invalid drive specification error

  • Thread starter Thread starter John Davis
  • Start date Start date
J

John Davis

My computer is brand new and have nothing installed. I want to install
Windows XP but the CD is non-bootable. I boot up the computer from startup
floopy disk, and then try to go to CD ROM drive to run setup.

When I do the following in command prompt:

A:\> D:
It yields the error "invalid drive specification." It doesn't matter I type
C:, or whatever, it doesn't work. The computer just can't identify any
drives. What should I do now??

Please advice. Thanks,
John
 
Perhaps the CD-ROM is bad? Or disconnected internally? Or disabled in the
BIOS?
 
| No, in the BIOS boot up setting, I put CDROM as the second boot up setting.
|
| I mean what I did is the correct approach? First boot up from the floopy
| disk, now I am in drive A, then I can cd to drive D (CD rom) ??? But how
| come when I type C:, the computer cannot detect the hard disk???

Don't boot from the floppy. Either designate the CD-ROM as the first boot
device or, if you keep it set as number two, don't have a bootable floppy in the
floppy drive. You don't need the floppy if you're going to install XP.

Larc



§§§ - Please raise temperature of mail to reply by e-mail - §§§
 
| On Wed, 13 Aug 2003 20:43:40 -0700, John Davis pondered exceedingly, then took
| quill in hand and carefully composed...
|
| | No, in the BIOS boot up setting, I put CDROM as the second boot up setting.
| |
| | I mean what I did is the correct approach? First boot up from the floopy
| | disk, now I am in drive A, then I can cd to drive D (CD rom) ??? But how
| | come when I type C:, the computer cannot detect the hard disk???
|
| Don't boot from the floppy. Either designate the CD-ROM as the first boot
| device or, if you keep it set as number two, don't have a bootable floppy in the
| floppy drive. You don't need the floppy if you're going to install XP.

One other thing: be sure to have HD-0 set as the next boot device after the
CD-ROM. Because the first time your computer reboots early in the installation
process, you should not "press any key" to boot from the CD. Booting from the
CD should occur only once!

Larc



§§§ - Please raise temperature of mail to reply by e-mail - §§§
 
If you have a "brand new computer with nothing installed", chances are
that your C: drive doesn't have any partitions...which means that
nothing will find the drive until you create a partition.

What kind of boot disk are you using? A Win98 boot disk with CD-ROM
support? A DOS boot disk with no CD-ROM drivers?

If you are trying to install XP from a boot disk, you need a 6 disk
set in order to start the install process, not just one disk.

www.bootdisk.com

for the complete 6 disk set, which will find you CD-ROM, if it is
properly installed and configured, and prepare the hard disk drive for
formating and installing XP.

GLCrews,MCP


No, in the BIOS boot up setting, I put CDROM as the second boot up setting.

I mean what I did is the correct approach? First boot up from the floopy
disk, now I am in drive A, then I can cd to drive D (CD rom) ??? But how
come when I type C:, the computer cannot detect the hard disk???


"Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"
Perhaps the CD-ROM is bad? Or disconnected internally? Or disabled in the
BIOS?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
What kind of boot disk are you using? A Win98 boot disk with CD-ROM
support? A DOS boot disk with no CD-ROM drivers?
Click to expand...

I found out DOS boot disk have fdisk and format program, but Win98 boot disk
doesn't have format program. So which one I should use?? Little bit
confused.

Yes, u are right, my computer has nothing on it, and I can't just boot from
the CD somehow. I think here's the steps i should do, please advice.

1) Boot up from DOS boot disk, and run fdisk program to partition the drives
2) run format program to format the drives
3) cd to CD-ROM drive (cd D:) and run setup.exe in I386 folder
4) Then I should able to install Windows OS.



TheCrewser said:
If you have a "brand new computer with nothing installed", chances are
that your C: drive doesn't have any partitions...which means that
nothing will find the drive until you create a partition.

What kind of boot disk are you using? A Win98 boot disk with CD-ROM
support? A DOS boot disk with no CD-ROM drivers?

If you are trying to install XP from a boot disk, you need a 6 disk
set in order to start the install process, not just one disk.

www.bootdisk.com

for the complete 6 disk set, which will find you CD-ROM, if it is
properly installed and configured, and prepare the hard disk drive for
formating and installing XP.

GLCrews,MCP


No, in the BIOS boot up setting, I put CDROM as the second boot up setting.

I mean what I did is the correct approach? First boot up from the floopy
disk, now I am in drive A, then I can cd to drive D (CD rom) ??? But how
come when I type C:, the computer cannot detect the hard disk???


"Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"
Perhaps the CD-ROM is bad? Or disconnected internally? Or disabled in the
BIOS?

John Davis wrote:
My computer is brand new and have nothing installed. I want to install
Windows XP but the CD is non-bootable. I boot up the computer from
startup floopy disk, and then try to go to CD ROM drive to run setup.

When I do the following in command prompt:

A:\> D:
It yields the error "invalid drive specification." It doesn't matter
I type C:, or whatever, it doesn't work. The computer just can't
identify any drives. What should I do now??

Please advice. Thanks,
John
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Rather than trying to set up CD drivers for a boot disk so you can access
your CD drive, seriously, booting to the CD is much simpler.

Forget the bootdisk, set bios to boot from CD (not second choice there)
and insert CD, reboot. Nowhere is a boot floppy necessary.

