yes i was using a floppy bootdisk for win98. that was the operating system
that was last on the laptop and the one i have a cd for reinstalling.
understood. i will try that this evening. i will get the info on the floppy
boot to a cd and change the laptop bios to load the cd module first at
startup and see how it goes.
-- i might be back!
thank you jeff.

"Jeff Richards" wrote in message
...
Which bootdisk are you referring to? If it's the floppy, that won't work,
even though it seems the floppy has the right files on it. The CD drivers
will not load properly if the CD drive isn't connected.

If your laptop allows booting from CD, then you can use your CD writing
software on the desktop machine to make a bootable DOS emergency startup
CD using any of the DOS or W98 startup disks available at bootdisk.com.

Otherwise, you will need to set up the hard disk as bootable, with the
required commands to install the CD drivers, then connect the CD drive and
boot to the hard disk.

There's a description he
http://kb.iu.edu/data/ajgd.html

Note that your manufacturer may specify something other than the
OAKCD*.SYS for the CD driver file - you may need to alter these references
to suit.

Also, the site uses the name MSCD001 for the CD device name, whereas
others use MSCD0001 - it doesn't matter what you use, but it is critical
that you are consistent.

If you are already booting to the hard disk with the CD drive connected
and you are getting that message, then the CD drivers are not loading
properly. Watch the boot process very carefully to see the error message
that is occurring before the MSCDxx not found message.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)

"pemo" wrote in message
...
thanks for reply.
when bootdisk starts screen asks to choose if i want cd support. i choose
yes and when bootdisk finishes screen states MCD001 not found. so when i
hook up cd module it is never found on laptop. dell site has cd drivers,
but when copied onto floppy and floppy put in laptop module, can't get it
to load in dos. to laptop