New Build(er) problems mount! Which come First the OS or the MOBO drivers?

[Fishtales]

OK I admit it! I need help!
I am making my first attempt at a new build and I am trying to cannibalize some of the gear (HDD's & CDROM) from the old dinosaur.

My New Kit is as follows:
MOBO: Via P4PB 400 CFl
CPU: Intel Celeron 2.4 GHz, BARE 478 w/400 FSB
RAM: 512 Mbyte, DDR 2700, 333Mhz
AGP: nVidia G-force 4 (MX440-8x)
HDD-0: WD Caviar 31600H 1.62 gigs (to be system drive)
HDD-1: WD Caviar 307AA 30.76 gigs (programs & documents)
CDROM: Mitsumi FX 162 (IDE)
OS: Windows 98 SE (Note: I intended to upgrade to Win 98SE from Win95 on the old system once I had it up and running)

The MOBO installed nicely in my new ATX case (350watt) and the CPU, AGP card and RAM went in cleanly. No smoke on the smoke test. So I'm thinking hook up the hard drives, setup the CMOS, and GO!

When I booted the system, Windows 95 came up in SAFE MODE, but... Windows did not see my CDROM. I could not resolve the problem because every time I rebooted I got "SAFE MODE". (Which won't let you change or install anything!)

So I decided to sacrifice all the stuff on the HDD's, reformat the drives and do a total new install of the OS, starting with Win95 (which was an upgrade version). Using a win95 startup disk I performed FDISK and then FORMAT. No real surprise the OS would only allow small partitions on the big drive. I then reinstalled Win95 (all 13 floppies!) and hit return for the auto reboot at the end of the installation. The boot up screen, states "Starting Windows 95" but after running its' course all I get is A:\>

And... the CDROM is still not active.
Do I need to install the MOBO drivers before the OS in order to get the CDROM recognized? (If I do I'm dead in the water since the MOBO drivers are on a CD.) The Win95 emergency disk, that's supposed to allow boot-up and recognize the CD-ROM appears to be a bust!

I really do not want to fork out for another OS, since I have Win 3.1, 95, & 98SE!
I am obviously doing something wrong, or out of order.

Any advice would be genuinely appreciated.

[John Prophet]

No, the cd should be recognized way before you ever worry about an OS. If the cd isnt being recognized it a matter of either the jumper on the back of the CD or a setting in BIOS. Or a cable issue.

OK, also in safe mode there is no cd anyway.

You have a win98se disk? Is it an upgrade or full disk or what??

I would by all means just try to start with w98se, dont bother with w95 etc.

JP

[woodbutcher]

What is showing up in BIOS as far as the HD's and cd-rom?
Also, what is your primary boot device set to?
Win 95 over 98se?

WB

[John Prophet]

Also..win95 boot disks dont have cd drivers, lol.

You need to get a w98 boot disk and try to just install from the w98 disk...some of the upgrade disks can be "fooled" when they ask for the "qualifying product" by just pointing back to the upgrade disk itself.

JP

[Fishtales]

Wow! you guys are fast!
OK here'e the tale.
JP..
The hard drives I cannibalized for the new build had Win95 on them. I recently bought 98SE upgrade, but hadn't installed it yet. therefore I am working under the assumption that I can use the Win95 emergency disk to boot from floppy, but when I boot from floppy all I get after "Starting Windows 95" is the A: command prompt.

WB..
The bios recognizes both the (2) WD HDD's (It even recognizes the 30 gig capacity of HDD1), the Mitsumi CDROM, and the one 3.5" floppy I've got plugged in. If I put a CD in the tray and give it "E:" I get "Invalid Drive Specification"

Any ideas?

FishTales

[John Prophet]

you need a win98 boot disk so that you will have cd drivers etc.

JP

[crossedup]

Get a w98se boot disk here.

http://www.bootdisk.com/

Do a clean install from that upgrade cd ( assuming you still have the 95 cd), it will ask for that.

Boot from disk , navigate to your cd drive and type in "setup" with the upgrade cd in.

Or just upgrade if you got to much stuff on the drive to lose. Clean install always better though

[dr_roberts49]

You can copy the file, MSCDEX.exe on to your hard drive, and then create an autoexec.bat file to point to it. After you reboot, your CD should appear as drive E, since you have 2 hard drives. Then you should be able to install Win 98SE from the CD, and just stick in your Win 95 floppy when the upgrade asks for it.

Robert

[Fishtales]

OK Folks!

Thanks for the info and help. I really appreciate it!

I made a 98se bootdisk from my other system and used it to install Win98se from the CDROM. Everything seemed to work fine (CDROM now working!) installation proceeded just fine, until the auto reboot.
When the system rebooted we got through all the Cmos table stuff and then got the following:
"Verifying DMI pool Data....."
"EZ-Drive: Initializing..."
"EZ-Drive: Hold the CNTRL Key down for the status screen or to boot from floppy..."
"_ "
The display then stops at the underscore (a blinking cursor) and the keyboard is dead. "Cntrl Alt Del" does'nt even work.

This is exactly what happened when I loaded Win 95, although I did that from the floppy.

Any Ideas?

[Fishtales]

I suppose that the EZ-Drive software is in the way.
How do I get rid of it?

FishTailing