I'm trying to access files on a hd that originally had win 98 on it, but has become unbootable. for some reason i cant GET the system to boot from a win 98 boot cd. The system just bypasses it like it was a non-system disk. If i put a different hd in it will boot from this cd with no problem. what happens is this: 1) it attempts to boot from cd rom and bypasses it. 2) it goes to boot from the hd and after a few seconds the WINDOWS98 gui flashes for a second and then goes to command prompt. since it didn't boot from the cd and windows did not load . . .i have no access to my cdrom drive.

What i would like to know is can i make a batch file OR add a line to autoexec.bat that will execute or force it to execute a cd boot. or at least can i put generic cd rom drivers from the win 98 boot disk on a cd and then make a batch file to execute and load the drivers so that i have cd rom access.

thanks

[emailprotected]Why not just hook up that HDD in a working machine as a slave and see if you are able to retrieve the data ? ?Go into bios and set the FLOPPY as the FIRST boot device.What kind of computer is it? Also, you shouldn't post your email anywhere, it will result in lots of SPAM.A few details of your hardware would come in handy... If you have a floppy drive you could use a bootdisk (bootdisk.com) to access files. The bootdisk also has a cdrom DRIVER which it will install if your cdrom is working properly.