Installing W98SE with swappable drives

[jackpan]

I own a Dell Latitude CP laptop with a swappable floppy and CD ROM drive. I ran fdisk and format C: using the boot disc. Now comes the problem. How do I swap to the CD drive for the W98SE installation? When I start the computer from the boot disc, at what point can I pull out the floppy drive and insert the CD ROM drive? Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Ponch]

Type sys c: from the floppy, that will make your HDD bootable. From there, there is no more need to "hotswap", you can boot from HD and access the files on the CD (search for the install.exe, or setup.exe, can't remember). You might have to work around the keyboard configuration but it's an easy task.

[jackpan]

At what point of the boot sequence do I remove the floppy drive, insert the CD ROM drive and then type in sys: c:? Do I do this after selecting "Start computer with CD-ROM support" or before? I'm stuck here.

[Mijzelf]

After selecting "Start computer with CD-ROM support" you type

sys C: <enter>

xcopy A:\*.* C:\ <enter>

Then you swap the drives, and reboot. You should get the option "Start computer with CD-ROM support" again, and after selecting this you should be able to access the CD.

You can also try to boot from CD.

[Ponch]

After selecting "Start computer with CD-ROM support" you type

sys C: <enter>

xcopy A:\*.* C:\ <enter>

Then you swap the drives, and reboot. You should get the option "Start computer with CD-ROM support" again, and after selecting this you should be able to access the CD.

You can also try to boot from CD.

Oooops, I forgot you need CDRom drivers to read the cd.

First of course, check you cannot boot from CD. Some 98se disks are bootable. If not, you'll also have to copy system files to the C: to make it bootable ("sys c:"), copy config.sys, autoexec.bat and drivers to C: ("copy A:*.* c: /s") do not overwrite system files, then edit the config.sys and autoexec.bat on C: and replace all "A:" by "C:". It is needed on the lines that load CDRom drivers and smartdrive. Good luck.

edit: You cannot just swap the cd "on the fly" as you are not running a plug and play OS and it will not be recognized or readable if not there from the start.

Edited September 26, 2007 by Ponch

[jackpan]

Good news. My neighbor owns a newer Dell Latitude also with swappable drives. His however came with a cable which allows the floppy to be attached externally. I borrowed it and it worked. System is now up and running.

My thanks to all for your valuable assistance. Sorry to put everyone to so much trouble. Much appreciated. You can put this thread to bed.