Installing Win98 on a Dell Vostro 400

[Tommy]

This is a project I'm having a very hard time getting off the ground. Even if I can't get it fully functional, I'm trying to at least get Windows 98 installed on this computer. But there's a problem. I cannot get the install CD to recognize the SATA CD-ROM drive. I get that part. I do have the hard drive set as IDE and I know it is being detected as I'm able to FDISK it with no issues at all. So, my question lies with how can I get the CD-ROM drive to be recognized. I've already tried using I think it was called Magic Boot Disk V2 (It was this: http://hddguru.com/software/2006.02.10-Magic-Boot-Disk/) That doesn't recognize my CD drive, I've tried putting the installation CD on a flash drive, that didn't work, I've tried making a bootable flash drive and I couldn't get that to work either. Is there something else I can try to try getting this project rolling? Sadly this board has absolutely NO IDE channels on it except for floppy possibly but I don't even think it has that. I think it's a crappy Foxconn board that's so dumbed down. Going back to the floppy drive, that makes it harder because I don't have any floppy disks anymore and very few computers of mine have them anymore. But luckily this Dell can boot from a flash drive and also USB CD-ROM so I'm not totally out of things if I can get a few suggestions. Any suggestions is appreciated!

[rloew]

You can use GCDROM to recognize the SATA CD-ROM.

You will probably need my SATA Patch to use your Hard Drve reliably in Windows.

[Tommy]

I've come across the GCDROM solution but I'm not sure about how to go about using it, I've seen a few syntaxes you have to add and then I've heard changing the name to oakcdrom, which one is right or what is the right solution to using it?

[jaclaz]

See also here:

http://www.mdgx.com/newtip1.htm#CDROM4

http://www.mdgx.com/drv.htm

XGCDROM, UIDE and ODDCDROM should also do.

jaclaz

[schwups]

This is a project I'm having a very hard time getting off the ground. Even if I can't get it fully functional, I'm trying to at least get Windows 98 installed on this computer. But there's a problem. I cannot get the install CD to recognize the SATA CD-ROM drive. I get that part. I do have the hard drive set as IDE and I know it is being detected as I'm able to FDISK it with no issues at all. So, my question lies with how can I get the CD-ROM drive to be recognized. I've already tried using I think it was called Magic Boot Disk V2 (It was this: http://hddguru.com/software/2006.02.10-Magic-Boot-Disk/) That doesn't recognize my CD drive, I've tried putting the installation CD on a flash drive, that didn't work, I've tried making a bootable flash drive and I couldn't get that to work either. Is there something else I can try to try getting this project rolling? Sadly this board has absolutely NO IDE channels on it except for floppy possibly but I don't even think it has that. I think it's a crappy Foxconn board that's so dumbed down. Going back to the floppy drive, that makes it harder because I don't have any floppy disks anymore and very few computers of mine have them anymore. But luckily this Dell can boot from a flash drive and also USB CD-ROM so I'm not totally out of things if I can get a few suggestions. Any suggestions is appreciated!

Did you try to install Win98 from HDD? (Copy your install CD to the HDD) You could add the Intel ICH9 driver http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/163405-slipstreamable-intel-chipset-inf-drivers/#entry1043949 for your G33 chipset. Leave the setting IDE in BIOS.

[schwups]

There are possibilities to burn a DOS Boot CD.

[tincup2]

If you *can* get a W98se floppy boot disk you could try copying the Win install files to one of your other PCs, hook the project drive to the host machine, transfer the install files to a non C: partition on the project drive, return the project drive to the build in progress, boot off the floppy, navigate to where the install files are and run setup.