Laptop


  #1  
Old 01-29-05, 06:24 PM
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john 3:16
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Question Laptop

Hello,
I have not worked on a laptop in a while, so i am needing a little bit of advice here.

What i am doing is a clean install on a ibm thinkpad 760el, and i am having a problem with the cd drivers.

I had this problem once before, but i am not sure what i did to get out of it. ok, here goes,

How do i get the cd drivers, when i have to use the floppy drive, and of course, it doesn't locate a rom drive, because there is not one there.

I am installing 98se, and it will not boot off the cd alone. So, do i need to copy the drivers from the floppy to the hard drive?

But how would i do that, when there is not a root directory or anything there. Just a newly formatted drive. all responses would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance for the help. have a good night.

Dale
 
  #2  
Old 01-30-05, 05:57 AM
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When you boot off the Win98 disk it should ask you if you want to start the computer with or without CDROM support or am I missing something here?
 
  #3  
Old 01-30-05, 09:46 AM
D
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I think that you

need a "Windows 98 boot disk". If you have another computer running 98 you should be able to make one. (Or use this link: http://bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm) Just put it it the drive and it should load the CD-Rom drivers into DOS. Usually it's drive D, so once you've booted up then type "d:setup".

Beware though, sometimes the boot disks create a "virtual drive" that's throws the drive letters off. Try using one letter higher than normal....if you watch the screen during boot you may be able to "catch" the CD-ROM driver loading and see what drive letter is gets assigned. (drive E or F).
 
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Old 01-30-05, 12:05 PM
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I'd recommend doing the following:

Boot from your newly created 98SE Boot disk that you create after downloading the Win98SE boot image from www.bootdisk.com.

1. Take note of the drive letter the MSCDEX driver assigns to the CD-ROM drive (one of the last things you'll see before you see the A:\> prompt)

2. (Even though you say you've already fornatted the HD, go ahead and do this)...At the A: prompt, type "format c: /u /s" (u = Unconditional format, s = copy system files). Enjoy a Coke...this'll take a while (You can add a /q at the end of the format line to do a quick format.

It'll ask you for a label when its done. Put in anything or nothing, it doesn't matter.

3. When the format completes, type the following commands hitting enter after each:

c:

md windows

cd windows

md options

cd options

md cabs

cd cabs

4. Put your Win98SE disk in the CD ROM drive and type:

copy d:\win98 (***If your CD ROM is NOT D:, change the letter to the letter you noted in step 1)

Watch for error messages. See note below if you have any errors.

5. Remove the boot floppy, the 98SE CD, and reboot

6. At the C:\> prompt, type c:\windows\options\cabs\setup

7. Follow the prompts. At some point, you will be asked where you want to put the windows files, and it will *probably* default to c:\windows.000 Change it to c:\windows, and say OK to the warning that the folder exists.



By doing what I prescribed, you will eliminate the need to do the install directly from the CD. If the CD has problems, they will be found in step 3, not during the actual install process. If you get error messages in step 4, you have either a bad 98SE CD, or a bad CD-ROM, and you will need to get a replacement/loaner.

The other advantage of this is that whenever your computer needs something off the 98SE CD, it shouldn't have to prompt you for the disk since everything it needs will be in the C:\windows\options\cabs CD.

I've done this proceedure dozens of times (perhaps closer to hundreds). Works like a charm...
 
  #5  
Old 02-01-05, 10:43 AM
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john 3:16
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Thanks for all the wonderful help. the problem is taken care of. thanks again
 
 

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