rebuilding old 166 -- CD's won't work

Wizzard~Of~Ozz · February 9th, 2003, 07:17 PM

does kinda seem like a real time chat eh? (no need to say you'll BRB

)
hehe, Ok, we'll do this the easier way,

Download this file http://www.tvtservices.com/boot98sc.exe

Then put a blank disk in your drive and run it (this will make a new boot disk)

After that is done, boot the other machine with that disk.

your CDrom will be drive R:

milehigh · February 9th, 2003, 08:10 PM

Well this is great! now I have a message while I am trying to write the files onto floppy on MY box: "Floppy can't be acceded. Check another application doesn't use it." What on earth is "acceded" and nothing is using it! It first tells me that, "The current image format is not supported by the disk drive," although I tried a quick format first and then a full format [using XP Pro on my box].

So I took the boot98sc.exe and newly formatted blank floppies over to the junk box and it worked. Now have the boot floppy.

okay -- that has worked [tah-dah!]. I did a dir on r: and displayed the contents of the 98SE CD. Now what?

Wizzard~Of~Ozz · February 9th, 2003, 08:17 PM

There should be a setup.exe in the main dir, so try typing

setup and press enter, if that doesn't work there should be a directory called setup, (to get to a directory type
"CD (directory name) and press enter, to go back a directory type "CD .."

milehigh · February 9th, 2003, 08:36 PM

tried the cd r: and it jumped right back to a:>, so I did r:setup.exe and it tried, but came back with this message:
"Cannot create a temporary directory. If you have HPFS or NTFS installed on your hard drive, you will need to create an MS-DOS boot partition to set up Windows." Now what do I do? [son is a Unix admin who's with me on IM and said to format C]. I don't know which FS is on the HDD -- the way it's going, it was probably invented by the Druids!

r: by itself works better, huh? Told you I'd forgotten my DOS nomenclature.

Wizzard~Of~Ozz · February 9th, 2003, 08:49 PM

Ok, what happens if you type dir C: ?

You may have to run Fdisk ( from the A:>)

list partitions.

does it list any?

if not you'll have to create a partition (select create partition) then create primary partition, then select yes to make it the full size of the disk and make it active.

after this is done you'll need to reset the computer, and format C:.

Then try running it.

If there is a partition listed please post the partition info.

milehigh · February 9th, 2003, 09:05 PM

Okay, this is weird --

Tried to do anything with regard to C: and it wasn't recognized. Then did soft boot and got same result. Cold boot -- ditto. Cold boot w/0 floppy to 95 -- said CD problems blah-blah at start up BUT . . . now the CDRW is working!!?!!

I suppose I will try 98SE setup from CD from where it is and hope something normal happens. I haven't any idea why it just now started to recognize the CDRW. If this works, and I think it shoulc, then I will take your recommendation Wizz and toss the Matsushita into the trash bin.

I will post the results and thanks for your able assistance.

Wizzard~Of~Ozz · February 9th, 2003, 09:34 PM

Ok, if you want CDrom support in Win95 (which you were saying it was giving you an error) add this line to your Config.sys file

DEVICE=C:\cd1.SYS /D:banana

save that file,
Then add this line to your autoexec.bat file

MSCDEX.EXE /D:banana /L:R

There may be a line similar to that one in there (except for the banana part) put "REM " in front of that other line and put that one in,

Then copy the file CD1.sys from the boot floppy you made to C:\

Then reboot and it should load your CDrom

milehigh · February 9th, 2003, 10:56 PM

Got 98 SE loaded and everything seems fine at this point, though there is a bunch of DOS junk I have to clean off the HDD and other stuff that people REALLY shouldn't leave on a drive when they give away an old machine. Good thing most of us are honest, isn't it.

I'm going to save this thread for all the good info you have given to me, though. Thanks again!

dunbar · February 10th, 2003, 08:17 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by milehigh
might be, dunbar, 'cause there's a full set of pins on the connection where a normal IDE has a missing pin in the center of the bottom row. If so, THEN what do I do?

Sorry for the delay. If the connector has all of its pins, that is not enough reason (IMO) to declare the drive as non-IDE: I believe I have an older IDE hard disk drive with all the pins. The panasonic interface is sometimes found on certain older soundcards (Googled results). Do a google search for the drive by model number (this link thinks it is a panasonic interface, this link has the drivers).

milehigh · February 10th, 2003, 04:02 PM

Thanks, Dunbar, but at this point I have the CDRW operating which is what I was trying to do in the first place and the machine doesn't like slave devices at all, so I am going to slap in a PCI modem and sound card and call it a day. He wants to dabble in PC's before he puts out any real money and if he wants at some time in the future to have me build him a real one, then I can build him something like I did for myself and only salvage the good stuff off the old one (which at this point will be the CDRW and maybe the new modem). The old Matsushita CR563b is now resting comfortably in the trash. What I thought was going to be a somewhat nostalgic trip into the past evolved into nightmare not unlike trying to build an automobile out of parts [no two from the same car]from a junkyard.