Thinkpads Forum

Hi,

I have a thinkpad 765d and want to reinstall windows 98 on it.I use a boot disket win95 with cd-rom support.
I would like to know wich command i should give to allow the installation with the cd.
I have tried win98\install,cdwin98,cd, and many other combinations but nothing works. I always receive the message: invalid command.
The only thing who worked was¨format c,¨to format the hard disk.
To make tests, I have tried other commands like scandisk ,ver and so on, and it works.

Thanks.

Change the working directory to the drive letter for the CD-ROM and run setup.exe

How do you do this? with the cd or chdir commands?

The Win98 CD should be bootable. If your Thinkpad cannot boot from a CD, type the drive letter of the CD-ROM drive followed by :. For example if the drive is D, type D:. Then type dir to see if setup.exe is listed. If it is then type setup.exe and the installation should start.

When I submit a letter followed by :., i receive an error message for all letters except a and b. The message is invalid drive.In the b case they ask me to insert a diskette. A is the current boot diskette drive.
Maybe these additionnel informations can help to solve the problem: after diskette boot, this appears on the screen:
- starting windows 95
- cd-rom device driver for IDE (four channels supported)
- copyright OAK technology inc. 1993- 1996
- driver version: v340
- device name: banana
- transfer mode: programmed I/O
- drive0: port=1f0 (primary channei slave IRQ=14)
- firmware version: 1.21
- mscdex version: 2.25
- copyright microsoft 1986-1995
- drive R= driver banana unit 0
-A:\
When I use a win98 boot diskette, i receive the following messag

I don't understand your dilemma. Isn't "B:" your CD-Rom drive , "A:" the floppy drive you booted up from, and "C:" your hard drive? So then type "B:" , "dir" , and then you should a list of all files on the Windows 98 CD, including "setup.exe" (if not, then "cd win98"). Then type "setup" to run Windows 98 setup.

Which drive letter is assigned to your CD Rom drive?

Also reference: http://www.inanis.net/blog/index.php/te ... m-scratch/ and http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/libr ... 51126.aspx

Daniel.

- A is the floppy diskette
- B seems to exist and if I typr B:., he will ask me to insert a diskette
- C is the hard disk, I have formated it with a win98 boot diskette and since that time I cannot use the win 98 diskette.I receive this error message: 1) erreur d'E/S 2) insert another diskette and press any key (in french).
- As i can remenber, E was the letter of the cd drive.
-If I type A or B alone, i will receive an invalid command message.
- if I type dir, the list of files on the boot diskette will appear.
- if i type R:., the cd drive will make noise during 5 seconds

Normally when booting from the '98 start disk A and B are assigned to floppy drives with C being the first hard drive. If only one hard drive is present, then D is assigned to the ROM drive. The command should be D: setup.exe

I would try to boot from the floppy and run the command again. Unless you accidently formated it, the '98 boot disk should work fine.

O.K. I have found that the letter R is assigned to the cd-rom, A and B being two floppies letters.
When I type R:, the first letter of the prompt command is changed for a R. If again, I type dir/s, the two files on the cd appear on the screen; one being key.txt (1mo) and windows98se.iso (655mo).
I know that the program setup.exe is in windows98....iso.
Wich dos command I should type to extract setup.exe from windos...iso and run setup to make the installation?
Notes: The commands setup.exe and dir*.exe don't work.

This just made a sudden turn. What you are using is a badly burnt, pirated copy of Windows.

I have downloaded it from a website using google search engine.How can you know it's a good or bad version?

@penseur, You can identify a genuine Microsoft Windows CD by the holograph on the CD. Of course, if you downloaded it from the interwebs, you can be assured it is not genuine. But, you can probably still use it. Is there a Win98 COA (license) on the 765d?

I'm going to guess that you did not burn this disk as an iso. Am I right?

@penseur: I won't get into the above debate. I don't know all the circumstances so it's not my place to judge. You know if you have a legitimate COA and must decide about compliance with MS EULA (Microsoft End User License Agreement).

penseur wrote:Wich dos command I should type to extract setup.exe from windos...iso and run setup to make the installation?

The windows98se.iso file is not executable by itself. You must use a CD burning program such as I.B.M. RecordNow to burn that .iso file onto a bootable CD. Step by step instructions here on "How To Burn an ISO Image File to a CD...": http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofth ... sofile.htm

If this .iso file is not corrupt then the result of a proper burn should be a Windows 98 CD with "setup.exe" file which you can run to reload Windows 98 onto your laptop.

