Raymond said...
>This is a Win95 Question, dont know if it is common to all operating systems
>so here goes. I`m getting ready to do my first clean install and have been
>collecting avery bit of info that I can and printing it out for reference.
>I would like to know how the cd-rom is accessed in dos .

There's nothing wrong with what everyone else has told you, but for my 2 cents worth this is how I do it.

You should hopefully have the CD ROM drive floppy that came with the CD ROM device. This only works, (as far as I know) with CD ROM's that are not running from the sound card, which some older ones did.

Boot the computer with the Win95 boot disk.

When at the A:\ prompt type Format C: /s  This will format (wipe and prepare) the
 hard disk and load the system files for making the hard drive self bootable. Press the enter key when it asks for a volume name, unless you want to give the hard disk a name.

Remove the floppy and reboot the computer, (press Control-Alt-Delete simutaneously).

Once you're at the C:\ prompt reinsert the Win95 boot disk.

Type Path A:

Then type edit autoexec.bat

A blue edit window will open.

Type @echo off  This just creates the autoexec file which the CD ROM floppy will look for later. When done press seperately but consequetively alt-f-x and hit the enter key.

You'll come back to the C:\ prompt.

Type edit config.sys

A blue edit window will open.

Type Device=Himem.sys When done press seperately but consequetively alt-f-x and hit the enter key.

Now type copy A:\Himem.sys C:

Dos should report 1 file copied

Now type copy A:\MSCDEX.exe C:


Dos should report 1 file copied

You can check that the files were copied by typing at the C:\ prompt DIR

If you see the two files above (Himem.sys and MSCDEX.exe) then you're almost there.

Now insert your CD ROM floppy, most CD ROMs will work from generic dos drivers so you could borrow one if you haven't got one or download one as suggested earlier.

Now type A: at the C:\ prompt, Dos will change to the A:\ prompt

Type Install.exe or setup.exe (depends on what is on the disk - you can check by typing DIR at the A:\ prompt and seeing which is offered).

The program on the floppy will execute and should report that it has installed the CD drivers for Dos. You'll need to reboot the machine, make sure you remove any floppy's. If you only have the one hard disk, then you will be assigned drive letter D: for the CD ROM. Check by typing D: at the C:\ prompt and hit the enter key and it shoul
d change to D:\

From there you just type Setup and with the Win95 CD in the drive, hit enter and hopefully you'll be on your way.

Good luck.

Regards Roger.

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