CDROM not reading installing w95 after format on older laptop

[Steve Christensen]

I have '95 Fujitsu Monte Carlo laptop. I formatted the hard drive and
am trying to install Windows95 now the CDROM isn't reading / isn't
operating. My original backup diskettes are corrupted, I get a D:
prompt but then a CDR101: not ready reading drive D, abort, retry,
fail message. The CD was fully operational before hard drive format.
Laptop is a Pentium 166, 32 megs ram. Here is what i've tried. a
Windows 98 boot disk, checked the CMOS, its spec, found required
kmeatapi.sys driver and pancdrom.exe file for CD. rewrote autoexec.bat
for driver, Windows 95 boot disk with bootdisk.com CD drivers and
diagnostics. I'm at my wits end! Any help would be appreciated,


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[Dodge]

Hi welcome to CTH...

I have had this problem with older systems. The problem was the Cdrom couldn't read the Disk from Dos level. I had to hook a newer Cdrom up to the PC to get windows installed... Everything went smoothly then..

One other thing you could try.. If your Cdrom Drive letter is usually D: then try E: F: etc.... You may already know, but I say this anyways. When you boot from a Startup disk your drive letters get pushed up One letter....

[Mr1drful]

hi steve

i just did 2 of these older laptops. my own dell and a friends sony.(not fun)

both units had only one drive bay and , since i had never owned a laptop before , i wasn't aware that they had to be powered on with the cd-rom installed and then put into suspend to swap to floppy (otherwise it will never recognize the cd-rom).you probably know that since you've owned one but it caused me a lot of grief when trying to install a new operating system.

what saved me and made it MUCH easier was THE ULTIMATE BOOT DISK.
it does the reformat,partition,reg edit,and lots more. plus it will allow you to do the whole reinstall in about half the time.
AND IT'S ALSO FREE !

you can get the info on it and download it here......
http://www.startdisk.com/Web2/ubd/ubd.htm

good luck