Where's my CD-Rom Drive???

[ArkiStan]

Ok here's the deal. A while ago I had only one HDD. So my HDD was the C: drive and my CD-ROM was my D: drive. Recently I added a second HDD as a slave. So both C: and D: are now HDDs. My CD-ROM drive still works in Windows (I assume it was automatically transfered to become the E: drive). However, in DOS there is no CD-ROM drive anymore. I want to play an old DOS game and it won't work without a CD-ROM drive. Can somebody tell me how to make my computer recognize the CD-ROM drive??

[jameslee]

What version of Windows are you using, and are you trying to play the DOS game from within Windows?

You most likely need to install DOS drivers for your CD-ROM, or modify the config.sys and autoexec.bat files to compensate for the new hard drive letter. (i.e. Make the lines for your cd-rom driver and MSCDEX read 'E' instead of 'D' for the cd-rom drive letter.)

If this sounds like the right solution, post your autoexec.bat and config.sys contents and we should be able to tell you what lines to modify.

James

[ArkiStan]

Hey thanks for the quick reply. Let's see...

I have Win98. The game has to be played completely in DOS so it wouldn't work symply by running the "MS-DOS" from windows. I had to completely exit windows to start the game. Once in DOS, the game will start (company logo appears w/ music) but then the game kicks me out to the DOS prompt again giving me the message "No CD." I'm not sure if this matters but both hard drives are working fine in DOS (each as C; and D: ). I'm guessing the CD-ROM is no longer being recognized....

And here are the things you asked for (I opened them with notepad...hmm.. :hmm: for some reason these don't look right. They used to be much more complicated back in the old Pre-Windows days) :


from AUTOEXEC.BAT

loadhigh C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\nlsfunc.exe C:\WINDOWS\country.sys
REM [Header]
@ECHO OFF











REM [CD-ROM Drive]

REM [Miscellaneous]

REM [Display]

REM [Sound, MIDI, or Video Capture Card]

REM [Mouse]

SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T4
SET PATH=C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND;C:\HNC\;C:\PROGRA~1\DATAMAN
PATH=%PATH%;C:\NETGAME



from CONFIG.SYS

REM [Header]



REM [CD-ROM Drive]

REM [Miscellaneous]

REM [SCSI Controllers]

REM [Display]

REM [Sound, MIDI, or Video Capture Card]

REM [Mouse]
REM ------------------
device=c:\windows\biling.sys

DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\setver.exe



.

[jameslee]

Sorry i didn't reply sooner, but i just toasted my server. :(

Question 1: Did this game work before you installed the second hard drive? Installing the second hard drive shouldn't have modified your configuration files which means if the game worked before, then it worked without having access to your CD-ROM.

Question 2: How are you getting to DOS to run the game? (e.g. <F8> on bootup, shutdown to DOS)

From what i can tell, it seems like you need to load the DOS drivers for your CD-ROM. You'll have to lookup your CD-ROM's make & model and download & install it's DOS drivers. (There's another option, which is grabbing the generic CD-ROM drivers from the Windows 98 Emergency Boot Disk, but it might be slightly more complicated.)

There should be a lot of information online about setting up Windows 98 to run DOS games. Just do a search for "windows 98 dos games". Here's one hit i briefly looked through, although i'm sure it's not the best: http://www.mvps.org/winmac/win95dos.html

James

[ArkiStan]

Sorry about the toasted server. Don't tell me you accidently rebooted your bagel? :heh: ehhh....anyway.

Q1: I installed the slave HDD a month ago and yesterday was the first time I've tried this game. I've never even tried using my CD-ROM in DOS before, cause this is the first time I've needed it. But when I installed the slave HDD, I didn't mess with any files at all. I just set the jumper switches on the HDD and plugged and played.

Q2: I've tried the DOS game from a DOS window and it told me I had to exit all programs for it to run. After the opening screen of the game, it couldn't find the CD and restarted Windows. So then I rebooted in MS-DOS mode. In that case it just kicked me out to the prompt when it couldn't find the CD. I haven't tried the <F8> method. I'll try that now.

[ArkiStan]

Ok the F8 method didn't work either. My CD-ROM drive still wasn't recognized and the same thing happened. Now I want to edit my config.sys and autoexec.bat files, but why do mine look like that?? What's up with all the brackets?? Why are they so simplified??

[jameslee]

Server's back up and running within the hour. Gotta love programs like Norton Ghost and Drive Image Pro. : )

Increasingly starting from Windows 95, less and less is loaded from the autoexec.bat and config.sys files. These are mainly used for legacy hardware and software compatibility now. Most of the drivers and such that used to be loaded by this file are now loaded via windows (e.g. the Registry, system.ini, etc.) If memory servers, Windows starts with empty config.sys and autoexec.bat files. If that's true, then your files look as if they've been setup for generic use by an OEM or the like. Did you buy your computer as an entire system somewhere (e.g. Dell, Micron, Gateway, etc.)?

Here's the deal, you generally don't want to load DOS drivers for your CD-ROM everytime you use Windows, since they'll most likely hinder the drive's performance in Windows. Taking this into consideration, you can: use a boot disk to load the drivers whenever you want to play the game, use a boot menu to select the loading of windows vs. the loading of dos with CD-ROM drivers, or edit windows so that the CD-ROM drivers are loaded when you shutdown to DOS.

They each have pros and cons.
. Boot disk: gotta have it handy every time you want to play the game.
. Menu: gotta select/wait for the menu every time your computer boots, whether-or-not you're gonna play the game.
. Shutdown: gotta boot Windows then shutdown to DOS every time you want to play the game.

Let's try to run the game using the generic CD-ROM drivers included with the Windows 98 Emergency Boot Disk.

Making the boot disk:

. Go to Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs
. Select the last tab and follow the instruction to create the boot disk

After the disk is created, shotdown windows. Now startup the computer using the boot disk. You'll get a prompt to: load the cd-rom drivers, not load them, or access the help file. Just hit enter to load the cd-rom drivers.

The boot disk also creates a RAM drive where it places several utilities. As a result, your CD-ROM's drive letter will be shifted by one. Thus, if you have two hard drive with only one partition on each drive, your drive letters will be:

. C: Master hard drive
. D: Slave hard drive
. E: RAM drive
. F: CD-ROM drive

If you read the prompts during bootup, the disk will tell you the letter of the RAM drive and the letter of the CD-ROM. Try running your game this way.

Note: The boot disk doesn't load legacy utilities like smartdrv and emm386 which can improve DOS performance for games, so the amount of available memory for the game is limited.

Doesn't really matter though, considering this is mainly a test to see if we can get the CD-ROM to run under DOS with generic drivers at all, or if you have to get the drivers designed specifically for you CD-ROM.

James

[ArkiStan]

:eek: Woah....

you da man James...I bet you're Korean!! :D
I'll try it out and let you know how it goes.
Right now I need some sleep. Downloading MP3s
can be really tiring!!

thanks again!