Bonjour.
Daniel.

Neil wrote:
I'm going to guess that you did not burn this disk as an iso. Am I right?

I don't know what it means for now, but I will search on the web to see what you are talking about. I have ever installed this version over an existing version and seen no differences. Everything was going well. I have another version ,.zip or .rar, but i think it cannot works on ms-dos.
Recently I have downloaded and installed xp sp3 for my main computer, was it a good idea?

Neil wrote:@penseur, You can identify a genuine Microsoft Windows CD by the holograph on the CD.

Windows 98 discs don't have holographs on them. Windows ME and 2000 do, however.

Anyway, back on topic: use imgburn to burn the iso to a disc.

Thanks;
I have burnt the diskette with freeisoburn (01net) and made the installation 2 days ago. Everything was fine and fast, including the "time out modem error message" who has disappeared.But...
While doing different experiments, especially in safe mode, i have lost my os again, and now the computer does not accept any boot diskette ( I've tried about 10 different disquettes).
I receive the message "invalid system disk" ,insert another diskette and press any key.I ave formated the disk again.
From my searches on the web i will have to change the order of boot sequence in the bios. I can acces it with the F1 key while booting, but I don't know how to change the sequence.It's different from the tutorials i have seen.

I think the bios setting utility does not recognize the floppy drive. When I run "test" I have no results for the floppy (fdd1 or fdd2).I have positive results for others (hdd1,cd-rom....).
I have made starting tests with new boot sequences, network first and hdd1 second, with no results too. Do i have to use an automatic boot cd ?

I'm not sure I understand what you have done so far and what has worked and what hasn't.

If you used the floppy disk drive earlier to boot up and then install Windows 98 via your CD-ROM, then your floppy drive should be able to boot your system again.

I'm not sure why the floppy drives aren't showing up properly in your BIOS, but perhaps they cannot be tested unless they have a disk in them?

You probably can't boot from your CD drive in a 765, can you? Or is that how you managed to use the CD you created and boot directly from it to install Windows 98? So you've never booted from a floppy yet? In which case, maybe your floppy drive is indeed bad.

Phil.

The 765 is one of the few machines with a CD-ROM that can not be set as a boot device in the bios. I think it also has the old "fill in the box" type bios for selecting boot options.

Try removing all boot options except for the floppy and try to boot. With the option to boot from HDD removed, the invalid system disk error should be gone. If it isn't, then the floppy drive or disk is bad.

piscikeeper wrote:

Try removing all boot options except for the floppy and try to boot. With the option to boot from HDD removed, the invalid system disk error should be gone. If it isn't, then the floppy drive or disk is bad.

Yes, it works, the disk error message disappears and a diagram appears on the screen. I think it's a diagram who suggest me to insert a diskette in the floppy and press F0. There is no F0 on my keyboards. When i press F1, i hear the floppy makes his normal noise during 20 seconds and nothing happens after. There is a number at the upper left of the screen followed by a "_".

You need to have the '98 boot disk in the floppy so the machine can boot from it. Make sure the Windows '98 cd is in the ROM drive and run setup again.

The boot disk win98 was in the floppy. The one i have used some days ago to make the installation. I've tried with fdd1 and fdd2 first. I will retry with a win95 diskette

From surfing on the Web and reading the posts of those who have similar problems , it seems that the "format" process may elimiate some essential files. Firsr time i have formated it was with a win95 diskette, second time with a win98.

test http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=104786

Format removes all files. If you format the floppy disk, it will no longer work. If you format the hard drive, you need to reinstall.

piscikeeper wrote:Format removes all files. If you format the hard drive, you need to reinstall.

1) How you do this?

2) Here is what i see when i boot with fdd1 first.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noAMFBtDK30


3) Here is the win98 diskette i used to install w98 some days ago.http://www.estriezone.com/truc/boot.html .Before the last one down the page, version spéciale.

The computer is asking for a bootable floppy. If you have one in the drive, then it isn't a boot disk. Instead of using the special disk use the regular '98se disk from the top of the page. You don't need NTFS tools to install Windows '98.

O.k., it works now with fdd1 and any boot diskette. I have first booted with the win98 up the page until the prompt command and then, reboot with the special down the page, because we don't have to find the channels letters and very easy to use.

Thanks all.