Hi, Im having problems with my Hitachi GD-8000 dvd-rom, it wont recognise any dvd (it will recognise and plat cd's vcd but not dvds). I have a firmware for it but it say i need to start the computer in real dos NOT ms dos.

Can someone walk me through how I do this?

Thanks.

i found this on how to create the real dos: http://www.msfn.org/board/lofiversio...hp/t53599.html

or, you could "dual boot" it if you have 2 HD's

Firstly you need 2 hard drives.
Secondly your motherboard must have a recent BIOS (about 1998 or newer)

First when you install winXP make sure only 1 of your 2 hard drives is actually connected phisically inside your computer. Then install winXP normally.

Second, disconnect your winXP hard drive inside your computer, then connect the hard drive you want DOS installed to. Install DOS normally.

After you have installed both DOS and winXP on seperate drives you can connect both hard drives again inside your computer. Once this is done you have a sort of "virtual" dual boot. To boot to each OS you have to enter your BIOS as your computer starts up. This is usually done by pressing DEL on your keyboard as your BIOS info is displayed on th screen.(some systems are different look at your documentation that came with your computer) After you enter the BIOS, look for a menu called BOOT ORDER. The default is usually like this:

FIRST DEVICE: Floppy
SECOND DEVICE: CDROM
THIRD DEVICE: C Drive

Now if your BIOS is new enough you can change the third device to: D Drive.
This will allow your computer to boot from the second hard drive in your computer.
To boot from your other drive again, just go back to your BIOS and change the third device back.

Hope this helps,
Mike

Originally Posted by novice

I have a firmware for it but it say i need to start the computer in real dos NOT ms dos.

"Real DOS" IS MS-DOS. Windows XP does not come with MS-DOS, only a DOS emulator known as the Command Prompt. To access this from Windows, click the Start Menu and select the 'Run' menu item. In the 'Run' box, type CMD and press Enter. A black screen will be launched - this is the Command Prompt, the nearest thing in Windows XP to DOS. This is probably what Hitachi are talking about.

Hope that helps

Ok. I got a new driver from hitachi and unzipped, There was an application there which i opened whilst in windows xp. It said it couldny find this file: mscdex.exe
I ran a search for this on my computer and it wasnt there. I do have mscdexnt.exe.

If I download this from the net where do i put it.

Thanks for replying.

MSCDEX is the DOS CDROM driver. Not sure why it would try to find that. But I've no idea what the file that you downloaded is supposed to be trying to do. Were there any instructions with it? Maybe a README.TXT file inside the ZIP file? Was it supposed to be extracted to a floppy disk to boot your PC up from?

Hi, I have a hitachi gd-8000 dvd rom that wont recognise dvds. I will play cd's vcds cd-roms etc but it wont even recognise a dvd. The light flashes and then goes out.

I downloaded the newest drivers from hitachi, unzipped the file and clicked the only application present. It said i was missing mscdex.exe. I ran a search and its not there. I do have mscdexnt.exe.

Anyone know I need to do to install the new drivers and hopefully get my dvd rom to recognise a dvd again?

Yes there was a readme txt file but it was no of no use. I tried to copy it here but its too big. The file was downloaded from hitachi and from there i just unzipped it and double clicked the only application, which just told me it couldnt find the mscdex.exe file.

Do you know the name of the file that you ran? Could you post us a link to the download so that we can see what was in it?

Just to add:

XP in itself does not have the capability of playing DVD's.

You need a 3rd party program or a decoder card.

Did not your drive come with a bundled DVD software program?

I have tried a number of times to get back to the driver download page from hitachi but it keep timing out. http://search.hitachi.co.jp/sitesearch/GLOBAL

I could email the file i got from them if you give me an e-mail address.

This only happened after i installed sp2 ages ago, the rom would recognise some dvds then it just stopped. Funny that it plays audio, cd-roms, vcds etc and wont play dvd.

I also tried uninstalling the rom from device manager and rebooting, still no go. the driver date is the way back in 2001 when I bought the computer.

Yes I have powerdvd, win med10, realplayer, divx to play dvds. Again the rom wont even register that a dvd is in the drive.

Thanks