Are all Win98 Startup Floppies the same?

For some reason I can't create a proper boot floppy (Startup floppy) on
my Win98SE Dell Inspiron 5000 notebook... it can't find certain files.
Can I use the Win98SE startup floppy I created on my desktop, or
will it contain configuration data incompatible with the notebook?

TIA

Ed

They're pretty much all the same in the basics. Unless your needs include
special items or methods, it should work just fine on your laptop. If you
can clue us in on just what you're trying to accomplish on the laptop, we
might be better able to assist--whether any special files or methods need to
be added.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User

"Ed" wrote in message
...
For some reason I can't create a proper boot floppy (Startup floppy) on
my Win98SE Dell Inspiron 5000 notebook... it can't find certain files.
Can I use the Win98SE startup floppy I created on my desktop, or
will it contain configuration data incompatible with the notebook?

TIA

Ed

The start up disk that you create from the control panel creates a ram disk
during installation. The start disk created using the Fat32ebd.exe file
located on the W98 CD: tools/mtsutil/fat32ebd does not. Other than that,
both should be the same unless special drivers are needed for the cdrom
drive in the laptop.

--
Regards


Ron Badour, MS MVP for W98
Tips: http://home.satx.rr.com/badour
Knowledge Base Info:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=kbinfo



"Ed" wrote in message
...
For some reason I can't create a proper boot floppy (Startup floppy) on
my Win98SE Dell Inspiron 5000 notebook... it can't find certain files.
Can I use the Win98SE startup floppy I created on my desktop, or
will it contain configuration data incompatible with the notebook?

TIA

Ed

Thnaks, Gary. I'm trying to migrate (gracefully) to XP Pro on the laptop.
The plan is to free up sufficient HD space to allow a dual boot, preserving
Win98SE through at least the first few weeks/months of getting XP set up and
populated with needed software. I have just completed this on my desktop
and am very happy with the outcome.

The problem on the laptop is it's failing to boot from the XP installation
CD.
Even though I have the BIOS boot sequence set for CDROM/floppy/HD
it rushes past the inserted bootable CD and continues on into booting
Win98 off the HD.

I believe I've trace to missing DOS-support DVD-CDROM drivers.
I say this because I get an error "can't find MSCD001" when trying to
create a Win98 setup floppy on the machine. The floppy thus created will
boot the machine, but recognize the DVD-CDROM. This bears enough similarity
to the failure to boot from CD that I think the root cause is the same...
somehow
the DOS driver has become corrupted or deleted from the machine. THe
DVD-CDROM
works fine under Win98.

I'm aware of a couple alternatives, e.g., install XP off of floppies, or
using
the Winnt installer from the XP installation CD after copying the i386 dir
to the HD. However, I'd like to fix the basic problem if I can.

Ed


"Gary S. Terhune" wrote in message
...
They're pretty much all the same in the basics. Unless your needs include
special items or methods, it should work just fine on your laptop. If you
can clue us in on just what you're trying to accomplish on the laptop, we
might be better able to assist--whether any special files or methods need
to be added.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User

"Ed" wrote in message
...
For some reason I can't create a proper boot floppy (Startup floppy) on
my Win98SE Dell Inspiron 5000 notebook... it can't find certain files.
Can I use the Win98SE startup floppy I created on my desktop, or
will it contain configuration data incompatible with the notebook?

TIA

Ed

"Ed" wrote in message
...

I believe I've trace to missing DOS-support DVD-CDROM drivers.
I say this because I get an error "can't find MSCD001" when trying to
create a Win98 setup floppy on the machine.

This error message indicates an error
in your AUTOEXEC.BAT because it reads
MSCD001 as a DOS command or file (that
cannot be found). But MSCD001 is a parameter
setting in the command
LH %ramd%:\MSCDEX.EXE /D:mscd001 /L:%CDROM%

Your quickest solution would be to download a new
Win98 bootiing floppy from www.bootdisk.com.
It will include models of AUTOEXEC.BAT and
CONFIG.SYS that you can edit if they do not
by themselves boot your PC the way you want.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

"Ed" wrote in message
...
Thnaks, Gary. I'm trying to migrate (gracefully) to XP Pro on the laptop.
The plan is to free up sufficient HD space to allow a dual boot,
preserving
Win98SE through at least the first few weeks/months of getting XP set up
and
populated with needed software. I have just completed this on my desktop
and am very happy with the outcome.

