I tried installing w/ skipping all the files it couldn’t copy, but that was a no go. It was able to boot to the second half on the installation, the part that is “in” Windows itself (I say this because there are icons and a mouse pointer and what have you.) However, it stopped after about five minutes because (suprise, suprise) a file it needed couldn’t be found.
Concerning a boot disc: what, exactly, would I do? I know I’ll download the stuff onto the floppy (well, probaly unzip it then copy to the floppy, but you get the point) and then boot from it, but what then? You said I only need to copy the i386 directory. I assume you mean copy the i386 directory from the CD into a folder C:\Windows\i386? Then what after that? Will it boot from the hard drive to finish the install, or do I still need to boot from the CD? Of course, I imagine if the install program can’t copy the files, why should DOS be able to, right?
I contacted MS, and I will get a replacement CD, but they won’t ahve any in stock to ship to me until the 29th, and I’d rather not wait that long if I don’t have to. I’ve already emaield some friends to see if any of them have a CD they can send me.
OK, so I got a DOS loader boot disc, but I can’t get to the C: drive from it. It says drive does not exist, or something similar. Anyone know why this might be? It’s a normal IDE hard drive, so I don’t see why it wouldn’t be recognized. It shows up in the BIOS just fine, too.
Does the floppy load a driver for the CD -mscdex- and ask if you want CD support?
Without this driver your CD will not work from a DOS bootup.
Haven’t had any success in finding a download but there may be something suitable here that you can download to boot your machine with: Microsoft Driver Downloads , probably the first one on the list would be the one for you.
Ah, well, there’s my problem then. So basically I’m screwed until the beginnign of April when I (in theory) get a repalcement CD from Microsoft. Well, I’ve been without a functional computer since the middle of December, what’s another 15 days, right?