Although the cdrom installs automatically when windows 98 or95 are
loaded, I find it advantageous sometime to load the DOS version by
having a "pause" command in an autoexec.bat which I place in the root
directory. (not to be cofused with the autoexec.bat already present in
the c:\windows\command\ebd subdirectory). When stopped before windows
loads, the cdrom is not installed. Does anybody know of a way to
insert lines in the config.sys & autoexec.bat, the ones which are in
the root directory, so that the cdrom and also a ramdrive should be
installed before loading windows?

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Request for Question Clarification by endo-ga on 24 Nov 2004 10:00 PST

Hi,

Please try the following:

Go to control panel, then system and create a boot disk.

Once the floppy is created it should have the correct configuration
files to load a generic CD-ROM driver and RAMdrive.

Please let me know how it works out.

Thanks.
endo

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Clarification of Question by vaac-ga on 28 Nov 2004 10:50 PST

The rescue disk does load the cdrom. but what I would like is to load
the cdrom and ramdisk from thr   H A R D   disk before getting to
windows.

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Clarification of Question by vaac-ga on 12 Dec 2004 20:58 PST

Thank you very much, crythias-ga, for your free comment which I tried out only
recently, and I am sorry to report that it does not work. I installed your 
recommended  config.sys and autoexec.bat on c:\ exactly as instructed the only 
change being a "pause" at the end of the autoexec.bat

the computer started ending as follows:

"Preparing to start your computer.                                               
This may take a few minutes. Please wait...
                                                                                
Not ready reading drive A                                                       
Abort, Retry, Fail?a                                                            
The Windows 98 startup disk could not create a temporary drive for the          
diagnostic tools. This may be because this computer has less than the           
minimum required extended memory.                                               
                                                                                
File not found                                                                  
                                                                                
Press any key to continue . . .                                                 
^C                                                                              
C:\>                                                                            
Terminate batch job (Y/N)? 
 
I am wondering: Where is there a command in the autoexec.bat asking for a 
file in a:? I pressed "abort" and on "Press any key to continue . . ."
I pressed "CTRL-C"

The computer stopped in DOS as expected but although the ramdisk was installed the
cdrom was not.

In windows 95 the lines for the cdrom in the config.sys are

device=c:\samsung\sscdrom.sys\d:sscd000/v
devicehigh=c:\windows\command\MTMCDAS.SYS /D:MSCD001 /P:300 /A:0
DEVICE=c:\windows\command\ATAPICD.SYS /D:CD003

and in the autoexec.bat is:
c:\samsung\mscdex/d:ssxd000

could you or anybody figure out what these lines are supposed to be 
in windows98?

Many thanks in advance.

CD rom is simple-ish, although you *may* have performance hits on
cd-based games in '9x...

http://www.computerhope.com/cdromd.htm for CD installation.

http://www.vfrazee.com/ms-dos/6.22/help/ramdrive.sys.htm for ramdrive
info, or make a windows emergency boot disk, and take a look at its
config.

This is a free comment. (Actually, a modified version -- that doesn't
try to install Windows -- of the Windows Boot Disk may be all you want
anyway.)

Do you want to choose whether or not you want to load the real mode
drivers, or just accept that they will be loaded each time you boot
Windows?

If you want to do it always, once you've created a Emergency boot
disk, then copy the relevant lines from the floppy's (or
c:\windows\command\ebd) config.sys and autoexec.bat to your own
C:\config.sys and c:\autoexec.bat, changing drive letters and paths to
files appropriately.

In config.sys, that means adding the oakcdrom.sys (or whatever cd
driver) and ramdrive.sys lines. In autoexec.bat, that means adding the
mscdex.exe line.