The problem on the laptop is it's failing to boot from the XP installation
CD.
Even though I have the BIOS boot sequence set for CDROM/floppy/HD
it rushes past the inserted bootable CD and continues on into booting
Win98 off the HD.

I assume you know this disk is bootable because you can boot to it on the
desktop machine. Do you have any other bootable CDs you can use to test the
laptop? To see if it's just the XP CD that won't boot or if it's any
bootable CD? Because if no CD will boot on that machine, it's a matter for
research at the laptop manufacturer's site--BIOS update, perhaps? Or some
other odd known problem.

HOWEVER: Many machines prompt for a key press to launch a bootable CD. You
have 5 seconds, perhaps, to press the key, otherwise it skips the CD boot
and proceeds to the next device in the list. Perhaps you aren't seeing the
prompt? Try repeatedly pressing the Enter key as your system is booting
up. (Don't hold the key down or you may get a stuck-key error.) For
convenience, put in any NON-bootable floppy disk, first, so that if the CD
boot again fails the process will be halted with an error when the floppy
can't boot, instead of continuing on to a full Windows startup.

I believe I've trace to missing DOS-support DVD-CDROM drivers.
I say this because I get an error "can't find MSCD001" when trying to
create a Win98 setup floppy on the machine. The floppy thus created will
boot the machine, but recognize the DVD-CDROM. This bears enough
similarity
to the failure to boot from CD that I think the root cause is the same...
somehow
the DOS driver has become corrupted or deleted from the machine. THe
DVD-CDROM
works fine under Win98.

Assuming you have a standard XP installation CD, DOS doesn't have anything
to do with it. The XP CD has its own operating system that doesn't use DOS
at all. Only issue that might involve DOS drivers is if you're booting from
a DOS-based OS, whether on the hard drive, a floppy, a CD or any other
bootable device. Doesn't apply to XP Setup.


I'm aware of a couple alternatives, e.g., install XP off of floppies, or
using
the Winnt installer from the XP installation CD after copying the i386 dir
to the HD. However, I'd like to fix the basic problem if I can.

I'm not aware that XP can be installed from a set of floppies. I'd be *very*
surprised if this is true. I'm also fairly certain that you can't use a
standard Windows 9x floppy Startup disk to access the XP install CD and
install. I'm guessing that perhaps it's possible to load something from a
floppy that will do the job, but again, I'd be surprised. Floppies simply
aren't big enough.

I'm not familiar with installing WinXP from the HD, I just haven't done
it--maybe once several years ago. Sorry, can't help you there.

Here's another idea: If you've already repartitioned your drive to create a
partition for the XP system (or sufficient free disk space in which to
create a partition, since XP Setup has its own partitioning tools) why don't
you just run the XP installation CD from within Windows 98? If I recall
correctly (which isn't a given, considering my current memory difficulties)
Setup will offer you the option to install XP clean to the new partition,
place the boot manager files on the Win98 side (like it always does unless
it can't see the 98 side), and you will have what you desire, exactly the
same as if you'd begun installation by booting the CD. I may be wrong, it
may yet require a step involving booting up to the CD, but it's worth a try.
Go slowly, and if you're not absolutely certain that Setup is doing what you
want it to, Cancel out immediately.

Oh, and since this is primarily an XP issue, you should be asking in an XP
Setup newsgroup, s. A vast number of the tricks and solutions involving
Win9x systems are absolutely inapplicable to XP Setup. Hardly anything at
all in common. Posting to this NG has, from what I can tell, distracted you
into more than one inapplicable solution.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User

Makeing 6 boot floppy diskettes is an option with XP for PCs that do not
have a boot CD option in the bios setup.

If done by the user, would have XP installed by now.

However the user is at this point addressing the boot CD failure at this
point with one particular supposedly bootable CD. This could be simply
media failure as addressed by attempting boot from known bootable CDs.
Wonder if he/she is going to attempt that?

