDISK <Enter> and the FDISK partitioning
program will start. Depending on the size of the hard disk you may be
asked if you want to enable large disk support. Answer YES.

- Choose option 3 "Delete partition or logical DOS Drive" and folow
the prompts to delete the corrupted primary partition at "C:".

- Create a new active primary partition. The defaults should be fine
for you.

- After you are finished with FDISK exit to the A:\> prompt and
*reboot* the computer.

- When the computer reboots to the A:\> prompt format the partition
using the command "format c: /s" <Enter>. (The "/s" copies the boot
files to the HDD). You might want to use the boot floppy to run
SCANDISK on the C: drive just to be sure it is OK. (scandisk c: <Enter>)

At this point the computer should boot without the floppy and get you
to a DOS "C:>" prompt. Your task now is to get the contents of the
Windows 98 CD available to the computer. You can either install a new
CD drive and use the CD directly (You will have to use the boot floppy
with CD drivers to have access to the new CD drive from DOS.) or use
another computer to copy the CD to a flash drive and use the technique
I described in a previous post to get access to the flash drive from a
DOS floppy.

Many people when installing Windows copy the contents of the CD to a
folder on the HDD to speed things up and have them available after
installation. The only thing you REALLY need to copy from the CD is
the contents of the "Win98" folder. A common location on the HDD for
these files is C:\windows\options\cabs. you can create these folders
from a DOS prompt as follows:

md c:\windows
md c:\windows\options
md c:\windows\options\cabs

If the CD is drive D: the command to copy the required files from the
CD to the HDD would be:

copy d:\win98\*.* c:\windows\options\cabs

After the copy is complete change to the cabs folder;

cd c:\windows\options\cabs

and run setup.

setup <enter>

This will start the Windows installation program. From here you just
follow the prompts, choose the components you want to install, enter
the product key and you should be in business.

HTH & GL

John

--
\\\||///
------------------o000----(o)(o)----000o----------------
----------------------------()--------------------------
'' Madness takes its toll - Please have exact change. ''

John Dulak - Gnomeway Services - http://tinyurl.com/2qs6o6

On Feb 20, 10:05 pm, John Dulak <Jo...@Boogus.com> wrote:
John and everyone thanks for all the help now all i am doing is
waiting for the CD-Rom I got on ebay yesterday to get here. If I have
any more software problems I will repost to this thread.

On Thu, 21 Feb 2008 06:36:03 -0800 (PST), DJW <ddwr@hotmail.com>
wrote:

DJW,

As a last resort and before you format the drive try this.

Boot with the Wn98 Startup floppy and at the A:\ prompt enter:
C:
At the C:\ prompt enter DIR. If you can get to the C: prompt but
the DIR command doesn't display any files or folders then the Master
Boot Record (MBR) may be corrupt. If that's the case then with the
floppy still in enter:
FDISK /MBR. <enter>

If you get no errors then it should have worked. The drive light
just blinks once, that's all.

If it says it can't find the file then change to the A:\ prompt and
try it again.

Fdisk /mbr re-writes the Master Boot Record.

Reboot.

Regards,

Bill Watt
Win98 Computer Help & Other Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/

On Feb 24, 1:58 am, Bill Watt <nobw...@ptd.net> wrote:
Bill I tried C:\DIR and got a list of files 15 file(s) and 0 dir(s)

Then I did C:\FDISK/MBR and got the master boot code has not been
updated so tried A:\FDISK/MBR and got the same message as above

Then I tried to boot without the floppy in and got Pri Master:
00X5A0A0 Hitachi_DK239A-65 Ultra DMA Mode-2, S.M.A.R.T. Command Failed
Sec Master Drive ATAPI Incompatible

On Sun, 24 Feb 2008 13:25:52 -0800 (PST), DJW <ddwr@hotmail.com>
wrote:

DJW,

Here's a thread on your problem. See the suggestions to repair it.
Be sure to go to the end past the ads.
http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=52428
Such as:
How old is the CMOS battery ?
Using FDISK from a Startup floppy, is the drive recognized? Set the
drive to AUTO. Set BIOS to default settings.

There is a utility that will backup the MBR first on your floppy
(make sure it's not write protected) then zero track 0 and then
install a standard MBR. It's called Mbrwork. You can get ver 1.03 at
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/dow...e-software.htm
Unzip it and put it on a floppy then enter a:\mbrwork. The backup
will be put on the floppy.

It saved the day for me when I accidentally let Norton AV "repair
the MBR". It rendered the drive useless.

Anyway, see the above thread for something that may help with your
particular problem.

