# Cant use floppy and cd rom at same time...?



## marcg (Jun 12, 2001)

I cant use my floppy drive and my cd rom drive on my laptop at the same time and would like to try and install 98 se from the cd. How would I get the computer to start without a start disk and then be able to copy files from the cd rom drive?
Thanx


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## brendandonhu (Jul 8, 2002)

You need a startup disk to install windows no matter what.

Sounds like an IRQ conflict. Go into device manager. Are there any yellow ! or red Xs next to any of the items?

You may want to check the websites of the floppy/cd rom manufacturers and update the drivers and firmware.


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## Lurker1 (Jan 30, 2001)

See my reply to your other post where you asked this question.


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## LANMaster (Jan 6, 2003)

Hi Marc,

If I guess your laptop correct, you can only have either the CDROM or the Floppy plugged in at the same time.

When you start up, access the BIOS and see if you can change the boot-up sequence to boot CD, then Floppy, Then HD.

You may be able to install that way.

LAN


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## top_gizmo (Jun 28, 2003)

I agree with LANMaster..... change the boot sequence and boot from CD. Also, just to check... dont you have a cable to run your floppy from? Many Dells come with a short cable that plugs into the parallel port for the floppy to run external...?????

Top


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## marcg (Jun 12, 2001)

It's cool I suppose, I found a "long" workaround to the problem kind of. I wasn't able to get any of the info posted on how to copy the start disk files over to the "c" drive to make it bootable to work successfully. It seems as though there is something missing in there that someone either doesnt know or they are leaving it out by accident, not sure. I mean I can get it to boot from the "c" drive and all, but it just doesnt seem to want to load the oakcdrom.sys driver like it does from the "a" drive. There are no references to the "a" drive to change in any of the .bat or config.sys files either. I've tried a couple different sites where it tries to explain this, but like I said, somethin' isnt checking out for some reason. My long workaround is that I just install windows 2000 from the cd rom, but since it runs slowly on the first generation pentium 166, I would rather have 98 on it, so I partition magic the drive, copy the setup files for 98 to the new partition, and reformat etc...And finally after days and days, lol, 98 is on the ancient laptop. If anyone knows of a guaranteed method of successfully booting from the "c" drive and getting the cd rom driver to load just like it does from the trusty floppy in the "a" drive, please let me know for future reference. Thanx

marcg


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## Lurker1 (Jan 30, 2001)

I don't understand your problem? If you can boot to a 2000 cd you should be able to boot to a windows 98 cd. The full version is bootable just like the 2000 cd.


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## marcg (Jun 12, 2001)

It's not the full version, its 98 upgrade.


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## top_gizmo (Jun 28, 2003)

I take it then that you are running Windows 95, and you want to upgrade to Windows 98SE from the CD. 

Boot into windows 95, insert the CD, if it does not autorun, open my computer and right click on the CD, then on the pop up menu you will left click on Autorun, it should prompt you to upgrade.


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