At 03:29 AM 02/03/2000 , Joe Cardamone wrote:
>I have an old Pentium 100MH computer running Windows 3.11, however this system has
>problems and I have decided to reformat the hard drive, reinstall Windows 3.11, and
>apply the Windows 98 upgrade on top of this.
>I have read the information on the nospin web site (great work guys) and I believe I can
>do this. (I have good experience with computers, however no experience installing an
>operating system on a clean hard drive.)
>However I cannot find my original CD Driver disc, and I want to copy the driver before I format.
>Can someone recall where I can find the driver in Windows 3.11?
>I have downloaded the universal CD driver from the nospin site, however knowing my luck,
>I have the 5% which this driver does not work.
>I have a Creative CD Rom, however I do not know what speed. Can I determine the speed in 3.11?
Windows3.xx is not plug-n-play and it is not an operating system.
What does this mean to your situation?
Windows3.xx is a GUI or Graphical User Interface. It provides graphical
screens to allow you to interact using a mouse with the Operating System,
in most cases Microsoft Dos... and usually MS Dos v6.xx
In order to use your CD Rom drive with Windows3.xx, you are required to
setup the CD drive in DOS, before Windows starts. So, let us forget
about Windows in this case, (it is not important to setting up a CD Rom
drive).
You must first determine the manufacturer and model of the CD Rom
drive. This may include removing the case, reading the information
directly from the drive. If the drive is in a position that cannot be easily
viewed, you will be required to remove the drive from the case to read
the label on the drive. Just unscrew the drive, remove the cables and
slide it out far enough to read the information. Write it down and then
slide the drive back into place, reconnecting it exactly as you found it.
While you have the case open, now is a good time to determine how the
drive is configured. If the drive is connected to the IDE controller, the
same controller for your hard drive... that solves one big question: is
it IDE? If the drive is connected to a separate card, such as a sound
card, it maybe proprietary, such as Panasonic, Sony or Mitsumi.
This should make little or no difference, as long as you have the hardware
connected. But, it "might" help to find the driver.
Anyway... now with your CD drive manufacturer and model in hand,
go to our list of CD Rom manufacturer page, to find your drivers,
(this is found on our LINKS page): http://nospin.com/pc/pc0001-1.html
But... if you do not find that your drive's manufacturer still offers the
drivers on their web page, you will need to try other sources for the
drivers. We offer two excellent sites to run them down on our
REFERENCE page: The Fast Find page: http://nospin.com/pc/fastfind.html
There are two great sites for drivers on this page.
Understand that this can be a struggle. You must find the right
driver and load it in your Config.sys file.. with the Microsoft driver,
MSCDEX.EXE also loaded in the Autoexec.bat file, both referenced
together with a common name for your CD Rom drive, something like:
/d:ms0001 (where the "/d:" switch describes the drive to both drivers)
Unlike WIndows95/98, that is plug-n-play and often will solve all this for
you, you must install the proper driver manually in DOS in order for the
drive to be usable. There is no utility I have ever found that can find a
CD Rom drive unless the drivers are installed.
Bob Wright
The NOSPIN Group
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