CD/CDRW/DVD

3. My Computer reads CD's in windows but won't read CD's in DOS or play CD based DOS games. How do I make it work?

This is quite common and is quite easily solved. In order to solve it you need to modify 2 files. The first is a file named CONFIG.SYS which lies in the root directory (C:\) and the second is a file named DOSSTART.BAT which is in the windows directory (C:\WINDOWS). Before you change either of these files it is important to create a backup copy of the original so that you can restore it in the event of problems. The easiest way is to copy it in windows (right click on the file and choose copy from the popup menu, select a folder and then right click in this folder and choose paste to create the copy).

First file to change is CONFIG.SYS. In windows right click on the config.sys file and choose 'open with' from the popup menu. In the dialog box that pops up choose notepad (and ensure the box marked 'always use this program to open this type of file' in unchecked). This will open the file in notepad so that a line similar to:

device=c:\oakcdrom.sys /D:OEMCD001

can be added. The important thing about this line is that the file oakcdrom.sys must exist in the stated directory (in this case the root directory). This file is the first part of the CD rom driver. if you do not have a copy of the file oakcdrom.sys then there you are likely to have a different CD driver somewhere on your system which you can copy to your root directory (C:\). Once this line has been added then the file can be saved and the second file (DOSSTART.BAT) can be edited. Notepad will open this file directly provided that you choose 'all files' in the files of type box. In this file you will need a line similar to

MSCDEX.EXE /D:OEMCD001 /l:d

If you already have a copy of dosstart.bat (whether you do or not will depend on which version of windows you have) then you may already have this line in but with REM in front of it. In this case you just need to delete the REM (which stands for remark) from the line. If you don't have a copy of the file then you can create one from a blank notepad document. If you do then when you save it make sure that you save it to the correct folder and you you select 'all files' in the files of type box. The first thing to note about this line is that the file MSCDEX.EXE must exist and it will normally reside in the C:\windows\command directory. The second point to note is that the part /D:OEMCD001 must be the same in both the config.sys and the dosstart.bat files.
The final point is that the part /l:d means assign it drive letter D which is fine if you only have 1 hard drive but will need changing otherwise (best choice will be the same letter as windows assigns). After you have saved this then the next time you reboot the changes will be activated. When you choose to restart in dos mode you should have a cd drive.