At 08:56 AM 08/18/2000 , you wrote:
>I built a computer, not my first, but the first time I attempted to actually copy my
>existing hard drive to a new computer.  I may have done this backwards. I took the new
>hard drive and attached it to my existing computer and partitioned it and did the
>format, then copied my existing hard drive to the new one.  I then attached the new
>drive to the new computer. Did not plug in anything non essential (sound cards, modems,
>etc) I wanted to make sure everything else was running first. The initial boot up seemed
>to go fine, the hard drive and cd-rom were recognized in the BIOS, and Windows detected
>the new devices. BUT, I could never get it to start again. It gets to the point where it
>says starting Windows 98 and just hangs there.  It will go into safe mode, and when I go
>to the performance tab in the properties of My Computer, I get:
>File System:  Some drivers are using MS-DOS compatibility
>Virtual Memory: MS-DOS Compatibility mode
>Select an item and click for details for more info:
>There are 3 items listed:
>Compatibility-mode paging reduces overall system performance
>Drive A is using MS-DOS compatibility mode file system
>Drive C is using MS-DOS compatibility mode file system
>When I click for more details it says something about Dos drivers in the config.sys or
>autoexec.bat files. I checked those and the only thing in them were statements about the
>cd-rom. I put REM in front of those, just on the off chance it was that, but it made no
>difference.
>At this point I am just lost!!  Does anyone have any ideas????


The advice Paul and Mary has given you is sound.   I see this exact issue
regularly when we upgrade a PC's motherboard.  Your existing Windows
configuration is for the former motherboard and Windows is attempting to
load the device drivers associated with the old motherboard.

The easy fix for this is to boot into safe mode.  Then open Device manager,
go down to the Hard Disk controllers and System Devices areas in Device
Manager.  I recommend deleting all the drivers listed for System Devices
and the driver for the hard disk controller.   Now, reboot and let Windows
discover it is missing these drivers, it will re-detect the hardware and install
new drivers for your hardware configuration.

If you have installed Windows from your CD Rom drive, you will need to have
loaded CD rom drivers in your Config.sys and Autoexec.bat files in order to
use your CD Rom drive while the system is in this state.  You can remove
them later.  Copy a Universal CD Rom driver to your hard drive, (one is
available on our web site in the files area), if you do not have one on your
system.

Then, add these lines to your files:
    [Config.sys]
device=c:\windows\himem.sys
device=c:\D011v200.sys /d:001     (this line needs to reflect the driver and it's location)

    [Autoexec.bat]
LH C:\windows\command\mscdex.exe /d:001

In this way, when the system requests to Windows CD to reload the drivers
your CD rom drive will be available.

    Bob Wright
The NOSPIN Group

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