So, I decided to boot up my old Retro PC. To my dismay, when I booted my Windows 98 or ME instances, I noticed that the CDROM was not showing, it would show up in the BIOS, and if I booted MS DOS 6.22 MSCDEX and all the config work I had done there was still working (so I knew it wasn’t a hardware issue).
The two OSs would boot just fine, and no matter how much I played with the BIOS configurations for the IDE channels the result was the same.
I knew I had the proper drivers on them OS’s cause I had everything working previously so I was a bit stumped at this point. I was about to give up, but I really wanted to play some Road Rash.. I checked many threads on the matter, and most of it simply stated to delete the IDE device and let windows reinstall it at next boot, even if I used the standard Microsoft drivers or the NVDIA nForce drivers, the result was the same, NO CDROM.
I then found this thread, and the final answer at the end actually worked…
“Troubleshooting MS-DOS Compatibility Mode on Hard Disks (Q130179)
It was under:
Resolution…..
4…..
d. Check for the NOIDE value in the registry under:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\IOS
The NOIDE value is placed in the registry when the protected-mode driver for the IDE Controller is not properly initialized.
For additional information about how to troubleshoot NOIDE, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
Q151911 MS-DOS Compatibility Mode Problems with PCI IDE Controllers
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It had me delete the NOIDE value and reboot. ”
Like…. what? I’ve never seen this before, what a weird problem and solution. I love how there are so many forums and threads alive today for even such old OS’s. Gotta love Retro gaming. 🙂