Good luck,

Regards,

Bill Watt
Win98 Computer Help & Other Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/

On Feb 25, 2:00 am, Bill Watt <nobw...@ptd.net> wrote:
OK I got a new CD-ROM drive, a TEAC md CD-22E-N83 and put it in the
laptop I can hear it spin at startup with the windows 98 boot floppy
in A drive which is more than the old DVD did. However it still will
not bring up the Windows 98 install CD I have in the drive at startup.
I went out and got the driver for the drive online and put it on the
boot floppy its name is TeacCD-224EDriver.exe and also put the file
Teac_cdi.sys that came within the driver zipped file. The read-me that
came with the driver is below:

To install the TEAC CD-ROM Driver, add the following lines. Be sure to
replace <path> with the correct location of the TEAC_CDI.SYS and
MSCDEX.EXE.

In CONFIG.SYS,
DEVICE=<path>\TEAC_CDI.SYS /D:MSCD001

In AUTOEXEC.BAT,
<path>\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD001

I think I did the change with notepad correctly (do caps or small case
matter?) in the CONFIG.SYS file the thing mensioned above about the
<path> I was not sure about but the line as I saw other similar file
entries. I put it in as:
device=TEAC_CDI.SYS /D:MSCD001

Please see below what is now my floppy's config.sys file:

[menu]
menuitem=CD, Start computer with CD-ROM support.
menuitem=NOCD, Start computer without CD-ROM support.
menuitem=HELP, View the Help file.
menudefault=CD,30
menucolor=7,0

[CD]
device=himem.sys /testmemff
device=oakcdrom.sys /D:mscd001
device=btdosm.sys
device=flashpt.sys
device=btcdrom.sys /D:mscd001
device=aspi2dos.sys
device=aspi8dos.sys
device=aspi4dos.sys
device=aspi8u2.sys
device=aspicd.sys /D:mscd001
device=TEAC_CDI.SYS /D:MSCD001

[NOCD]
device=himem.sys /testmemff

[HELP]
device=himem.sys /testmemff

[COMMON]
files=10
buffers=10
dos=high,umb
stacks=9,256
devicehigh=ramdrive.sys /E 2048
lastdrive=z

But when it came to the AUTOEXEC.BAT file I did not find a clear thing
to do. However I did find what they asked to add in the line.... LH %ramd
%:\MSCDEX.EXE /D:mscd001 /L:%CDROM%
already there so I did not make any change to that file (was that a
mistake?).
Below is the complete autoexec.bat file:

@ECHO OFF
set EXPAND=YES
SET DIRCMD=/O:N
set LglDrv=27 * 26 Z 25 Y 24 X 23 W 22 V 21 U 20 T 19 S 18 R 17 Q 16 P
15
set LglDrv=%LglDrv% O 14 N 13 M 12 L 11 K 10 J 9 I 8 H 7 G 6 F 5 E 4 D
3 C
cls
call setramd.bat %LglDrv%
set temp=c:\
set tmp=c:\
path=%RAMD%:\;a:\;%CDROM%:\
copy command.com %RAMD%:\ > NUL
set comspec=%RAMD%:\command.com
copy extract.exe %RAMD%:\ > NUL
copy readme.txt %RAMD%:\ > NUL

:ERROR
IF EXIST ebd.cab GOTO EXT
echo Please insert Windows 98 Startup Disk 2
echo.
pause
GOTO ERROR

:EXT
%RAMD%:\extract /y /e /l %RAMD%: ebd.cab > NUL
echo The diagnostic tools were successfully loaded to drive %RAMD%.
echo.

IF "%config%"=="NOCD" GOTO QUIT
IF "%config%"=="HELP" GOTO HELP
LH %ramd%:\MSCDEX.EXE /D:mscd001 /L:%CDROM%
echo.
GOTO QUIT

:HELP
cls
call help.bat
echo Your computer will now restart and the startup menu will appear.
echo.
echo.
echo.
echo.
echo.
echo.
echo.
echo.
echo.
echo.
restart.com
GOTO QUIT

:QUIT
echo To get help, type HELP and press ENTER.
echo.
rem clean up environment variables
set CDROM=
set LglDrv=



One thing I read somewhere online was about the CD not being found
when the MSCDEX.EXE file is loaded. I looked on the CD and found no
file by that name so I went to the web and got the win 98 file for it
and put it also on the boot floppy.

The CD drive is still not coming up I get the message:

Device driver not found: "MSCD001"

No valid CDROM device drivers selected.

Can anybody give me any help as to what I still need to do to get the
windows install CD working in this laptop.

On Mon, 25 Feb 2008 18:03:25 -0800 (PST), DJW <ddwr@hotmail.com>
wrote:

SNIP

Reply at end

Where is the file TEAC_CDI.SYS ?

In a folder on the CD ?

Regards,

Bill Watt