HI,
You might have luck booting with a WIN98 or WIN98SE boot disk.
(If it is an IDE drive and not a SCSI or proprietary.)
If the system has a recovery CD there might be a readme file there that
might help.

If Win95 is still operational you can look into the autoexe and config
for hints of what drivers need to load for it to work in DOS.
Make a bootable floppy, copy & paste the autoexe and config to it then
edit out any unnecessary item.
(Usually if you make a start-up disk will not be enough room left for all
the driver files.)
Copy the drivers to the floppy then edit the autoexe and config to point
to the driver location on the floppy.
Usually this is simply means changing the drive letter from C: to A: and
maybe changing the directory name.

These examples for an OAK,

        Autoexec.bat
        A:\MSCDEX.EXE /D:mscd001

        Config.sys
        device=oakcdrom.sys /D:mscd001

These examples are from an IBM SCSI,

        Autoexec.bat
        C:\BIN\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD000 /M:10

        Config.sys
        DEVICE=C:\DEV\FDCD.SYS /D:MSCD000 /T

It would be easier to help with more info on the drive and if it is
plugged into an IDE port on the motherboard or a proprietary interface
card or even directly into the sound card thru a proprietary connector.

If it is a older drive (2x, 4x, etc) be aware it probably will not be
strong enough to read a CD-R disk.
It would help if the disk was burned at the slowest speed the drive will
allow. (1x or 2x preferably)

Once you find out the brand and model number of the drive you might have
some luck at BOOTDISK.COM

Hope this helps,
Clint Worley

On Sat, 18 Sep 2004 16:04:29 -0700 Joseph Ombaka <[log in to unmask]>
writes:
> does anyone know of a way to make windows 95 recognise a cd drive
> without reinstalling the operating system.
>
> have tried playing with the config and autoexec files but no luck
> there.
>
> also tried the boot disk but no luck
>
> I need help bad
>
>
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