You can basically use any IDE CD-ROM device driver.
I've always used VIDE-CDD.SYS (https://www.vogonswiki.com/index.php/VIDE-CDD.SYS), since this is one of the IDE CD-ROM drivers that uses the least memory.

Also, I'm pretty sure you can still read DVDs in DOS without any special driver.

DVDs use UDF as the file system. MS-DOS don't have support for UDF. While it was possible to use ISO9660 for DVDs as well, that was limited to 2 GB so you won't find many DVDs using ISO9660.

This will have to be on hold until I figure out why my motherboard has crapped out again 😢

derSammler wrote:

DVDs use UDF as the file system. MS-DOS don't have support for UDF. While it was possible to use ISO9660 for DVDs as well, that was limited to 2 GB so you won't find many DVDs using ISO9660.

Interesting. Is this true for DOS 7 (Win98) as well? or only <= DOS 6.22 ?

I'm stuck.

I've put this in my AUTOEXEC.BAT:

1C:\DOS\MSCDEX.EXE /D:OEMCD001 /L:F

And this in my CONFIG.SYS:

1DEVICE=D:\CDPRO\VIDE-CDD.SYS /D:OEMCD001 /V

OEMCD001 because when I boot with my Windows 98 CD, that's the driver is uses, so I assume that will work with this drive,

Unfortunately I get:

Device driver not found: 'OEMCD001'
No valid CD-ROM device drivers selected

What do I do?

What's the output of VIDE-CDD.SYS? It should either find your drive or tell you that no drive was found. The latter seems to be the case and causes the message of MSCDEX.

Is your CDPRO folder on your C: or D: drive?
Remove the /V parameter from your Config.sys entry and place it in your Autoexec.bat file as part of MSCDEX.EXE.

My eyes might by deceiving me but, there should be no spaces after C:\ and D:\
If.this does not work, double check your DVD drive connections and jumper settings.

derSammler wrote:

What's the output of VIDE-CDD.SYS? It should either find your drive or tell you that no drive was found. The latter seems to be the case and causes the message of MSCDEX.

I'm in the folder it's in, and when it type out it's name I get 'bad command or file name'

jesolo wrote:

Is your CDPRO folder on your C: or D: drive? Remove the /V parameter from your Config.sys entry and place it in your Autoexec.ba […]
Show full quote

Is your CDPRO folder on your C: or D: drive?
Remove the /V parameter from your Config.sys entry and place it in your Autoexec.bat file as part of MSCDEX.EXE.

My eyes might by deceiving me but, there should be no spaces after C:\ and D:\
If.this does not work, double check your DVD drive connections and jumper settings.

Ok, my autoexec.bat now successfully loads the driver, but my config.sys says OEMCD001 isn't found.

Try moving your CDPRO folder to your C: drive and change the path in your Config.sys file to C:.
Just make sure that the drive is properly connected and configured (the jumpers) - is it working under Windows?

It works fine under 98, yeah.

I spotted that typo and CDPRO is on C.

There are no jumpers on the drive.

Is your DVD-ROM connected on the same IDE channel (using the same cable) as your hard drive?
If so, then you need to set the jumper on the DVD-ROM as Slave (is normally marked as either Master, Slave or Cable Select) but, you need to jumper either one of the three.
The cable should then be connected with the far end to the hard drive (as the Master) and the DVD-ROM connected in the middle (as the Slave).

However, you can also try to connect your DVD-ROM on the secondary IDE channel (i.e., on its own IDE cable) as either a Master (jumper set to Master) or Slave (jumper set to Slave). As per the above, if you connect it as the Master, connect it to the far end of the IDE cable and, if connected as Slave, in the middle of the cable. I don't normally use the "Cable Select" jumper.

You have to trial and error this, as I've come across some DVD-ROM drives that only works when connected as either a Master or Slave (sometimes, it also only works when connected on the secondary IDE channel).

Thanks jesolo, I'll try that when I'm next in front of the machine.

My CD drive is on secondary Master right now. It has no bridging bit for the jumpers present, do you know what setting it should be? There's nothing on the drive case itself...

derSammler wrote:

DVDs use UDF as the file system. MS-DOS don't have support for UDF. While it was possible to use ISO9660 for DVDs as well, that was limited to 2 GB so you won't find many DVDs using ISO9660.

Actually, the limit is only 2GB per file, so you can find/burn plenty of DVDs using ISO9660/Joliet.

tpowell.ca wrote:

Interesting. Is this true for DOS 7 (Win98) as well? or only <= DOS 6.22 ?

I can confirm that "DOS 7.1" (Win98 SE pure DOS mode) cannot read UDF DVDs. The following message is displayed when trying to list directory contents:

CDR 103 Error: CDROM not High Sierra or ISO-9660 Format

Inside Windows, it reads fine. I wonder if a different DOS TSR can lift this limitation, but as far as I found out, no version of MSCDEX or SHSUCDX supports UDF.

gladders wrote:

Thanks jesolo, I'll try that when I'm next in front of the machine.

My CD drive is on secondary Master right now. It has no bridging bit for the jumpers present, do you know what setting it should be? There's nothing on the drive case itself...

This is normally the layout of the drives at the rear.
Based on your current setup, you want to jumper it as Master.

Generally, I use VIDE-CDD.SYS + SHSUCDX

Hi all,

Figured it out! It wasn't the jumpers, but there was a typo in autoexec.bat. It's recognising the drive.

Although, it insists on assigning it as drive E. How do I force it to D?

In AUTOEXEC.BAT

LH C:\CDROM\SHCDX33F.COM /D:MSCD000

CONFIG.SYS

DEVICEHIGH=C:\CDROM\VIDE-CDD.SYS /D:MSCD000