"Gary S. Terhune" wrote in message
...
"Ed" wrote in message
...
Thnaks, Gary. I'm trying to migrate (gracefully) to XP Pro on the
laptop.
The plan is to free up sufficient HD space to allow a dual boot,
preserving
Win98SE through at least the first few weeks/months of getting XP set up
and
populated with needed software. I have just completed this on my desktop
and am very happy with the outcome.

The problem on the laptop is it's failing to boot from the XP
installation
CD.
Even though I have the BIOS boot sequence set for CDROM/floppy/HD
it rushes past the inserted bootable CD and continues on into booting
Win98 off the HD.

I assume you know this disk is bootable because you can boot to it on the
desktop machine. Do you have any other bootable CDs you can use to test
the
laptop? To see if it's just the XP CD that won't boot or if it's any
bootable CD? Because if no CD will boot on that machine, it's a matter for
research at the laptop manufacturer's site--BIOS update, perhaps? Or some
other odd known problem.

HOWEVER: Many machines prompt for a key press to launch a bootable CD. You
have 5 seconds, perhaps, to press the key, otherwise it skips the CD boot
and proceeds to the next device in the list. Perhaps you aren't seeing the
prompt? Try repeatedly pressing the Enter key as your system is booting
up. (Don't hold the key down or you may get a stuck-key error.) For
convenience, put in any NON-bootable floppy disk, first, so that if the CD
boot again fails the process will be halted with an error when the floppy
can't boot, instead of continuing on to a full Windows startup.

I believe I've trace to missing DOS-support DVD-CDROM drivers.
I say this because I get an error "can't find MSCD001" when trying to
create a Win98 setup floppy on the machine. The floppy thus created will
boot the machine, but recognize the DVD-CDROM. This bears enough
similarity
to the failure to boot from CD that I think the root cause is the
same...
somehow
the DOS driver has become corrupted or deleted from the machine. THe
DVD-CDROM
works fine under Win98.

Assuming you have a standard XP installation CD, DOS doesn't have anything
to do with it. The XP CD has its own operating system that doesn't use DOS
at all. Only issue that might involve DOS drivers is if you're booting
from
a DOS-based OS, whether on the hard drive, a floppy, a CD or any other
bootable device. Doesn't apply to XP Setup.


I'm aware of a couple alternatives, e.g., install XP off of floppies, or
using
the Winnt installer from the XP installation CD after copying the i386
dir
to the HD. However, I'd like to fix the basic problem if I can.

I'm not aware that XP can be installed from a set of floppies. I'd be
*very*
surprised if this is true. I'm also fairly certain that you can't use a
standard Windows 9x floppy Startup disk to access the XP install CD and
install. I'm guessing that perhaps it's possible to load something from a
floppy that will do the job, but again, I'd be surprised. Floppies simply
aren't big enough.

I'm not familiar with installing WinXP from the HD, I just haven't done
it--maybe once several years ago. Sorry, can't help you there.

Here's another idea: If you've already repartitioned your drive to create
a
partition for the XP system (or sufficient free disk space in which to
create a partition, since XP Setup has its own partitioning tools) why
don't
you just run the XP installation CD from within Windows 98? If I recall
correctly (which isn't a given, considering my current memory
difficulties)
Setup will offer you the option to install XP clean to the new partition,
place the boot manager files on the Win98 side (like it always does unless
it can't see the 98 side), and you will have what you desire, exactly the
same as if you'd begun installation by booting the CD. I may be wrong, it
may yet require a step involving booting up to the CD, but it's worth a
try.
Go slowly, and if you're not absolutely certain that Setup is doing what
you
want it to, Cancel out immediately.

Oh, and since this is primarily an XP issue, you should be asking in an XP
Setup newsgroup, s. A vast number of the tricks and solutions involving
Win9x systems are absolutely inapplicable to XP Setup. Hardly anything at
all in common. Posting to this NG has, from what I can tell, distracted
you
into more than one inapplicable solution.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User

The 98 startup diskette, even if it finds the XP install CD, is useless for
installing XP. The booted OS environment is not suitable for XP's setup
installation.

You need either to boot from the XP CD, or from the user created 6 XP boot
floppies.

