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No fixed disks present.

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Nefarious

Registered
Joined
Oct 5, 2003
Location
Upstate SC
I have an old system that needed a CD-ROM, video card, sound card, and hard drive and so I got all of that and installed everything. I made a win98SE Boot disk from http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm I made the one that says "Windows 98 SE OEM | Alt "

Anyways I have a Win95 CD and a Win98SE upgrade CD I was going to use to install Win98SE on the system. I put the flopy in the drive, booted up and select, I think it says, "Boot with CD-ROM support" the first option. Then, at the "A:\>" I typed "FDISK" and get this message below:

No fixed disks present.
A:\>

Few questions:

Did I make the correct boot disk?
I have to install Win95 first then Win98SE since it says upgrade, right?
What am I doing wrong?
What is "No fixed disks present?"
What do I do?
 
Nefarious said:
Did I make the correct boot disk?
I have to install Win95 first then Win98SE since it says upgrade, right?
What am I doing wrong?
What is "No fixed disks present?"
What do I do?

1) Yes, that should work fine, but the 98 CD may be bootable (maybe not because it is an upgrade)

2) I don't think so, if I remember correctly you will just need to put the win95 cd in during the install process. It should ask for it.

3) ??

4) FDISK cannot find a fixed disk. Is the drive detected in bios? How is it connected?

5) check your connections, check the jumpers.
 
I figured it out....I had the CD-ROM and the hard drive on the same cable and no jumpers. I fixed it. I realize I could search this site, but if you could please answer these questions:

For Win98SE whats better: NTFS or FAT32

What kind of partition do I create? Primary dos?
 
I partitioned it and formated it and now im trying to install win98SE and when I restart my computer I boot to: C:\>

How do I install Win98SE, I thought having the CD in would make it boot to the CD to install it.
 
Last edited:
Nefarious said:
I figured it out....I had the CD-ROM and the hard drive on the same cable and no jumpers. I fixed it. I realize I could search this site, but if you could please answer these questions:

For Win98SE whats better: NTFS or FAT32

What kind of partition do I create? Primary dos?

Fat32 is the only option for 98, NTFS is not supported.

How do I install Win98SE, I thought having the CD in would make it boot to the CD to install it.

I don't think the upgrade discs were bootable, or you don't have the cdrom in the boot order in BIOS. Check the BIOS.

If it is in the boot order before the hard drive and it still won't boot to the CD you need to use the boot disk and boot with cd-rom support and run setup from there.
 
I have it set for the CD-ROM to boot first and it doesnt work.

When I use the boot disk and boot with cd-rom support I go to a screen that says this:

Device driver not found: 'MSCD001'.
No valid CD-ROM device driver selected

and some other whatever then:
A:\>

What do I do?
 
I get the same exact screen.

I turn computer on with WIN98SE CD in CD-ROM and the Bootdisk you told me to make and I select the option to start with CD-ROM support and I end up at:

Device driver not found: 'MSCD001'.
No valid CD-ROM device driver selected

and some other whatever then:
A:\>
 
To the best of my knowledge I do.

However, I took it out of an old Packard Bell and it was hooked to an IAS car that had like everything on it. I have whatever that cable is called that hooks from the CD-ROM to the sound card connected and it fits, but now that I think about it, thats probable it.

oh and it worked in the packard bell.
 
ok, I tried a different CD-ROM(the one from this machine)

I booted to the floppy....CD-ROM support with the WIN98SE CD in and went to the same screen except it said this:

MSCDEX Version 2.25
Copyright info...
Drive E:= Driver MSCD001 Unit 0
blah blah blah
A:\>

So what do I do?
 
The only thing that I have come up with to do is to install WinXP then downgrade to WIN98SE.........Is that possible?
 
Nefarious said:
ok, I tried a different CD-ROM(the one from this machine)

I booted to the floppy....CD-ROM support with the WIN98SE CD in and went to the same screen except it said this:

MSCDEX Version 2.25
Copyright info...
Drive E:= Driver MSCD001 Unit 0
blah blah blah
A:\>

So what do I do?

from A:\
type (without the " ")
"E:"
then
"Setup" (I think, if that doesn't work type DIR and look for the .exe setup file)

That will take you into the setup program.

I would also try to boot off the CD now that you have a CD drive that works.

No - you can't downgrade any version of windows, only upgrades are possible.
 
Booting from the CD will only work for certain versions of NT4 and Windows 2000 and later OS disks. You'll need the boot floppy to install 98. Alternately, you could make a boot cd by using a boot floppy and using it to make a bootable CD using floppy emulation.

From the boot disk, make sure that you have created and formatted the partition on your HDD. Information in the Sticky here:

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=115746

For a faster installation and to avoid having to use the CD key and have the OS disk available to install hardware, make a directory on C: and copy the Win98 directory into it, then run setup from there. Use these commands starting at the A: prompt:

C:
MD WINFILES
D:
CD Win98
COPY *.* C:\WINFILES\*.*
C:
CD WINFILES
SETUP

At this point setup will begin.
 
Xaotic said:
Booting from the CD will only work for certain versions of NT4 and Windows 2000 and later OS disks. You'll need the boot floppy to install 98. Alternately, you could make a boot cd by using a boot floppy and using it to make a bootable CD using floppy emulation.

OEM Windows 98SE CD's are bootable, I wasn't sure if the upgrade discs were the same.

Xaotic said:
From the boot disk, make sure that you have created and formatted the partition on your HDD. Information in the Sticky here[/B]

He's got that covered:
Nefarious said:
I partitioned it and formated it and now im trying to install win98SE and when I restart my computer I boot to: C:\>


Xaotic said:
For a faster installation and to avoid having to use the CD key and have the OS disk available to install hardware, make a directory on C: and copy the Win98 directory into it, then run setup from there. Use these commands starting at the A: prompt:

C:
MD WINFILES
D:
CD Win98
COPY *.* C:\WINFILES\*.*
C:
CD WINFILES
SETUP

At this point setup will begin. [/B]

This is a great idea, but you will still need to enter the CD-key.
 
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