If you want the full menu, which I would recommend, just copy the
whole of c:\windows\command\ebd\config.sys to c:\. Use notepad to
change the paths of all files to c:\windows\command\ebd\filename.ext:

REM config.sys
[menu]
menuitem=CD, Start computer with CD-ROM support.
menuitem=NOCD, Start computer without CD-ROM support.
menudefault=CD,30
menucolor=7,0

[CD]
device=c:\windows\command\ebd\himem.sys /testmem:off
device=c:\windows\command\ebd\oakcdrom.sys /D:mscd001 
device=c:\windows\command\ebd\btdosm.sys 
device=c:\windows\command\ebd\flashpt.sys
device=c:\windows\command\ebd\btcdrom.sys /D:mscd001
device=c:\windows\command\ebd\aspi2dos.sys
device=c:\windows\command\ebd\aspi8dos.sys
device=c:\windows\command\ebd\aspi4dos.sys
device=c:\windows\command\ebd\aspi8u2.sys
device=c:\windows\command\ebd\aspicd.sys /D:mscd001

[NOCD]
device=c:\windows\command\ebd\himem.sys /testmem:off

[HELP]
device=c:\windows\command\ebd\himem.sys /testmem:off

[COMMON]
files=10
buffers=10
dos=high,umb
stacks=9,256
devicehigh=c:\windows\command\ebd\ramdrive.sys /E 2048
lastdrive=z


REM autoexec.bat
@ECHO OFF
set EXPAND=YES
SET DIRCMD=/O:N
set LglDrv=27 * 26 Z 25 Y 24 X 23 W 22 V 21 U 20 T 19 S 18 R 17 Q 16 P 15
set LglDrv=%LglDrv% O 14 N 13 M 12 L 11 K 10 J 9 I 8 H 7 G 6 F 5 E 4 D 3 C
cls
call c:\windows\command\ebd\setramd.bat %LglDrv%
set temp=c:\
set tmp=c:\
path=C:\;%RAMD%:\;%CDROM%:\

IF "%config%"=="NOCD" GOTO QUIT
LH %ramd%:\MSCDEX.EXE /D:mscd001 /L:%CDROM%
echo.
GOTO QUIT

:QUIT
set CDROM=
set LglDrv=

It's definitely wise to have multiple configurations - there's no
point loading DOS mode drivers if you're going to boot into Windows.

However, if you mainly boot into Windows, you should make the NOCD
option the default rather than the CD option. You may also want a
shorter time delay than 30 seconds, to allow a faster boot.

Note that you don't need a pause line in autoexec to boot into DOS.
When Windows is booting, hold the Ctrl button down. Just before it
would normally display the "Starting Windows 98..." message, it will
instead give you a boot menu. Select "Command Prompt Only". NOTE: With
Win95, you need to press F8 rather than Ctrl, and you can't (at least
on my machine) hold it down from early on in the boot process; there's
a specific window in which you need to press it.

Personally I have my menus set up in a similar fashion; it defaults to
the standard Windows config after 5 seconds, on the basis that if I
want to boot into DOS I'll sit there holding Ctrl down anyway, and I
can select my boot config reasonably quickly. If I want to boot into
Windows, I can switch the machine on, walk away and come back in a few
minutes when it's ready.

The line device=c:\windows\command\ebd\himem.sys /testmem:off [do you
really only have himem.sys in the ebd directory and not in
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM?] should be placed in the [COMMON] section and
removed from the other sections. The [HELP] section should be deleted
altogether since no HELP config has been defined in the menu.

Finally, you should not load all the supplied CD-ROM drivers in the
[CD] section. Find one that works for you and delete the rest.

yes, I agree to the above comment. 
The A: drive is being referenced in the call
c:\windows\command\ebd\setramd.bat %LglDrv% line, which can be
removed.

don't use the pause command. That's what the delay is for on boot, so
you can select your method of boot (dos or windows).

And, the lines regarding the CD-ROM install should probably be 
[CD]
device=c:\windows\command\ebd\himem.sys /testmem:off
device=c:\windows\command\ebd\oakcdrom.sys /D:mscd001 

This should handle your samsung CD-ROM without issue. Still, the $5
answer is make an emergency boot disk and use it when you boot to dos.