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Thread ID: 86551 2008-01-20 20:30:00 Getting DOS to recognise a CDROM drive. PeterHenryRogers (13308) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
632217 2008-01-20 20:30:00 Hello there,

Does anybody know about DOS.

I thought I would resurrect an old computer which had a CDROM drive put into it. Unfortunately, when I “boot up” I get the following message:

ILLEGAL OPERATION ‘C’ USAGE MSCDEX [/E /K /S /V] [/D:<driver>….] [/L:<letter>] [/M:<buffers>]

The machine starts up OK but the CDROM drive is unavailable byut the CDROM driver has been loaded and the BIOS knows the CDROM drive is there because it reports it as a secondary master.

The AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files are as below:

AUTOEXEC.BAT

@ECHO Off
set mouse=C:\MOUSE
C:\MOUSE\mouse
PATH C:\MOUSE;C:\NWDOS;C:\3DMENU;C:\
PATH C:\NU;%PATH%
SET QBACKUP=C:\QBACKUP
PATH=C:\QBACKUP;%PATH%
SET SYMANTEC=C:\SYMANTEC
SET NU=C:\NU
KEYB UK+
VERIFY OFF
PROMPT [Novell DOS] $P$G
SET NWDOSCFG=C:\NWDOS
SET FBP_USER=Peter Henry Rogers
NWCACHE 7670 1024 /LEND=ON /DELAY=OFF
LH C:\NWDOS\MSCDEX.EXE /C:\NWDOS\SSCDROM.SYS /L:I /M:30
C:\NU\NDD C:/Q
C:\NU\IMAGE C:
3DM


CONFIG.SYS

DEVICE=C:\NWDOS\EMM386.EXE DPMI=OFF FRAME=NONE
DEVICE=C:\NWDOS\DPMS.EXE
DEVICE=C:\NWDOS\SETVER.EXE
SHELL=C:\COMMAND.COM C:\ /E:512 /P
BREAK=OFF
BUFFERS=30
FILES=99
FCBS=4,4
FASTOPEN=512
LASTDRIVE=J
HISTORY=ON,512,ON
COUNTRY=44,,C:\NWDOS\COUNTRY.SYS
DOS=HIGH,UMB
DEVICEHIGH=C:\NWDOS\VDISK.SYS 32760 256 64 /E
DEVICEHIGH=C:\NWDOS\SSCDROM.SYS /I:SSCD000 /1:I


If some kind person could shed a little light on my darkness I would be most grateful

Kind Regards;

Peter H. Rogers. 		PeterHenryRogers (13308)
632218 2008-01-20 20:38:00 AUTOEXEC.BAT

LH C:\NWDOS\MSCDEX.EXE /C:\NWDOS\SSCDROM.SYS /L:I /M:30


It's been a while since I've had to do this!
It looks like you may be missing the D: so change the above line to:

LH C:\NWDOS\MSCDEX.EXE /D:C:\NWDOS\SSCDROM.SYS /L:I /M:30

You may not even need the path so if that doesn't work try:

LH C:\NWDOS\MSCDEX.EXE /D:SSCDROM.SYS /L:I /M:30

Or could it be:

LH C:\NWDOS\MSCDEX.EXE /D:SSCD000 /L:I /M:30

Yea try the last one first. It looks right. 		CYaBro (73)
632219 2008-01-20 21:46:00 been too long for me to remember, but a couple suggestions.

First dos CDROM drivers can be device specific, is it the same drive as was working with that config before?

Second, you can download a bootable floppy image with CDROM support from the net or make one from many versions of windows. Try one and if it works, copy the driver files and autoexec.bat, config.sys entries from it and delete ( or rem out ) the old ones 		dugimodo (138)
632220 2008-01-20 21:55:00 I downloaded a 98 bootdisk from bootdisk.com for the USB fash drive here.

All its got in it are:

Autoexec:

@echo off

MSCDEX.EXE /D:banana /L:R (R is the letter for the CD)


And config:

DEVICE=HIMEM.SYS /testmem: off
FILES=30
BUFFERS=20

DEVICE=cd1.SYS /D:banana

rem DEVICE=cd1.SYS /D:banana /P:1f0,14
rem DEVICE=cd1.SYS /D:banana /P:170,15
rem DEVICE=cd1.SYS /D:banana /P:170,10
rem DEVICE=cd1.SYS /D:banana /P:1e8,12
rem DEVICE=cd1.SYS /D:banana /P:1e8,11
rem DEVICE=cd1.SYS /D:banana /P:168,10
rem DEVICE=cd1.SYS /D:banana /P:168,9

LASTDRIVE=Z

I can access a CD in DOS, no prob at all 		Speedy Gonzales (78)
632221 2008-01-21 00:11:00 Thank you - I tried the suggestions and found that the way to do it on my machine was to copy the details of a bootable CD found on the internet. Thank you very much. The machine is an old one (1996) and powerful in its day (and expensive). It ran Windows 95 initially but I put the DOS on from a previous machine and it is very fast. Faster than my modern internet machine. PeterHenryRogers (13308)
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