[Toocool]

Help! ! !
I am trying to install win98 on a Gateway 266. I have followed the "Clean Install" instuctions from this site. The BIOS Boot order has been reset to: 1st Floppy; 2nd CD; Hard drive to boot last. When FIRST rebooting after the BIOS Exit. I don't recieve the option to boot from the Floppy or CD. (It's not the screen shown)The machine blinks on an empty curser. Put in the Floppy, give it the "Three Finger Satute" and it goes to a normal boot, asking if CDROM support is wanted or not.
I have done the Fdisk and format commands from the Floppy 98 Boot Disk. Was that a mistake? Do i need to perform those actions from the CD?
Win98 will load from a floppy boot with CDrom support. However, on last boot and final setup. the CDrom is not turned on and Windows cannot access the disk to make final settings stick and complile the right drivers. This causes a whole bunch of requests that have to be skipped. It does complete installation and Windows does start. On reboot, there is a Dos error message about missing file Vnetbios.vxd.
In the Control Panel I tried to "find new Hardware". The CD rom is not found. Click on "My Computer" icon and there is no CDrom drive showing.
Are there manual commands that can be given or place somewhere to turn the CD on?
Thankx for your time

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You do not get an option to boot from either floppy or cd on the screen. When you set the boot-order in the BIOS, this simply tells the system in what order to check for the presence of a bootable disk. Taking your boot sequence as an example --- if there is no boot disk in drive 'A' the system will then check the CD drive. If there is no bootable CD there, the system then checks the primary hard disk to see if it's bootable.

You were correct in using the Win 98 floppy to fdisk and format. You should then re-boot and start from floppy again and this time say 'yes' to cd-rom support. Then put Win 98 cd in drive, change to the cd drive letter
(usually 'E' in DOS), then type setup and press ENTER.

One last point. Don't assume that Win98 CDs are bootable. Many of them are not. That's why you have to start up in DOS with the floppy and choose the option to have cd-rom support.

[pip22]

You do not get an option to boot from either floppy or cd on the screen. When you set the boot-order in the BIOS, this simply tells the system in what order to check for the presence of a bootable disk. Taking your boot sequence as an example --- if there is no boot disk in drive 'A' the system will then check the CD drive. If there is no bootable CD there, the system then checks the primary hard disk to see if it's bootable.

You were correct in using the Win 98 floppy to fdisk and format. You should then re-boot and start from floppy again and this time say 'yes' to cd-rom support. Then put Win 98 cd in drive, change to the cd drive letter
(usually 'E' in DOS), then type setup and press ENTER.

One last point. Don't assume that Win98 CDs are bootable. Many of them are not. That's why you have to start up in DOS with the floppy and choose the option to have cd-rom support.

[bdlt]

the following reference(excellent) is on this site. It provides step by step instructions for installing win98. pip22 is describing the bottom line of the screen shot for step 8.

http://www.geekstogo...s_98-t9803.html

[Toocool]

pip22, Thanks for the reply, It's good to know that I am going in the right direction. I have done all that is discribed from this web site. But I do not see the screens, step 2 and step 10.
I still have no idea what becomes of the cdrom after the final reboot.
Any ideas?
Thanks bdlt. I am using this site as my model for order of operations.

[bdlt]

Some installations may vary slightly. If the pc boots from the floppy, then screen shots 2 & 10 may not appear.
As for the cd, I find it best to remove the cd only after seeing 'Weclome to Windows 98' at step 12. I have removed the cd too early and had to redo the win98 install.

[Toocool]

I have not been removing the cd through the installation process. Could that be the problem?

[bdlt]

If you remove the cd prematurely you will never see 'Welcome to Windows 98' at step 12 and may have to start over. This shouldn't be causing you any problems since you are not removing the cd during the installation.

[Toocool]

Any idea why the CDRom doens't load on final reboot. It tries to load files but cannot read the cd because the drive isn't turned on.

[bdlt]

If you see 'Welcome to Windows98' at step 12, the cd is no longer necessary.

if not:
Do you see the clock setting at step 11?
Where does the cd fail?
Is there an error message?

[Toocool]

I understand that the Cd is no longer needed after step 12.
Yes I go through the clock setting.
When the machine reboots after step 11
The CDROM Drive is not available, poof, gone,
There are drivers needed on final setup but the drive is missing.
I cannot access the 98cd to finish a clean install.
Have to skip a bunch of file setups in order to get to the screen at step 12. After that there are errors in the device manager.
THkx again 4 u'r help

[bdlt]

This is very unusual. The cd rom is probably ok, since it runs through step 11. At this point, I would try another win98 cd, if you have one.

Just to be clear, step 11 completes successfully(clock settings AND Window 98 setup), then on the last retart the cd does not work.

Does it prompt the user to enter/select the path during 'file setups'?

[bdlt]

One change at step 7 you might try next time you install:

instead of A>D:\WIN98\format c:
try A>D:\WIN98\format c:/s

the /s makes the drive bootable

[Toocool]

In order to make things clear.
1st, windows 98 loads but with many errors
2nd, C-drive will boot.
The problem is;
When I first load the 3.5 floppy with CDROM support.
The CD Drive is accessable.
Go through the setup system for Windows 98.
I start the process with CD drive working, coping files.
When Windows reboots for the last time and is setting up hardware, etc.
Windows is unable to find the CD-Drive in order to retrieve the right drivers. After skipping everything that cannot be set up, we come to Step12.
When you double click on "MyComputer",
the cdrom drive is not displayed and you cannot get to it in Dos.
It's like it was never there.
Now if I copy the Autoexec and Config to .old files and then compare them after setup. Shouldn't they be relatively close? I mean as far as device names and paths.

[bdlt]

I don't believe the autoexec and config files are involved, but I'm sure if they are someone out there will chime in. I would be tempted to try another cd-drive and/or another win98 cd at this point. I don't know of any Gateway/cd-drive compatibility issues.

[bdlt]

Another idea - have you tried running memtest?


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