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Thread: Help - How do I install a driver in dos to format?

  1. #1
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    Unhappy Help - How do I install a driver in dos to format?

    Hi,

    I have a old laptop which I need to format, the CD drive is an external PCMCIA one. It isn't being reconized in DOS (It will in the Bios). So I can't install windows from a startup disk and it can't load a driver for the CD drive.

    I have a driver disk for the cd drive, but haven't got a clue how to load them in DOS. Could anyone help.

    Here's the readme of the driver disk .

    Your help is appreciated.

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    Ummm you say it is recognised under the bios.. Can't you just boot from a bootable CD?

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    One skin, two skin......
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    Windows 98 / ME boot disk will do the trick. It will install mscdex if you choose the option to include cd support.

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    Comfortably Numb directhex's Avatar
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    • directhex's system
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    actually, i've had some PCMCIA drives which aren't supported with the 9x boot disks.

    this is a fairly complex issue to explain, it'd help if you could give me a link to the dos driver

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    think this would work, (if windows still working)

    go into windows, copy the entire contents of the CD to a folder, say "C:\win98cd\" then boot from a startupdisk, delete all other folders, and run the setup.exe file from that folder..

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    Managed to get it working in the end with some help, was a quite annoying problem to say the least. Thanks for the replies though.

    The PCMCIA drive isn't supported in DOS so the drivers had to be added manually.

    For those who might have the problem this is what was needed to do to install the drivers in DOS:

    - Add the drivers of the external CD drive to a folder in a startup disk.
    -Add MSCDEX.EXE to the folder.
    -Modify config.sys and autoexec.bat.

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    Comfortably Numb directhex's Avatar
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    • directhex's system
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      • 2TB Seagate Firecuda 520
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    that's the potted version, yes.

    i forgot my MSCDEX syntax, that was the problem o_O

    it HAS been about 6 years since i've needed to use this stuff...

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    Ditto..
    I was going to suggest using MSCDEX on my second post.. But I've forgoten my syntax as well since Win98 ask you if you want to boot from the CD. If you say yes, it'll set it up automatically (usually).

    Not sure if the same applies to WinXP.

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