The XP CD is bootable. If it's a "restore" CD, it's probably bootable
also so one can restore computer if it won't boot to windows.
-
Todd
I found out DOS boot disk have fdisk and format program, but Win98 boot disk
doesn't have format program. So which one I should use?? Little bit
confused.
Click to expand...
Yes, u are right, my computer has nothing on it, and I can't just boot from
the CD somehow. I think here's the steps i should do, please advice.
Click to expand...
1) Boot up from DOS boot disk, and run fdisk program to partition the drives
2) run format program to format the drives
3) cd to CD-ROM drive (cd D:) and run setup.exe in I386 folder
4) Then I should able to install Windows OS.


TheCrewser said:
If you have a "brand new computer with nothing installed", chances are
that your C: drive doesn't have any partitions...which means that
nothing will find the drive until you create a partition.

What kind of boot disk are you using? A Win98 boot disk with CD-ROM
support? A DOS boot disk with no CD-ROM drivers?

If you are trying to install XP from a boot disk, you need a 6 disk
set in order to start the install process, not just one disk.

www.bootdisk.com

for the complete 6 disk set, which will find you CD-ROM, if it is
properly installed and configured, and prepare the hard disk drive for
formating and installing XP.

GLCrews,MCP


No, in the BIOS boot up setting, I put CDROM as the second boot up setting.

I mean what I did is the correct approach? First boot up from the floopy
disk, now I am in drive A, then I can cd to drive D (CD rom) ??? But how
come when I type C:, the computer cannot detect the hard disk???


"Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"
Perhaps the CD-ROM is bad? Or disconnected internally? Or disabled in the
BIOS?

John Davis wrote:
My computer is brand new and have nothing installed. I want to install
Windows XP but the CD is non-bootable. I boot up the computer from
startup floopy disk, and then try to go to CD ROM drive to run setup.

When I do the following in command prompt:

A:\> D:
It yields the error "invalid drive specification." It doesn't matter
I type C:, or whatever, it doesn't work. The computer just can't
identify any drives. What should I do now??

Please advice. Thanks,
John
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
And if your "new" computer isn't able to boot to the CD then yes what you
wrote is one way to do it. But you only need to start winnt.exe from the
i386 folder. From there you can also format the harddisk from XP setup.

I said "new", because it is VERY odd for any new computer not to be able
to boot to a CD.
-
Todd
Rather than trying to set up CD drivers for a boot disk so you can access
your CD drive, seriously, booting to the CD is much simpler.
Click to expand...
Forget the bootdisk, set bios to boot from CD (not second choice there)
and insert CD, reboot. Nowhere is a boot floppy necessary.
Click to expand...
The XP CD is bootable. If it's a "restore" CD, it's probably bootable
also so one can restore computer if it won't boot to windows.
-
Todd
Click to expand...
regarding Re: invalid drive specification error:
I found out DOS boot disk have fdisk and format program, but Win98 boot disk
doesn't have format program. So which one I should use?? Little bit
confused.
Yes, u are right, my computer has nothing on it, and I can't just boot from
the CD somehow. I think here's the steps i should do, please advice.
1) Boot up from DOS boot disk, and run fdisk program to partition the drives
2) run format program to format the drives
3) cd to CD-ROM drive (cd D:) and run setup.exe in I386 folder
4) Then I should able to install Windows OS.
Click to expand...

TheCrewser said:
If you have a "brand new computer with nothing installed", chancesare
that your C: drive doesn't have any partitions...which means that
nothing will find the drive until you create a partition.

What kind of boot disk are you using? A Win98 boot disk with CD-ROM
support? A DOS boot disk with no CD-ROM drivers?

If you are trying to install XP from a boot disk, you need a 6 disk
set in order to start the install process, not just one disk.

www.bootdisk.com

for the complete 6 disk set, which will find you CD-ROM, if it is
properly installed and configured, and prepare the hard disk drivefor
formating and installing XP.

GLCrews,MCP


On Wed, 13 Aug 2003 20:43:40 -0700, "John Davis"

No, in the BIOS boot up setting, I put CDROM as the second boot up setting.

I mean what I did is the correct approach? First boot up from thefloopy
disk, now I am in drive A, then I can cd to drive D (CD rom) ??? But how
come when I type C:, the computer cannot detect the hard disk???


"Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"
Perhaps the CD-ROM is bad? Or disconnected internally? Or disabled in the
BIOS?

John Davis wrote:
My computer is brand new and have nothing installed. I want to install
Windows XP but the CD is non-bootable. I boot up the computerfrom
startup floopy disk, and then try to go to CD ROM drive to run setup.

When I do the following in command prompt:

A:\> D:
It yields the error "invalid drive specification." It doesn'tmatter
I type C:, or whatever, it doesn't work. The computer just can't
identify any drives. What should I do now??

Please advice. Thanks,
John
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
John,

Read the manual that came with the computer for instructions on how to set
the BIOS to detect the CD drive as the first device. Then, assuming you have
a retail version of Windows XP, the system will boot from the CD. You can
use the Windows XP CD to format a drive and set partitions, they are options
provided during setup, so the drive can be totally free of any information
including formatting.

Since you state this is a brand new computer, it may be easier and advisable
to have the vendor install the OS for you. . .it should be a part of their
service or "worse case scenario" be very inexpensive.
 
Back
Top