Do you have a startup disk? Do you know where it is? Do you know how to use it? Better still, DOES IT WORK? What are you going to do if your PC doesn’t boot because of a disk or Windows file problem? What if you have the seemingly correct diskette and when you boot, the CDROM doesn’t work? Never happen to you? It will; sooner or later your good luck will run out, and you’ll be glad you’re prepared. To get ready for the coming sad event, read on.

Let’s start at the beginning. Locate your Windows CD. Read the label. Is it an upgrade or a full version? Does it say "Only for use on a new computer" or "OEM version for a new computer"? Let’s cover an upgrade version first, then the full version.

Upgrade Version CD. What are the issues for an upgrade CD? Well, when you installed this version, you already had a qualifying operating system installed, either say Windows 3.1 or a Windows 95a, b or c, or perhaps a Windows 98 and you have an SE upgrade. What’s the big deal? Well, you still have to have the qualifying product to re-install from your CD if for some reason you have to reformat the hard drive. So, for instance, I have a Windows 98SE upgrade, but I also have a Windows 95 upgrade CD. If I have to reinstall Windows 98SE from scratch, the installation program will ask for my qualifying product, and I’ll insert my Windows 95 CD for it to look at before it will continue with the setup. I even have Diskette #1 of my Windows 3.1 product!

Now look at the CD you intend to install or reinstall. Is the CD key on the jewel case or paper sleeve? If not, you’re in trouble! Better find it now while you’re not in a hurry. And if you do have it, a good idea is to put a paper CD label on the CD with the CD Key written on the label. I also have been writing the key directly on the top of the CD with a permanent marker. The idea is that with it labeled on the CD, you’ll never lose it.

Full Version CD. Two issues exist with the full version. One, is that it came with a boot diskette. Do you still have it? It can substitute for a startup disk that we’ll make later; it’s not as good, but it does have an advantage in that you can do a full installation to a blank hard drive at any time. The other issue is the same as the upgrade version – the CD Key.

Now for the Startup Disk. There are a couple of issues with this diskette, mainly in making sure all the possible needed utilities are on it and also that it works – that is, that it will boot the computer, and that the CD ROM drive is working.

If you already have this disk made, you can skip this part, but pick it up a little further on because we’re going to test it. First you need a diskette. I’d use the newest one you have around. Don’t for heaven’s sake use your old Quicken For DOS disk. Diskettes do have a shelf life, you know. Open Control Panel, click on Add/Remove Programs and select the "Startup Disk" tab. I really do have trouble remembering where this is. If it’s a used disk, the program will replace any files on it. Click on the "Create Disk" button. It will tell you how to label the disk, insert it in the drive and click OK. It takes a few minutes to copy all the files.

Now, the above process was just a little different if you have Windows 95 than it is if you have Windows 98. Windows 95 needs the Windows 95 CD in its drive to make the diskette, Windows 98 does not. And there are other differences, and those of you who already have a startup disk need to pay attention here.

Win 98. You should hopefully have a good bootable diskette now. There’s just one thing I’d do. Find the files C:\windows\command\EDIT.COM C:\windows\command\SYS.COM and copy them to the boot diskette. I find that these two programs are especially helpful when I have a dead system to contend with.

Now with the diskette still inserted, select Start, Shutdown, Restart. As the system boots, you’ll get a DOS menu like this:

1. Start computer with CD-ROM support
2. Start computer without CD-ROM support
3. View the help file.

Select 1. You’ll see that a CD-ROM device driver – usually the OakCD driver - should load, and then a number of ASPI for DOS drivers in case you have some SCSI drives, and finally the MSCDEX driver. This is the DOS driver for the CD-ROM. It should appear successful, and hopefully it will be. It’s crucial. You should now have an A:> prompt.

Now with any data CD – your Windows CD may be best – do a directory list on the CD-ROM. Usually it’ll be drive E:. The reason? This boot disk installs a virtual disk drive (a ramdisk) in memory for a few files, and it takes the first letter after the hard drive. So that’ll be D: and then the CD-ROM driver loads as E:. I mention this because you don’t want to be fooled into believing the files you see in the directory list are the CD, when they’re really the ramdisk. Look at the light on the drive when you do the DIR E: command and make sure it spins up, and if you have the Windows CD there, it’ll show you a WIN98 directory.

So all is well. And if not – perhaps the CD-ROM drivers are NOT loaded – then just read on, because the Windows 95 boot diskette has similar problems.

Win 95. We have some real work to do here, and it’s more complicated. You can go ahead and boot your system with the new diskette, but you’ll see that the CDROM doesn’t work. There are no drivers on the diskette. Also there’s no ramdisk, and that’s a good thing. The disk does have EDIT.COM and SYS.COM on it. That’s good. Re-boot back into Windows without the disk, then insert the disk again so we can copy missing files to it.

First we have to find the CD-ROM real-mode device driver. And it’ll be a file like SBIDE.SYS or OAKCDROM.SYS. You will probably find one of these on the hard drive. One clue may be had from the c:\config.sys file. Edit or view that file and see if at one time the CDROM drive was used. Often it was, and then REM’d out. You may also have a diskette that came with the CDROM with the right one on it, and this is the best one you can get. DO NOT install the diskette. Instead open it with the Windows Explorer and look for the file. Copy this to the boot disk. Then find the c:\windows\command\mscdex.exe file and copy that to the diskette. OK. Now we have to do some file editing.

There’s already a config.sys file on the diskette. Edit it with notepad, and add a line after the himem.sys line like: DEVICE=A:\OAKCDROM.SYS /D:MSCD001, or whatever the name of your device driver is. The /D part is the same for everyone. Save the file and then open a:\autoexec.bat. It’ll be blank because there isn’t a file. Just let Notepad create one for you. It needs one line. A:\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD001. Save that file. Now boot with it. Hopefully you’ll have a CDROM after booting. If not, pay particular attention to the screen when the device driver and the MSCDEX programs run. You’ll usually have a clue from the messages. The MSCDEX program will not connect to the drive if the device driver in config sys doesn’t find the drive. So make sure the device driver messages look good. Usually it’ll tell you how many drives it found. (One). Look for keying errors. I have seen a couple of systems where you have to tell the device driver which IDE drive and interrupt it’s attached to. In this case the config.sys line would read: DEVICE=A:\SBIDE.SYS /P:170,15. This is right only if the cdrom drive is installed in the secondary IDE port. Get this fixed! The Windows 95 reinstallation assumes that most of the system is still working, and in my own experience, that doesn’t happen very often.