Often, Norton System Works CDs will be bootable... You might have something
like that that will "stand-in" as a test CD to allow you to test the CD drive that way...
(For all this reply, the BIOS would have to be set for "boot from CD first".)


If you have no bootable CDs now, you need a friend with a working computer that
has a burner and some burning software that can burn from an ISO file...

You would then need to find a CD "ISO file" to burn to a CD that will allow you to
boot from CD and also provide CD driver support...
I searched for an ISO file of this type... Google found me this:
http://www.allbootdisks.com/iso.html
Read the center of the page, then the D/L link is on the left under ISO images...
(Disclaimer: This seems like a good site, but I never went there before today
and have not tried their ISO files...)

All you want to do is boot from a CD (to use the small OS on the CD)
and run that OS and those CD drivers from that CD to "test" if the CD
drive is working or not...

Actually, stepping back a moment, just booting from the CD tells you that
specific CD drive is working... <grin>

Often Windows looses track of things, and they are actually fine and good
working hardware when run in a different OS or installation...

If the CD drive works when booted this way, the real problem is "in"
the actual Windows installation on your hard drive...  It is better to know
the drive is good or bad before tinkering with Windows trying to fix what
might be a "dead drive"...

                                                   Rick Glazier
----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul E. Mason"
> I have no bootable Win98 CD, nor do I have a 3.5" drive (I never bothered to
> install one when I rebuilt our computers during the last upgrade cycle).
> The best I can do is check from command mode.

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