Windows 98se & ME DVD drive problem

[MAVERICKS CHOICE]

I have sucessfully created the Multi DVD with XP Pro & Home, 2K, 98 SE & ME.

Only problem I see if I use this disk on another box say I boot it up on the DVD E drive both 98se & ME complain it cannot find the setup on drive D.

When I do this on my machine DVD drive D its works fine how can I overcome this problem?

[nickb834]

Do these machines that it happens on have more than 1 cd / dvd drive? Does your machine that it works on have only one? I think your problem lies in the fact that these pc's Bios does not boot correctly from an optical drive unless it is the master drive on the second channel or the slave on the primary channel. It is due to the way that Win9x/Me handle drive letter assignments, if you have XP/2000/NT4 on the same dvd, do they have the same issue?

Nickb834

[MAVERICKS CHOICE]

The particular machine has a cd burner as d & dvd rom as e, generally no trouble booting off either one. My original machine that i made the dvd off has two dvd burners.

[nickb834]

Hmmmn, strange it sounds as if for whatever reason that as you boot win9x / Me with a command similar to this:

then memdisk /win9x.img

That your dos bootdisk can't see your drives

At this point your MS-DOS disk has booted the PC,before you run the setup.exe command in DOS can you 'cd' to each one of your pc's drives (in effect can MSDOS see all your drives / partitions). If you can then in all likelihood you have made a mistake in editing your config.sys / autoexec.bat files. They should read like this:

AUTOEXEC.BAT

===================================================

EXT

%RAMD%:\extract /y /e /l %RAMD%: ebd.cab > NUL

echo The diagnostic tools were successfully loaded to drive %RAMD%.

echo.

LH %ramd%:\MSCDEX.EXE /D:mscd001 /L:%CDROM%

echo.

cls

echo Now installing Windows 98 SE

echo.

echo Loading...

path=%RAMD%:\;a:\;%CDROM%:\PATH TO WHEREVER ON DVD YOU PUT\98SE\

SETUP.EXE

CONFIG.SYS

===================================================

files=10

buffers=10

dos=high,umb

stacks=9,256

lastdrive=z

device=himem.sys /testmem:off

device=oakcdrom.sys /D:mscd001

device=btdosm.sys

device=flashpt.sys

device=btcdrom.sys /D:mscd001

device=aspi2dos.sys

device=aspi8dos.sys

device=aspi4dos.sys

device=aspi8u2.sys

device=aspicd.sys /D:mscd001

devicehigh=ramdrive.sys /E 2048

Hope this helps

Nickb834

[MAVERICKS CHOICE]

Thanks for your input I'll check these in both my bootdisks pretty sure theyre right but you never know.

[MAVERICKS CHOICE]

Thanks for your input I'll check these in both my bootdisks pretty sure theyre right but you never know.

Please find my Autoexec.bat & Config. sys files

@ECHO OFF

set EXPAND=YES

SET DIRCMD=/O:N

set LglDrv=27 * 26 Z 25 Y 24 X 23 W 22 V 21 U 20 T 19 S 18 R 17 Q 16 P 15

set LglDrv=%LglDrv% O 14 N 13 M 12 L 11 K 10 J 9 I 8 H 7 G 6 F 5 E 4 D 3 C

cls

call setramd.bat %LglDrv%

set temp=c:\

set tmp=c:\

path=%RAMD%:\;a:\;%CDROM%:\

copy command.com %RAMD%:\ > NUL

set comspec=%RAMD%:\command.com

copy extract.exe %RAMD%:\ > NUL

copy readme.txt %RAMD%:\ > NUL

:ERROR

IF EXIST ebd.cab GOTO EXT

echo Please insert Windows 98 Startup Disk 2

echo.

pause

GOTO ERROR

:EXT

%RAMD%:\extract /y /e /l %RAMD%: ebd.cab > NUL

echo The diagnostic tools were successfully loaded to drive %RAMD%.

echo.

LH %ramd%:\MSCDEX.EXE /D:mscd001 /L:%CDROM%

echo.

cls

echo Now installing Windows 98 SE

echo.

echo Loading...

path=%RAMD%:\;a:\;%CDROM%:\SETUP\98SE\

SETUP.EXE

echo.

GOTO QUIT

:QUIT

echo To get help, type HELP and press ENTER.

echo.

rem clean up environment variables

set CDROM=

set LglDrv=

files=10

buffers=10

dos=high,umb

stacks=9,256

lastdrive=z

device=himem.sys /testmem:off

device=oakcdrom.sys /D:mscd001

device=btdosm.sys

device=flashpt.sys

device=btcdrom.sys /D:mscd001

device=aspi2dos.sys

device=aspi8dos.sys

device=aspi4dos.sys

device=aspi8u2.sys

device=aspicd.sys /D:mscd001

devicehigh=ramdrive.sys /E 2048

Any advice mostly appreciated.

[nickb834]

Hmmn, not so sure about your RAMDRIVE - with mine I had loads of problems until I copied flyakites guide (Obviously we need to create a ramdrive with the necessary tools loaded into it - which I got wrong!!). All I can suggest is try and copy what this page says and try it to see what happens:

http://flyakite.msfnhosting.com/98se.htm

Also it looks like you have a two disk 98 boot disk, did you combine them into one 2.88MB image? if so you can remove these lines (It's not important but it cleans things up a bit - less to check for mistakes ):

===============================================

:ERROR

IF EXIST ebd.cab GOTO EXT

echo Please insert Windows 98 Startup Disk 2

echo.

pause

GOTO ERROR

:EXT

===============================================

Mindst you, after thinking about it - you only get this problem on a couple of machines don't you? not all machines - try a bios upgrade as alot of PC's don't support the bootable cd standard properly.

Nickb834

[daywalker03]

I'm having a similar problem, but I get as far as the installion starting before it complains about not being able to find the CD-ROM. I'm doing my testing in Virtual PC and have even tried setting the CD/DVD as slave on the primary controller.

[MAVERICKS CHOICE]

Hmmn, not so sure about your RAMDRIVE - with mine I had loads of problems until I copied flyakites guide (Obviously we need to create a ramdrive with the necessary tools loaded into it - which I got wrong!!). All I can suggest is try and copy what this page says and try it to see what happens:

http://flyakite.msfnhosting.com/98se.htm

Also it looks like you have a two disk 98 boot disk, did you combine them into one 2.88MB image? if so you can remove these lines (It's not important but it cleans things up a bit - less to check for mistakes ):

===============================================

:ERROR

IF EXIST ebd.cab GOTO EXT

echo Please insert Windows 98 Startup Disk 2

echo.

pause

GOTO ERROR

:EXT

===============================================

Mindst you, after thinking about it  - you only get this problem on a couple of machines don't you? not all machines - try a bios upgrade as alot of PC's don't support the bootable cd standard properly.

Nickb834

Certain this image is from a single 1.44mb floppy of 98se.

I have basically followed Chris guide, I had trouble with his downloadable bootdisks recently with the 2k one seemed to be missing files then I produced the boot files using Goshs method with no problems.

[MAVERICKS CHOICE]

Well I have checked through both boot files & appear to be OK.

Just a matter of interest I tried installing both 98 & ME on my dvd E drive & both refused to install. I rebooted the same disc in my dvd d drive & both booted OK. Has anyone noted the same condition using flyakites guide.