Thanks to everyone for trying to help me with my problem. I have a little more info...I have a Packard Bell Multimedia M400 166mhz pentium and have Windows 95. My problem is that I'm trying to restore the hard drive and when I start up the computer with the Master CD and Restoration floppy in place, the system cannot find the CD ROM. I found a couple of disks with CD ROM drivers, tried to install one, it said it was installed, but no luck. Another disk has a couple of generic drivers, and when I start up in DOS mode, it recognizes the drivers, but that's it...I'm stuck in DOS with the A:\ prompt. It doesn't look for the CD ROM.

My next question...How do I run a program from my CD ROM in DOS mode? The drive letter is E: and the file I want to run is pcdr.exe (PC Doctor-it has the stuff I need for restoring the drive). What command would I use to run this program? I tried E:> run pcdr.exe, but get "bad command or filename" I tried to run it in Windows but it doesn't run in Windows

Any ideas? I've heard that Packard Bell should really be called Packard Hell. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

Thanks!

They usually are called Packard Hell...

Mine is a Legend 100CD running win3.11 and runs perfect.

Try booting to a boot disk and switch to C drive, and take a look at autoexec.bat and look for a line that is something like

LH /L:2,27952 C:\DOS\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD000

and add /L:E to the end of it. That should tell autoexec.bat to give the drive the letter E. Put a space before the /. Yours may not have the LH in front of it, or the numbers, that tells mine to load the CD ROM into high memory, and something to do with buffers and caching.
C:\DOS\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD000 is the part to look for.

Then you should be able to simply run the restore floppy and CD and get it back into shape. You shouldn't have to run any extra programs to do it. Pull up a directory on the master CD and look for a setup.exe or restore.exe, something similar, I don't know how they have their CD's set up for win95, mine's running win3.11 and the restore CD is just a copy of all the programs, I still have to install win3.11 and DOS from floppies.

That made no sense to me at all, except for having non-corruptable backups, since you have to have DOS installed before you can install CD ROM drivers and run the CD...Then if the computer is unusable, you have to copy the DOS installation floppies to disks from another working PC before you can use anything on the restore CD...go figure...



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Note: Please post your questions on the forums, not in my email.

Computer Information Links (http://www.geocities.com/paleopete/)

Hey, I don't know whether this will help or not, but we'll give it a shot. Is your CD-ROM drive letter the same as when you originally purchased your computer? You didn't have to change it for any reason, did you? I know that with my computer the recovery disk will only look for the CD-ROM drive letter that was originally assigned to the system. Fortunately, I found a site where I could create a floppy disk that would make the recovery disk find the proper drive letter. I don't know if this will help in your case, but I just thought I would make a suggestion. Good luck http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

Originally posted by gonpostal:
Hey, I don't know whether this will help or not, but we'll give it a shot. Is your CD-ROM drive letter the same as when you originally purchased your computer? You didn't have to change it for any reason, did you? I know that with my computer the recovery disk will only look for the CD-ROM drive letter that was originally assigned to the system. Fortunately, I found a site where I could create a floppy disk that would make the recovery disk find the proper drive letter. I don't know if this will help in your case, but I just thought I would make a suggestion. Good luck http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

Yes, the drive letter has changed from Q: to E: Can you send me the site?
Thanks!

Sorry, but the site I found was for IBM computers. Try the suggestion in the post above mine. The commands were basically the same. Sure hope it works for you. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/redface.gif

To Paleo Pete: I tried adding the \L:E to the command line, but it didn't do anything to help. The command you mentioned was C:\DOS\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD000 ; the command line in my autoexec.bat is C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD001. This doesn't matter, as long as file can be found, correct? Should I create a DOS folder? This is really driving me nuts! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif Are there any sites to download another restoration disk?

Thanks!

To gonpostal: Could you send me the site anyway? Thanks!

Well, here it is. I hope it helps you but keep in mind this was made for creating a boot disk with IBM Aptivas. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

Well duh, I forgot to send you the link!

http://home.ptd.net/~don5408/toolbox/cdboot/

Ok, if you are sure that your CD-ROM drive letter is E, then try the following two suggestions, which are not necessarily in order of preference.

1) At your A:\> prompt, type E: and hit return. (Be sure to type the colon, this will alert the system to change drives) If your computer recognizes the CD-ROM as drive letter E, you should now have an E:\> prompt. With your disk utility CD in the CD-ROM, type pcdr (that should load your pc utility program)

2) Or, edit your config.sys and autoexec.bat files and change the drive letter of the mscd000 or mscd001 file from D: to E: (This is the line that says "...../D:MSCD000 or /D:MSCD001)

You might also want to make sure both the config and autoexec files are referencing the same file. In any case, change the drive letter to E: and see if that works first. If not, then try using either the MSCD000 or the MSCD001 in both.

Post back with any progress.

Cheers,

Big Blue 66

Hey LP. These guys are giving you great advice for configuring. I hope its working. This may be another option for you as I just went through the same thing myself. You might have to open your case and get the manufacter's name and model of your CDROM. Go to their site and download specific drivers for that model to be recognized. I am guessing you are doing a complete format as you are trying to access the CD from DOS. If this is so be sure to download the drivers for DOS. Panisonic made the drive I have for Compaq, but they had the drivers for OEM just to provide support for everybody. Good luck http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/tongue.gif

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I will give up my Windows 95 disk when they pry my cold dead fingers from around it.

Once again, thanks for all the great advice! The system now recognizes the CD_ROM. BUT, I have a new problem! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif I think there is something wrong with the Restoration floppy disk. I looked at the AUTOEXEC.BAT file and saw many CD-ROMs that are supported, but none of them are mine. I installed an IO MagicSpin Atapi 48x CD-ROM a few months ago. The old one was messed up and was a Goldstar (which is on the list in the floppy). I just downloaded the DOS driver for the 48x, but haven't installed it yet, but I know how to get the driver recognized. Is there a way to get ATAPI on the list in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file? The rest of the CD-ROMS have the following command line before them: "IF ERRORLEVEL 112 GOTO (driver)" The number next to ERRORLEVEL is different for each driver. I had a generic driver that I copied from the C: drive onto the A: drive and changed some of the instructions in the AUTOEXEC.BAT so it could find the driver...well, it found it, started to load it, then I got a blank screen followed by the message: "Unable to create ERROR.LOG" Man, NOW what?!? I printed a copy of the original AUTOEXEC.BAT file just in case I REALLY screwed up! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

Any ideas on this?

Thanks!