Older Cd-Rom not recognized

Not really looking for a solution here, just an opinon.

Have an old ASUS M/B coupled to @ K62-350 with 64MB Ram and 3 GB Quantum drive - canabalized system. I thought about putting 98 on and then decided I slap a version of Linux on it to play around with.

I have 4 or 5 different versions of Linux but have never been comfortable with the multiboot computer scenario - especially when I use the machine on the daily basis.

I thought this an ideal opportunity to try it out.

Here's the issue when I tried a win98 boot disk with my intial idea - Windows says there's no valid device present and won't load the generic cd-rom driver.

When I tried the linux boot disk - same thing Linux (mandrake 7.2) doesn't see the drive either.

The drive is a an ancient Matsusomething 4X drive. It autodetects in the BIOS - PIO Mode 3. The manufactuer date on it is 97 and it used to run in a Win95 machine.

Is it possible that even though the device is recognized by the BIOS automatically that it's to ancient for 98 to see it ( I know that Linux can be tempremental). Just looking for ideas before I march into town and buy a new cd-rom.

 

Isn't it true on the old machines you used to have to set the BIOS' IDE Detection to none which would then let Win98 see it? Just something to try.

 

Chiles4 makes a valid point, but I wouldn't expect recognition problems with a matsumi CDROM thats only 5 years old. Are both IDE controllers enabled in the Bios?

 

If the bios sees it, then I'm assuming you need some real mode drivers loaded.

You might have a read thru this Microsoft article:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;Q131499&

 

Gave up on ancient CD-ROM - don't want to get into the real mode drivers thing.

Since I wanted to use this on a Linux box - real mode wasn't really an option for me.

Everything was enabled in the BIOS, the BIOS would detect the drive at any position I placed it - but no go in Windows or Linux.

Went out and spent twenty bucks on a new one - works fine no problems - issue fixed..

Thanks for the responses though

Gary