[CiCaDa]

im having BIG BIG problems... im half way thro formatting... anyways im not sure thsi is the rigth palce for this and if its not i dont wanna waist my time typing it all out so if you cant help.. can you help me or no? thanks

[anlore2001]

Hello,
It actually depends on the problem, give us a brief overview and we can let you know.

[CiCaDa]

ok... i started formatting.. i know about this enough about it to do it, and ive done it before.but usually the computer reconizes your cddrive.. but its not... so i dont knwo what i can do.. i cant install an operating system without it using the cd rom.... i knwo a few of my options but i would like to know the best path to take.i know i can install win 3.1 then see if i can get the cdrom to work, or replace it and put win 98 over it but that will take awhile. ive also been told to set the computer(in the bios) to boot off the cd but it only gives me two options a dirve then c drive or c drive then a drive. so what should i do?
andif you can help... thank you very veyr much!

[anlore2001]

did you make a boot disk before you formated your drive???, if so after the format re-boot using the Boot disk (you may have to set the BIOS to recognize the floppy drive), it should give you access to your A: drive, at that time you should be able to get into your CD rom to do an install. Also, In the BIOS you said it gives you an option to boot from C: than a drive or a drive than C:, is your CD ROm Drive available.... will most likly be D:\. Post back on what you find. GOOD LUCK

[CiCaDa]

ok..i guess i have to give you morre info..
i did make a boot disk.but it doenst help me with my cd rom problem at all...umless theres somethign i dont know... maybe you shoudl explain just incase
and it only gives me the option of C or A my cdrom is accually drive F dos is reconizing my other hard drive E and D but thats not helping me... cuz i didnt put windows on them.accully i formatting them first and eveything went smooth.
any other ideas?

[anlore2001]

This may be a stupid question but bear with me, If you access one of your other drives, can you than access your CD rom? if you can't, one thing I may suggest would be to install win 3.1 onto one of the other drives to get the CD working than do a clean install of win 98 on the formatted C:\
I apologize, I am grasping at straws... and all of my tech books are at home, If you would allow me to think about it overnight and post back in the morning I may be able to come up with a better solution... but try the above and let us know.

[CiCaDa]

ya i coudl do that.. but i could just install win 3.1 onto c then go from there.. thats my best solution so far.. but its time consuming and i knwo theres a quicker way
plus i dont have win 3.1 right now.. ill have to borrow it..
ofcourse you can think overnight, the problem probably wont be solved by tomrow anyways
anyways thanks you for your help and ill check in tomrow for your reply

[Max19]

Just download files to create a boot disk with CD-ROM support.

http://www.bootdisk.com/

In the future, try your bootdisk out BEFORE formatting the drive, and verify that you can access the CD-ROM drive.

Don't waste your time installing Windows 3.1.

If you're using a Windows 98 computer to access the internet now, create another boot disk on it, and the disk should have CD-ROM support as well.

[CiCaDa]

thnks for the inout. but my boot disk wokrs... it worked beofre i formatted.. and i even tryeid to make another one thinking the disk crapped out on me.... its somethings else..... and i dont wanna have to waist y time installing win 3.1 thats why im here asking

[CiCaDa]

sorry bout the typos.. ive had a long day and im tired... if there anything you cant make out just ask.

[Max19]

So you could access your CD-ROM drive with this same boot disk BEFORE you formatted the hard drive?

[CiCaDa]

well i dunno if i could access it with the disk.. i didnty try.. accually i dont knwo how to try but i pretty sure the disk works...

[Max19]

Try the disk in another computer. Boot from it. Can you access the CD-ROM drive? If not, then the disk DOESN'T work.

Create a new one on a working computer or use the link I posted.

[CiCaDa]

ya, the disk works, i checked it on the computer im on now...
so there nothing else i could do?

[Max19]

Then I would assume there's a problem with the CD-ROM drive on that computer. Replace it.