I need help!!!

[UglyCasanova]

I turn on my computer and everything runs fine. I have an Epox 8k7a motherboard. When I try to enter Bios it says enter disk. I put the CD in, hit enter, and it doesn't work. There wasn't a floppy disk that came with it that I misplaced is there? Do you have to have an OS to do it? I don't have Windows yet.

 

[MrBond]

Is this a new drive? If so, you'll need a windows98 boot disk, which will get you to a command prompt, from which you can format and install an os. If you're using Windows2000 (or plan on using it) as long as the bios is set to boot from a CD, just put the win2k cd in and be it will install.

 

[VBboy]

You don't need any disks to enter BIOS. When you say &quot;trying to enter BIOS&quot;, do you mean &quot;hitting the <DEL> key&quot;?

 

[UglyCasanova]

This is a brand new system. I don't have Windows to install yet. All I am trying to do is set up my BIOS. It seaches the floppy drive for a disk, but I don't have a floppy disk, it is on CD. How do I make it seach the CD?

 

[UglyCasanova]

It says hit <CRTL-F2> to enter CMOS, that is what I was trying to say. I looked through my manual and did't see anything about the delete key. I'll try that. Bear with me, I haven't ever done this before.

 

[UglyCasanova]

Delete key worked. Feel like an idiot now. Now, I do have a Win 98 CD from my old computer. How do I install it? Do I just put the CD in and it will go from there? CPU is 41 now, what is a good temp for it?

 

[samgau]

It should be able to boot directly from the cd... if not then you have to make a cd-rom boot disk... its normally supplied with the win98 cd...

 

[NelsonMuntz]

You should be able to make a boot disk on your other computer and then use it to start up (it should boot automatically from the disk - don't press <CTRL-F2>) and then choose to startup with CD-ROM support and run setup from the Windows 98 CD.

 

[UglyCasanova]

OK, how do I make a boot disk? Also, is 44 Celsius a reasonable temp to run at, or is it too hot?

 

[UglyCasanova]

bump: how do I make a boot disk?

 

[UglyCasanova]

Alright, got my boot disk and it worked, except it said:

Device driver not found: 'MSCD001'.
No valid CDROM device drivers selected

To get help, type HELP and press ENTER.

A:\>



What now? My CD-ROM should work. I used the CD support thing. Does anyone know whats going on?

 

[VBboy]

You make a Boot Disk after installing Windows. &quot;Start Menu&quot; | &quot;Settings&quot; | &quot;Control Panel&quot; | &quot;Add/Remove Software&quot; - there is a button to make the Boot disk on that screen somewhere.

You should set up BIOS in such a way that CD-ROM is the first boot device, then floppy, then hard drive. That way, it will spin the CD when you boot it up, looking for the boot sector. If present, it will try to load the Windows Setup.

Otherwise, you will need to have someone make a real Boot Disk for you. &quot;Real&quot; means from Windows, which will provide you with CD-ROM drivers. If you make a regular (good old DOS) one, it will not load any CD-ROM drivers and you will be unable to install the OS from the CD.

 

[UglyCasanova]

Make it boot from the CD instead of the floppy?

 

[UglyCasanova]

It also says that drive C does not contain a valid FAT or FAT32. It says it may need to be partitioned and to run FDISK.

 

[UglyCasanova]

Ok. I did FDISK and fixed that problem. The only thing wrong now is I have no CD-ROM driver. How do I get one?

 

[Hoober]

You'll need to run FDISK in order to prepare the drive for formatting. You can do all of this from the DOS prompt. When you're at the A: prompt type:

C:\
Then at the C:\ prompt type fdisk

That will take you through the fdisk utility for your harddrive. Once you've gone through the Fdisk program successfully, reboot the computer. Leave the boot disk in the computer. At the A:\ prompt type:

C:\
Then at the C:\ prompt type format c:

That will format your harddrive so that you may load your OS on it and other programs.

 

[UglyCasanova]

I tried to format C but it said invalid media type. Is it even reading it as my hard drive? Also it still says it can't find CD-ROM drivers.

 

[Jvolm]

OK...you need a Win98 boot disk, or you need to boot to CDROM.

Easiest is to boot to CD ROM:
1) enter BIOS ...Hit DEL key on bootup ;=)

2) You need to change your first boot device. It's under &quot;BIOS features setup&quot;, I think.

3) Look for &quot;Boot sequence&quot; or &quot;First boot device&quot;. You need to set this so that the first boot device is the CDROM.

4) Put the Win98 CD in the drive &amp; exit the BIOS, saving your settings. Windows should install now.


If you have to make a Win98 boot disk...this is going to be a bit more difficult, because you don't have any CD drivers. The best way would be to use a friend's computer to make one. I think they put the boot disk image on the distro CD...I know they do for W2K, I'm not sure about Win98.

Try to boot from CD. Try to find a friend with a Win98 computer &amp; make a boot disk. If that doesn't work, post back &amp; we'll see.

 

[blargyblarg]

to make it boot from your win 98 cd, go into bios, find the section that lets you change the boot sequence. it will have options like removable disk, cdrom, hard drive, etc. make it so the first boot device is the cd-rom drive. save changes, it will reboot. make sure you have the windows cd in. choose the option to boot with cd-rom support. cd to your cd-rom drive and type setup.

 

[UglyCasanova]

Ok, I can't get bios to recognize my CD-ROM. It is saying my master and slave on second channel is set to none. Where do I set them?

 

[Hoober]

Try hitting &quot;auto-detect&quot; if that's on option. If not, there's something configured incorrectly inside your computer. Either the jumper settings aren't correct, or the cable is not plugged in correctly ie. 1 pin is in wrong position.

 

[blargyblarg]

open up your pc, look on the back of the cd-rom drive, you will see a set of pins with one or more jumpers on it. the settings for the jumper(s) may be listed on the top of the cd-rom drive, otherwise they are in the manual. you need to set the jumper correctly for master or slave.

 

[MrMilney]

Or you can go to www.bootdisk.com and download a bootdisk image including CD-ROM drivers to boot from. Easy to follow instructions can be found on the site.

 

[Jvolm]

If your BIOS is not seeing the CD, you've got problems other than no boot disk. Here's what you need to do (unless, of course you've already fixed it)...

Open the case. How many IDE devices do you have? If it's only 2 (CD and hard drive), then plug the CD into IDE2 and the hard drive into IDE2; 1 or 2 is probably marked next to the 2 IDE ports on the mobo. If not, look in the mobo manual. It will tell you which is which. Be sure the HD is plugged into IDE1!

If you have more than 2 IDE devices, you need to set the hard drive to &quot;master&quot; and the CD to &quot;slave&quot;. At this point, you MUST hum &quot;Master and Servant&quot; by Depeche Mode. Otherwise it won't work. It's best if the song stays stuck in your head all day long.

To set them, check the docs that came with the hardware. It may be stamped on the drive, so check there, too. The jumper is the little plastic looking thingy that plugs over a set of metal pins on the back of the device.

Once this is done, start you computer into BIOS, and set it to autodetect all IDE devices.

Hopefully that will work.

 

[UglyCasanova]

Thanks all of you. It wasn't jumpers because I set all of those. You are going to either a)laugh at how dumb I am, b)hate me for wasting your time, or c)both a and b. When I was installing some other things I knocked a cable loose and didn't realize it. When I checked it, the cable was laying on the connector giving me the impression that it was connected, but it wasn't.

I am now installing Windows 98 (1st version, not second ), and it is formating my HD. I guess 60GB takes a while to format because it is slow. Oh well, I don't care now. I'm just so happy !