Hope somewhere on here is someone who knows computerese. Problem: Bought a second bargain bin motherboard. The older 3.5 drive I had hoped to use on it won't work (and the store is closed by now so can't get another 3.5 drive, I know they are just a few bucks and will get one tomorrow if necessary, I'm just tinkering). So, I burned a bootable cd-rom disc on my other computer to try and install my Win98 OS on it. After the computer boots up to the DOS prompt, it now "thinks" that the cd-rom is drive A and I cannot install the Win98 cd because it is looking for the A drive and not the cd. Anyone know how to fix this. (excuse the rambling, too many Bud lights)...Thanks

You need to get into setup (we used to call it the BIOS) and change the boot order.  It depends on the motherboard as to how you do this but it should tell you on the screen when it's booting as to how to get into setup.  Once in there, find the place that tells the computer what order to look for which drive and have it look for the CD-ROM first as the boot drive.  After you get the OS loaded, change it to the C: drive.

Good luck.

Turn the data cable coming from the floppy drive leading to the motherboard around 180 degrees. Make sure the red stripe, marking Pin 1 is inserted into the plug at the motherboard the right way around. Ditto cable/floppy drive.

or

Once you're at the DOS prompt...

c\:> md install
c\:> cd install
c\:> copy a:\*.* c:\install
c\:>c:\install setup.exe

Oh, and don't thank me, while I'm not yet as drunk as ...hmmm, what was it I wanted to say...hick.....yeah, sumfing...or udder....

Artie I never had cd-rom support when installing new OPS to drive.  If what they say trying doesn't work.   Take your Win start up disk, boot to it,then tell it you want cd-rom support.

It will load an oak-driver that will give your cd-rom support,then A:E:-  E will be your temp D: drive pull up directory of E: with your install CD in it, hit install .

Hope this is what you were asking about.
        ( Edited to add you will probably need your 3.5 floppy as your start-up disk is probably that.)
     Bob

You could be sneaky about it.

Not sure if it will work with Winbloze setup though. Give it a shot.

What I would do is since you have another computer, just plug the new drive into your current system and copy all the installation files over to it.  I usually make a directory called win98.cd and just copy everything from the X:\Win98\ folder.  (X:=CD-ROM)  Then plug the drive into your new motherboard, boot off the CD-ROM (or anything you can, for that matter), change to C:\Win98.cd and type "setup."

One hint - if you're having problems with Win98 complaining that you're trying to install an upgrade version, or upgrade with an install version, or just plain tired of typing in the serial number, download [url=www.mindspring.com/~steel_rat/setupx.dll]this file[/url] and copy it into your installation directory with all the .cab files.  I modified this file (so you know where it came from) using the directions I found [url=kickme.to/winblowz98/]here[/url] and it works great!  (If you don't trust me, you can modify your file yourself.)  I use it with Windows 98 Second Edition, but it should work with all versions of Win98.

1) Make sure that the cable to the floppy is hooked up properly.
2) Make sure the Hard Drive is hooked up to the first IDE connector
3) Go into the BIOS and make sure that the BIOS is setup to find the floppy and the harddrive.  You may have to specify heads and cylindars on the harddrive.  The floppy should be setup as 1.44 meg.
4)  Good luck.