Formating and reinstalling windows....

CoolJ · Post by **CoolJ** » Fri Oct 17, 2003 6:52 pm

My cousins computer needs to be formated. When we go to make a startup disk on his computer, it dosent work. It says it can't find files on the win98 cd (Valid copy). He needs a startup disk so after we format and reboot, his cdrom will be recognized so we can install windows.

Any suggestions?

Sid · Post by **Sid** » Fri Oct 17, 2003 7:03 pm

You can either put the cdrom in the drive and when it comes up go to add remove programs from the cd menu. you can create one there too, orgo to bootdisk.com and download the startup disk.

CoolJ · Post by **CoolJ** » Fri Oct 17, 2003 7:12 pm

Thanks bro

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Fri Oct 17, 2003 8:05 pm

Or something even easier...simply boot from the Win98 disk.

Sid · Post by **Sid** » Fri Oct 17, 2003 8:32 pm

Originally posted by YeOldeStonecat
Or something even easier...simply boot from the Win98 disk.

I assumed that the cd wasn't bootable or the bios didn't support it. I guess I should have mentioned it.

CoolJ · Post by **CoolJ** » Sat Oct 18, 2003 8:20 pm

Originally posted by Sid
bios didn't support it.

It will not recognize the cdrom unless a boot disk is ran.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Sat Oct 18, 2003 8:26 pm

Originally posted by CoolJ

It will not recognize the cdrom unless a boot disk is ran.

Even if you select CD as primary boot device in the BIOS? Just about all mobo's since middle Pentiums support El Torido.

brianosmi · Post by **brianosmi** » Sat Oct 18, 2003 8:30 pm

I ran into this just a few days ago with my father in laws computer. Exact same situation... would not create a startup disk, wanted the win98 cd installed, couldn't find the files on the cd.

I ended up just sticking the windows98 cd in, started reinstalling windows just up to the create startup disk point, created my startup disk, backed out of the setup, reformatted and reinstalled my os fresh.

Hope this helps.

brianosmi · Post by **brianosmi** » Sat Oct 18, 2003 8:33 pm

Just read up through the thread again and it sounds like you had already gotten it. Sorry!

CoolJ · Post by **CoolJ** » Sun Oct 19, 2003 11:54 pm

Originally posted by brianosmi
Just read up through the thread again and it sounds like you had already gotten it. Sorry!

Oh don't be sorry! Thanks for the reply! I also found this when I was browsing around:

BOOTDISK METHOD. Will make the same Startup floppy from the DOS prompt as the CREATE DISK METHOD.

Boot the hard disk to the command prompt by holding the F8 key just as Windows boots and select MS-DOS Mode from the menu or open a DOS window.

Put a blank floppy in the A: drive, change directory to c:\windows\command directory and Issue the bootdisk command as follows:

c:\>
c:\>cd \windows\command
c:\>bootdisk a:

brianosmi · Post by **brianosmi** » Mon Oct 20, 2003 5:11 am

Hey, that's one to put away for future reference! Thanks for sharing.