Fresh windows instal

Bikerz · 7 Oct 2007 at 17:59

Ok uncle has a basic p4 28 GHz pc with 2 dvd drives, and a floppy. Ive wiped it clean and formated. Yet I cant get it to load 98 or xp from a cd in dos mode. Windows xp says it cant do in dos mode which is fair enough. but windows 98 says "Device no ready".

(This is when typing in E:setup.exe)

Now how can it read a windows xp disk and yet not then read the 98 one? :confused:

98 disk is fine as runs in other pc's. Ive spent all day playing round with it and Im fed up of it now

Any ideas?

Sheldon

eXor · 7 Oct 2007 at 18:00

You need DOS drivers for the DVD drives.

Why can't you just boot from the CD?

Bikerz · 7 Oct 2007 at 18:02

well its a 98 start up disk that used to work on all my other pc's, cant see why wont work on his.

What do I need to do to get dos drivers for the dvd drives?

eXor · 7 Oct 2007 at 18:26

Bikerz said:
well its a 98 start up disk that used to work on all my other pc's

Why do you ned the 98 disk? The XP CD is not bootable?

http://marktsai0316.googlepages.com/gcdromfordos

If you want to run XP setup from DOS, you need to type E:\i386\setup.exe

Make sure you use Smartdrv, otherwise it will be very, very slow.

marc2003 · 7 Oct 2007 at 18:28

don't mess around with boot disks. just boot from the xp cd. check the bios is set to boot from cd first.

Bikerz · 7 Oct 2007 at 18:30

eXor said:
Why do you ned the 98 disk? The XP CD is not bootable?

http://marktsai0316.googlepages.com/gcdromfordos

If you want to run XP setup from DOS, you need to type E:\i386\setup.exe

Make sure you use Smartdrv, otherwise it will be very, very slow.

Cheers. Il go round 2morow night and try this

bledd · 7 Oct 2007 at 19:45

marc2003 said:
don't mess around with boot disks. just boot from the xp cd. check the bios is set to boot from cd first.

yup

you can make 98 discs bootable too

just set the cd drive to be the primary boot device

Bikerz · 7 Oct 2007 at 21:21

Ive never played around in bios before, so il try 2morow. hoping will work just enter E:\i386\setup.exe

bledd · 7 Oct 2007 at 21:34

it's easier than that, you just set cd as first boot device, and it'll say "press any key to start setup" -all automated

Bikerz · 9 Oct 2007 at 19:16

I cant get it to work, this must be a hardware fualt now. going to change ide cable next and try that.

But when i select boot cd 1st in bios is says "atai device no ready" (somthing like that) then goes and boots from floopy. If I enter E:\i386\setup.exe as said it also comes up with this too. Any ideas?

eXor · 9 Oct 2007 at 20:44

Bikerz said:
I cant get it to work, this must be a hardware fualt now. going to change ide cable next and try that.

But when i select boot cd 1st in bios is says "atai device no ready" (somthing like that) then goes and boots from floopy. If I enter E:\i386\setup.exe as said it also comes up with this too. Any ideas?

Before you go pulling cables...

Is it a Phoenix BIOS?
Check out this link --> http://www.computerhope.com/help/phoenixa.htm

Standard CMOS features--> If your IDE devices are detected, they will be listed here. You should check to see if the BIOS recognizes the DVD drives. If any line has no listing, set it to AUTO.

Your first boot device should be one DVD drive ( CDROM ), 2nd boot device should be the other DVD drive ( CDROM ), third boot device should be the first hard disk ( HDD-0 ).

Put the XP CD in one of the DVD drives, reboot and see what happens. If it fails, put the XP CD in the other DVD drive and reboot again. It's an original XP CD, right?

Bikerz · 10 Oct 2007 at 08:06

Yeah original xp not a service pack one.

On the bios i only lists a CD not any other say maybe it cant find one of the drives? It still lights up the led on the drive tho. yes it looks like Phoenixa bios to me

Jolly_Jason · 10 Oct 2007 at 12:20

Bikerz said:
Ive never played around in bios before, so il try 2morow. hoping will work just enter E:\i386\setup.exe

Wrong!! It's winnt32.exe not setup.exe.

Also make sure you have SmartDrive loaded into memory or the install will take forever doing it this way.

marc2003 · 10 Oct 2007 at 15:23

Jolly_Jason said:
Wrong!! It's winnt32.exe not setup.exe.

Also make sure you have SmartDrive loaded into memory or the install will take forever doing it this way.

wrong. it's winnt.exe

winnt32 is to be run from within windows.

eXor · 10 Oct 2007 at 19:29

marc2003 said:
wrong. it's winnt.exe

You're right. My bad.

Bikerz · 11 Oct 2007 at 13:04

lol.so many to try. il try them all and see what happens.

Cheers guys

bledd · 11 Oct 2007 at 19:07

go into bios, tell us what make it is (says at the top) and we'll be able to tell you what to do to make it bootable -you'd find it yourself anyway

much better than messing with commands in dos (home users don't need to use them imo)

Bikerz · 25 Oct 2007 at 01:18

does it matter its ide cd drive and a sata hd?

mctiny · 25 Oct 2007 at 02:22

yes, I'm sure you'll need SATA drivers on a FDD (F6 during setup)