Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2001 22:00:21 -0000
From: "Matthew Hanson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Aaarrgg - Help
>> > Date: Sat, 17 Feb 2001 07:55:56 -0800
>> > From: "Brian Hunter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> > Subject: Aaarrgg - Help
>> >
>Hi, Need some advice setting up a new (used) Libretto 50ct. When I got the
>50ct it had a clean harddrive with just a dos boot on it, it also came with
>about 43 floppies. Now I need to load W95from floppies everything goes well
>until the setup program asks for disk #4 which is now a bad disk !! I tried
>reading it on my home PC and it thinks its an unformatted disk !! Does
>anyone know where I can get the .cab files for disk 4 from the internet ???
Brian,
Here are a couple links to messages in the Libretto archives that may help
you to set up an external CD-ROM drive in DOS to be able to load a new copy
of the Windows OS:
http://www.technoir.nu/libretto/list/2000/msg02508.html
http://www.technoir.nu/libretto/list/2000/msg03459.html
One way of getting the Windows installation files to your Libretto hard
drive would be to use WinZip, and zip up the entire X\Win9x directory to a
whole slew of floppy disks. I've zipped large files this way from one
Windows system to another both running Winzip, but I'm not sure if you can
execute a DOS command on the Winzip executable in order to unpack all of the
floppy disks to your Libretto HDD from the floppy. I would think Winzip
would take DOS commands, but someone else will have to fill you in on that.
If you can get hold of a W95 FULL INSTALLATION (not an upgrade) CD, and you
can buy or borrow a CD-ROM drive, you can make a startup disk that will help
to get an external CD-ROM drive working with the Libretto in DOS. You may
have to customize your autoexec.bat and config.sys files on the system disk
though. You WILL need access to desktop computer though. The desktop
should ideally be running the same OS, Windows 95 or Windows 98. I don't
know if you would experience problems by trying to install W95 by using this
method with a system running W98.
You may also have to determine which file on the driver disk that comes with
the CD-ROM drive is the drive's driver file, or files if more than one.
Here's what I did:
1. First make a system disk on a desktop computer. Do this by first placing
the Windows installation CD in the CD-ROM driver, and canceling the
installation if it starts automatically.
2. Then go to CONTROL PANEL, click on ADD/REMOVE programs, and then click
the STARTUP DISK tab. With a blank floppy in the FDD, click the CREATE DISK
button.
If you're lucky, Windows will install drivers that will get your new CD-ROM
drive setup on your Libretto. If not, you may have to copy the CD-ROM's
drivers to the STARTUP DISK.
Check to see that the floppy disk contains the following files, they may not
be there:
FORMAT.COM
FDISK.EXE
MSCDEX.EXE
SYS.COM
If they're not there you can copy them from the C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\ folder
to the floppy disk:
3. Now put the floppy disk into the Libretto FDD, and boot the system. When
you get a DOS prompt asking if you want to start the system with or without
CD-ROM support, choose the WITHOUT option.
4. When you get to the a:> prompt you'll need to partition and format the
hard drive if you haven't done it already. Let me know if you are
unfamiliar with that procedure.
5. With a formatted hard drive, execute the following command from the A:>
prompt to copy the system files to your C HDD drive:
a:>sys c:
You might want to check to see that all of the hidden and system files from
the floppy have been copied to your C: drive. To view hidden files on the
FD, type this at the a:> prompt:
a:>dir /ah
Change to the c: drive by typing "c:' and hitting ENTER and do the same
thing. Check to se if the same files exist on both drives.
5. Now execute the following command from the a:> prompt to copy the system
files to your C HDD drive:
a:>copy a:\*.* c:
At this point you should be able to unplug the floppy drive and plug in the
external CD-ROM drive. If you're lucky, the CD-ROM driver files you've
copied from the Windows Startup disk might start your external CD-ROM when
you reboot the system.
So try rebooting the system, and choose the option to start the system with
CD-ROM support. You'll see whether or not the CD-ROM is recognized or not
on the DOS screens during the boot process that follows.
Confirm that you have CD-ROM access when the system finishes booting by
typing "E:" (without the quotes) at the command prompt and then pressing
ENTER. The RAM Drive will be the D: drive, and the CD-ROM should be the E:
drive. If the drive is recognized, you'll get an E:> prompt. Further check
the setup by typing "dir' and pressing ENTER to get the directory list.
If the CD-ROM drive is NOT recognized, it probably means that the standard
Windows CD-ROM driver files are not sufficient to get the drive working. In
that case you'll have to find the driver file on the disk that came with the
CD-ROM drive, and copy it to the startup disk. Then you'll have to edit the
config.sys file on the startup disk.
Open the config.sys file in Windows Notepad, and look for the section titled
[CD]. You should see a line that looks like this:
device=oakcdrom.sys /D:mscd001
Replace the part of that line that says "oakcdrom.sys" to the name of the
driver file that came with your CD-ROM. Or alternatively you could just
create a new line under this one to load your driver separately, but I don't
think you'll need the oakcdrom.sys file to be loaded. BTW: My driver file
was an .exe file
Now this worked for me, but I can't be certain that your drive will only
need the one driver file in order to get the drive operational. I'm not
sure if some drives may require 2 or 3 driver files to be set up in this
section of the config.sys file. My CD-ROM drive only required the one
driver file to be set up here.
So try rebooting your system with this modification, and see if your CD-ROM
is active. Then change to your E drive and type "setup" at the e:> prompt
and press ENTER. There should be a setup.exe file in the Windows CD root
directory. If it's not there type "cd\win98" at the e:> prompt, hit enter,
and try executing the "setup command again.
This is basically the same procedure as what I did to get Windows installed
on my 50CT a couple of times. You may have to wrestle with a few details,
but the basics of the process have worked for me.
Hopefully if I've left anything out, or have made any mistakes in these
instructions, someone on the list will catch them and correct me.
Good luck,
Matt
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