[katkat92]

I am helping someone with their Gateway Solo 2000 laptop. They had tried to install Windows 2000 onto it, not realizing that the laptop could not support Windows 2000. She brought it to me after attempting the install with a blue screen (stop error).

I recommended formatting and reinstalling Win 98. So to make a long story short, we used fdisk to delete both partitions it had, and created just one primary partition. Then ran a format, and it got to about 30% then had a notice "trying to recover allocation unit", after about an hour it was able to finish the format. We restarted and used a boot disk for Win98SE to get to the start screen where it asks if you want to start using CD support or not. We chose start using CD support, then we get to see the drivers load and finally end up at an A: prompt. I can switch between A, C, and D prompts and access the floppy help menu, but cannot get windows 98 to start to load.

I have tried several commands at A: prompt.....setup.exe, win98, win98.exe, etc etc to no avail. Anyone have any ideas how to get Windows 98 to start to install? This is the first time I have encountered this problem, usually the CD starts with no probs.

Help!

(afternote: I did check hardware connections, everything seems fine. Also checked bios settings, didn't see anything that would cause this)

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if D: is the cdrom try

d:\win98\setup

a screen shot of this is at step 8 of the pinned guide for win98(by dhooper)

[bdlt]

if D: is the cdrom try

d:\win98\setup

a screen shot of this is at step 8 of the pinned guide for win98(by dhooper)

[katkat92]

When I type D:\WIN98\setup I get "bad command or file name"

Any other ideas?

[bdlt]

what happens if you type

dir d:

edit -
the cdrom might be E:, so try

e:\win98\setup

Edited by bdlt, 13 January 2006 - 04:08 PM.

[katkat92]

Typing dir:d I get:
Volume in drive A is boot98
Volume serial number 18dc-4220
directory of A:\
file not found

if I try E drive I get invalid drive, I am pretty sure the CD is drive D, I can get a D:\ prompt just no commands work.

Thanks for your help! Any more ideas?

[bdlt]

let's see what's on the D: drive.

type

d:

then type

dir

what is listed?

[katkat92]

I get:
Volume in D is MS-RAMDRIVE

Directory-
ATTRIB
CHKDSK
COMMAND
DEBUG
EDIT
EXT
EXTRACT
FORMAT
HELP
MSCDEX
README
RESTART
SCANDISK
SIS

then back to D:\ prompt

[bdlt]

that tells us that D: is the ram drive.

type e:

if you get an "invalid drive" message, then try fdisk again selecting "with cdrom support".

exit fdisk and type

e:

what happened?

[katkat92]

I get:
device driver not found mscd001
no valid cdrom device drivers selected

then back to A:/ prompt....

shouldn't the Win98 boot disk load the drivers for the cd??

[bdlt]

that's the problem - the generic driver for the cdrom is not being loaded.

let's try this:
change the boot order so the cdrom is the 1st device, then reboot with the win98 cd installed.

[katkat92]

I did that several times, the computer will get to post and show the memory and hard drive...then it hangs for several minutes and you can hear the disc spin about 30 seconds then nothing at all happens.

[katkat92]

I did the cd boot again, and this time I got to a C:\ prompt...nothing else

[bdlt]

unless someone else has a better idea, let's look for a generic driver for the laptop cdrom.

what is the make and model of the cdrom?

[katkat92]

It is a Toshiba XM-1502B floppy/cd-rom combo drive in a Gateway 2000 Solo 9100 Laptop

[bdlt]

thank you for the drive info. let's try to find a driver.

also see if your friend has any original install disks/cds for the laptop.

if anyone else has any ideas, please jump in.