I've an old Gateway computer running on 4GBHD, 64MB RAM with a Pentium 466. Recently trying to get it working again and after wiping everything from it i reinstalled Windows 98. The original driver CD i had for the system doesn't seem to work (it's old and probably scratched) so i've had to manually download the drivers from the Gateway website. Now i've a copy of Windows 98SE and have tried to install that. Formatted the computer as i've done previously with no problems and have entered the Win 98SE CD and then started it up. The CD doesn't automaticaly load up and i can't change to it by typing d:\ either (D is the default CD drive). Entering the BIOS shows it should load up from the CD drive as first option. When i previously had Windows installed it recognised the D drive in MsDos within Windows and in My Computer but not in DosMode i.e. clicking 'start', 'restart in MsDos Mode'. As far as i can tell the system isn't recognising the CD drive. Through Windows i've transfered loads of things accross from the CD drive so i know it normally works fine.
It does have a disk drive though which it seems to be able to access though with no probs.
Any help is good.
Cheers!

Hello, and Welcome to techhelpforum.

Not all 98SE CD's are bootable.

"It does have a disk drive though which it seems to be able to access though with no probs."

If the above means a floppy drive, use a Win98SE Boot Disk* to boot the machine with CDROM support, insert your 98SE CD into the drive and load Windows.

*The above bootdisk image file is a self extracting file and has to be executed (run) from a running Windows(9x) machine in order to create the actual startup diskette on one of your floppy disks. (This image file produces the same bootdisk which 98SE creates.) This downloaded image file will format the floppy disk to ensure its integrity, write the files to the disk, then verify the file write, so it'll take a minute or three to create the bootdisk.

Ensure the floppy drive is set as the first boot device in the bios. http://www.d-a-l.com/articles/library/23.html

NOTE: When you boot a machine with this boot floppy, it creates a RAMDRIVE in system memory to contain DOS system tools/drivers. Thus it will move your "normal" CDROM device/drive letter "up" one level. (If your CDROM is normally D: it will be E: when booting with this bootdisk.)

The path to the found CDROM will be set with the bootfiles, so entering A:\>e:\setup is the same as entering A:\>setup at the A:\> prompt. There is no need to include the cdrom drive letter. The CDROM device letter will be assigned near the end of the floppy boot process, right after MSCDEX is loaded.