Old Compaq Laptop Won't Boot From CD

[matt4723]

I purchased an old Compaq Presario 12XL300 laptop from a thrift shop today to use for tinkering and classic gaming. The laptop has Windows ME on it, and it appears to be the original install. I want to wipe the drive and install Windows 98SE on it because the ME is full of personal stuff from the previous owner. My 98 disc is in the drive, and I have set up the boot order in the BIOS, but it will not boot from the CD, instead going straight to ME. I don't think it's a hardware problem, since the disc shows up fine in the OS.

What am I doing wrong, and what can I do to force the laptop to boot from CD?

Thanks
Matt

 

[boosted1g]

Is this a factory windows 98 SE disc or a burned one?

If burned, you have to copy it as an image (usually an ISO file). If you just drag-and-drop the files into the CD Burning program it will not work as you did nothing to make the CD burnable.

 

[matt4723]

The disc is bootable, if that's what you're asking. I've used it in VMWare before with no trouble.

Matt

 

[ex_bubblehead]

None of the (official/legal) Windows 9x CD's were bootable, it requires a boot diskette to get things started.

Alternatively one could partition/format via other means, then copy the contents of the CD to a directory on the HD (usual convention was "C:\Windows\Options\Cabs") then running setup.exe from there.

 

[gabelossus]

Moderator is correct. When I installed Windows ME I had to make a different CD with the startup disk information on it. What you can do is download a Windows 98 or ME startup disk online, then put the files on a CD along with the files from the Windows 98 CD. It'll take you to a DOS screen, and you'll need to run fdisk to format the drive, then change the directory to your CD rom (usually drive E:, as MS-DOS creates a ram drive with the letter D

Hope I was a help. I installed Windows 98 and ME recently so hit me up if you have any problems with the installation, because I went through a ton of problems and worked them out.