How to Turn On CD-ROM Support in MS-DOS Mode (293185)

SUMMARY

A situation may arise where you are unable to gain access to your computer's CD-ROM drive. For example, one of the following conditions may occur:

• Microsoft Windows 98 does not start.
  
  -or-
• The CD-ROM drive is not accessible in Windows.
  
  -and-
• The CD-ROM drive is not accessible in MS-DOS.
  
  -and-
• The computer does not have a working floppy disk drive, and therefore you cannot use the Windows 98 startup disk.

This article explains how you can gain access to your computer's CD-ROM drive when it is not accessible in MS-DOS or Windows, and the computer does not have a working floppy drive (so you cannot use the Windows 98 startup disk).

NOTE: The procedure described in this article works only for Windows 98. To gain access to the drive in Windows 95, you need to configure the system to use the existing MS-DOS-mode CD-ROM driver, provided by the CD-ROM manufacturer. Windows 98 includes a real-mode generic ATAPI CD-ROM driver (Oakcdrom.sys) that you can use to gain access to the CD-ROM when booting into MS-DOS. Although CD-ROM manufacturers package CD-ROM drives with a floppy disk that contains the specific drivers to use, the floppy disk or the floppy disk drive may not be available.

The following procedure works for most integrated device electronics (IDE) CD-ROM drives:

NOTE: This procedure assumes that C:\WINDOWS is the Windows directory. Modify the path specified in the procedure to match your configuration.

Step 1 - Verify That the CD-ROM Drivers Exist

Verify that the following files exist on your hard disk: To do so, type the following commands at the command prompt and press ENTER after each line:

Step 2 - Rename the Autoexec.bat File Config.sys Files on Your Hard Disk

1. Restart your computer, press and hold down CTRL until the Windows 98 Start menu appears, and then click Safe Mode Command Prompt Only.
2. At the command prompt, type the following commands and press ENTER after each line:

   ren autoexec.bat autoexec.xxx
   ren config.sys config.xxx

   NOTE: You may receive the following message:

   File not found - File name

   This message can be ignored.

Step 3 - Create New Autoexec.bat and Config.sys Files

Create a new autoexec.bat file and a new config.sys file that contains the CD-ROM drivers.

To do so, follow these steps:

1. At the command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER to create the Autoexec.bat file:

   edit c:\autoexec.bat

   The MS-DOS Editor starts.
2. Type the following lines and press ENTER after each line:

   PATH=c:\Windows;c:\Windows\command
   c:\Windows\command\mscdex.exe /d:mscd001

3. Press ALT, press F, and then press S to save the file.
4. Press ALT, press F, press O, type c:\config.sys, and then press ENTER to create the Config.sys file.
5. Type the following:

   device=c:\Windows\command\ebd\oakcdrom.sys /d:mscd001

6. Press ALT, press F, and then press S to save the file.
7. Restart your computer.
   
   NOTE: The computer will start in MS-DOS mode, and the drive letter that mscdex assigns to the CD-ROM will be listed. (For example, "Drive E: = Driver MSCD001 unit 0").

Step 4 - Restore the Original Autoexec.bat and Config.sys Files

After you have completed the steps and this configuration is no longer required, you can restore the original Autoexec.bat and Config.sys files. Although these files are not required for Windows 98, they are used for backward compatibility with programs created for MS-DOS or Microsoft Windows 3.1x.

To do this, follow these steps:

1. Restart your computer, press and hold down CTRL until the Windows 98 Start menu appears, and then click Safe Mode Command Prompt Only.
2. At the command prompt, type the following commands, pressing ENTER after each line:

   ren autoexec.bat autoexec.yyy
   ren config.sys config.yyy
   ren autoexec.xxx autoexec.bat
   ren config.xxx config.sys

3. Restart your computer.