Concerning the 98 startup diskette, the mscdex.exe line doesn't need a
MSCDXXXX switch if you only have one CD device you intend to access and
don't need to delegate a non-sequential drive letter if its singular. Its
possible that oakcdrom.sys is not finding a cdrom device to begin with. In
that case you need a replacement for oakcdrom.sys that works with your CD
reading device in real mode msdos.

Is the XP install CD retail, or a borrowed/copied one meant for another
brand name notebook or PC? Is the install version a full install or
upgrade?
Are you trying to do an upgrade, or write over the current operating system
and all its files entirely?

"Ed" wrote in message
...
Thnaks, Gary. I'm trying to migrate (gracefully) to XP Pro on the laptop.
The plan is to free up sufficient HD space to allow a dual boot,
preserving
Win98SE through at least the first few weeks/months of getting XP set up
and
populated with needed software. I have just completed this on my desktop
and am very happy with the outcome.

The problem on the laptop is it's failing to boot from the XP installation
CD.
Even though I have the BIOS boot sequence set for CDROM/floppy/HD
it rushes past the inserted bootable CD and continues on into booting
Win98 off the HD.

I believe I've trace to missing DOS-support DVD-CDROM drivers.
I say this because I get an error "can't find MSCD001" when trying to
create a Win98 setup floppy on the machine. The floppy thus created will
boot the machine, but recognize the DVD-CDROM. This bears enough
similarity
to the failure to boot from CD that I think the root cause is the same...
somehow
the DOS driver has become corrupted or deleted from the machine. THe
DVD-CDROM
works fine under Win98.

I'm aware of a couple alternatives, e.g., install XP off of floppies, or
using
the Winnt installer from the XP installation CD after copying the i386 dir
to the HD. However, I'd like to fix the basic problem if I can.

Ed


"Gary S. Terhune" wrote in message
...
They're pretty much all the same in the basics. Unless your needs
include
special items or methods, it should work just fine on your laptop. If
you
can clue us in on just what you're trying to accomplish on the laptop,
we
might be better able to assist--whether any special files or methods
need
to be added.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User

"Ed" wrote in message
...
For some reason I can't create a proper boot floppy (Startup floppy) on
my Win98SE Dell Inspiron 5000 notebook... it can't find certain files.
Can I use the Win98SE startup floppy I created on my desktop, or
will it contain configuration data incompatible with the notebook?

TIA

Ed

Don,

Thanks. I do now see that. However, the floppy from bootdisk.com
doesn't help either.

Ed

This error message indicates an error
in your AUTOEXEC.BAT because it reads
MSCD001 as a DOS command or file (that
cannot be found). But MSCD001 is a parameter
setting in the command
LH %ramd%:\MSCDEX.EXE /D:mscd001 /L:%CDROM%

Your quickest solution would be to download a new
Win98 bootiing floppy from www.bootdisk.com.
It will include models of AUTOEXEC.BAT and
CONFIG.SYS that you can edit if they do not
by themselves boot your PC the way you want.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

Thnaks, Gary.
I assume you know this disk is bootable because you can boot to it on the
desktop machine.

Correct.

Do you have any other bootable CDs you can use to test the laptop? To see
if it's just the XP CD that won't boot or if it's any bootable CD?

I don't have another bootable CD that I can think of.

Because if no CD will boot on that machine, it's a matter for research at
the laptop manufacturer's site--BIOS update, perhaps? Or some other odd
known problem.

I believe the problem is teh Dell needs special DOS drivers for the
DVD-CDROM.
However, I can't create one. When I try I get many errors saying it can't
find files... such as winboot.sys, ebd.cab, aspi2dos.sys, etc etc. I expect
this
is because at some point I needed the HD space so I deleted a directory
that had all the Win98SE installation files that were put there by Dell,
thinking
I could restore tnem from one of the 3 CDs that came with the machine.
Unfortuantely,
these CDs do not appear to have all the files.

HOWEVER: Many machines prompt for a key press to launch a bootable CD. You
have 5 seconds, perhaps, to press the key, otherwise it skips the CD boot
and proceeds to the next device in the list. Perhaps you aren't seeing the
prompt? Try repeatedly pressing the Enter key as your system is booting
up. (Don't hold the key down or you may get a stuck-key error.)

I thought ablut that too... played around with the theory a bit and decided
that
wasn't the problem.

Ed