response to prompt

[confusedbycomputer]

I did the restart twice using the Windows98 startup disk and did not see reference to a CD-Rom drive. It ran a diagnostic test of some sort and found no problems.
On the screen now, the only thing showing is:        A:\>     It is asking me to type something and I have no clue what to add.

[Rob Pomeroy]

I still recommend attempting to boot from Windows 98 CDROM.  Can we try that?  Even if the BIOS can't do it, Smart BootManager can.

[confusedbycomputer]

Please tell me how to do that...step-by-step...

[confusedbycomputer]

Here is what I just now did:  
At the "A:\> ",  I typed "sys c" [enter]... The message "system transferred" appeared
Then A:\> appeared; I typed "cd\"[enter] and the "autoexec.bat" at the A:\>...
Then the computer ran for a good while while the message "Preparing to start your computer. This may take a few minutes. Please wait... appeared on the screen.

Now here is what I am reading:
"The diagnostic tools were successfully loaded to drive D.
To get help, type HELP and press ENTER.
A:\>

Should I type HELP? and what am I looking for?  (I did this earlier and there are a few screens of stuff...)

[Rob Pomeroy]

It's too late for what I was thinking of before.  Lets summarise where we are now:

• you have a clean hard drive
• you have some kind of floppy disk that you can boot from, but which appears not to give you access to your CDROM drive
• you have a Windows 98 CDROM, that you could boot from, if you could persuade your computer to boot from it

Am I right so far?

Okay, so ditch the floppy disk.  Put it as far away from your computer as possible - it is causing you no end of trouble.  :)  I suggest you obtain Smart Boot Manager.  This creates a floppy disk that will enable you to boot from your Windows 98 CDROM and get Windows installed.

Smart BootManager's >homepage< isn't working properly at the moment, but you can still download the program from >SourceForge<.  Download the file to your hard drive first, then run it (double-click) - you will need a blank floppy to transfer the boot program onto.

Then pop the new floppy and your Windows CD into the respective drives of your computer.  Reboot the computer, and you will then come to the Smart Boot Manager screen.  Choose to boot from your CDROM drive, and away you go.

Hope this helps.