Problem with DOS

[Mini Me33]

Annoyingly it doesn't seem to notice my cd drive.

i type d: and it says "invalid drive specifaction"

my cd drive works fine in windows, its only in DOS

any suggestions?

[GIZM0]

buy a new puter, I no a chappy who'l do you one cheap



:naughty:


:pimp:

[ThePants999]

Mini - open up your AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files (in Notepad, they're in C:\) and post them here so we can have a gander at them. Windows automatically loads all the device drivers for everything you need, but you have to remember that DOS doesn't. You'll have to put lines in those two files to load the CD drivers. Normally, they're already in there, but we'll see when you post them here.

Normally I think it's a case of loading the device driver itself in CONFIG.SYS, then referencing it with MSCDEX in AUTOEXEC.BAT. It's been a very, very long time though :)

[Modal]

^What he said^ :)

If ur DOS CD drivers are loading then check that you havnt got a last drive statement anywhere which would 'push' ur CD-ROM drive letter up. Type SET from dos 'should' show this variable.

If ur CD drivers are not loading then check the boot disk that came with your copy of windows, this will contain the drivers.

[Edited by Modal on 04-01-2001 at 04:32 PM]

[Mini Me33]

erm.... i have a config.dos and an autoexec.dos

they them?

[antibbfc]

Ok, sometimes Win95/98 machines will NOT have autoexec.bat and config.sys as Win is mean't to run quicker without them. This would be your problem, as without those 2 files you cannot normally load any DOS mode drivers. You will need to create these two files using 'edit' under DOS or notepad under Win95/98 (these files are just text files). Unfortunatley I can't remember the exact command lines for either as it has indeed been a long time (and I work in the IT trade!!)
But an earlier post was right about putting a DEVICE= (DOS driver name for your CD drive) line in config.sys and then you need the MSCDEX reference in the autoexec.bat file.
These two lines are generally identical in syntax on most machines with the exception of the actual driver name and subsequent device name.

[antibbfc]

Oh, the files with .Dos extentions on your PC are where WIN95/98 has probably renamed your original files.

[Mini Me33]

so i'm fecked then? :cry:

[ThePants999]

Not at all. I forgot that modern Windows replaced those files :) Mine still has the original BAT and SYS files. Anyways, Mini, post the contents of those two files here.

[Mini Me33]

REM [Header]
@ECHO OFF











REM [CD-ROM Drive]

REM [Miscellaneous]

REM [Display]

REM [Sound, MIDI, or Video Capture Card]

REM [Mouse]

^autoexec whatnot

REM [Header]



REM [CD-ROM Drive]

REM [Miscellaneous]

REM [SCSI Controllers]

REM [Display]

REM [Sound, MIDI, or Video Capture Card]

REM [Mouse]
REM ------------------


^config thingymabob

[ThePants999]

Erk! There's actually nothing in those at all! Argh!
Right, unless antibbfc can remember the original lines, I'll have to root around to see if I can find them. Heck, I can't even remember where to find the generic CD-ROM drivers.

Unfortunately, can't do it tonight - I ought to be working on some college stuff. I'll get back to you when I can.

[Mini Me33]

you never heard of cramming m8?

;)

[ThePants999]

Revision for exams ain't a problem. This is homework. More to the point, homework I've had a fortnight to do...

[Mini Me33]

you got a dog? :naughty:

[ThePants999]

Aha, results. Can you check that you have

C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MSCDEX.EXE
and
C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\EBD\OAKCDROM.SYS
?

[ThePants999]

Oh, and further to that, what operating system are you running?

[Mini Me33]

Win 98
C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MSCDEX.EXE
Yes

C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\EBD\OAKCDROM.SYS
No

[ThePants999]

Doh.
(a) Do you have C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\EBD\ at all? If not, do you have any subfolders under C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND?
(b) Can you run a search for OAKCDROM.SYS?

Add me on ICQ and let me know the answers there.

[ThePants999]

Arse, my sig was supposed to be in that. In case I forget again, 47335259.

[°±° Ånímál °±°]

I got a cdrom driver install disk that i'll send to mini.

Sounds like he needs the whole lot to me!

Animal

[ThePants999]

Sounds good.

[Anti-A]

get me on icq ill send you a boot disk that has all files needed to use CD in dos

[Doc Bob]

Mini, all you need to do is point to the locations of the CD driver in windows sub directory. I actually copy the drivers to C: for ease of finding them.
You can create the two files ie Config and Autoexec and put each of the reqd cd command lines in them to run in DOS.

Autoexec.bat
LH <dir>:\MSCDEX.EXE /D:mscd001 /L
where <dir>. is the location of the MSCDEX file and D is the CD directory allocated

Config.sys
device=oakcdrom.sys /D:mscd001
or
device=aspicd.sys /D:mscd001
or
device=btcdrom.sys /D:mscd001

depending which cd driver you have in the directory

after this the Autoexec and Config files must be in the main C: directory

[Nerfie]

bah wots the point m8??? just get a hammer they slove all PC problems,
failing that take it to PC world where they never rip u off they have the lowest prices and they are highly trained and know everything and will fix everything for a small fee usually around £49.99 :E

[Doc Bob]

Oh and BTW
Win 98 has Windows\command\EBD directory...... win95 has windows\command\DOS directory where all old dos files are kept for luck..

[thanatos]

Oh God this thread is bringing back nightmares.

Anyone remember trying to free up memory in DOS...aaaargghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh make it stop!!!

Ad IRQ conflicts............aarrrrrggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh

[Happy]

the command

LH <dir>:\MSCDEX.EXE /D:mscd001 /L:R

note the /L:R

this will assign your cdrom a drive letter of 'R' (or whatever letter you care to make it).
I have a 'universal' cdrom driver for DOS, should you need one. Works on any cdrom that plugs into the IDE port.

Happy

[antibbfc]

Thantos - Yeah I rememebr alrighty!! But even worse I thought was setting up PCMCIA devices via DOS, now that WAS a nightmare.
Freeing memory was normally a simply case of trial and experiment with loading devices high or not. (My god, it all comes flooding back like a nightmare!!)

[ThePants999]

Doc - He was running Win98, but didn't actually have the EBD directory. I had sent him the lines to put in AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS, but Animal sent him a CD driver disk that made the modifications automatically. Having not seen a post asking for further help, I assume all is well :)

[°±° Ånímál °±°]

Could always get him to install linux...

mount /dev/hdb -t iso9660 /mnt/cdrom

I'll close the door on my way out

[Dave B]

Your original/copy of Windows 95/98 start disk should boot you into dos with the said CD drivers. Am I correct?

[GibsonXXI]

try getting 600k under dos 5 without memmaker (cause it didnt exist til dos 6) been there, done that :)

[Phillie Time]

BTW - I expect you can't see your config.sys and autoexec.bat in windows cause you've got windows explorer set to hide system files....... (default)

change it to not hide system files and not hide known file extensions

[Phillie Time]

oooh and Dave - yep you're correct - and if you hit F8 when the "Windows98 is starting" message first comes up after the BIOS loads you can do a step by step load with it and stop it running setup from the CD :)
then you're ready to rock....