Perhaps there is an error in the file system..
Run CHKDSK /F to check.

How would having error in hard drive file system affect trying to make the file on a floppy disk? It doesn't allow me to make a file with that name anywhere.

I've not heard of that one. There are reserved names like NUL, PRN and COM (see https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/librar ... s.85).aspx) but not cdrom.ini

Have you tried creating the file in a clean DOS boot with no config.sys or autoexec.bat?

Thanks. That actually worked and I was able to make the file after I renamed config.sys and autoexec.bat and rebooted. Logic says that it must be either oak cd rom driver or mscdex that prevented me from making the file since they are the only ones that have something to do with cdrom.

I haven't, either. Perhaps something weird is going on with the file attributes of cdrom.ini ?
Maybe trying Norton Commander to delete that file helps (it can see hidden and system files).
Or trying with an other OS.

If there's an error in one of the FATs, strange things can happen.

CHKDSK [drive letter] will show them. CHKDSK [drive letter] /F will fix them.
SCANDISK can also be used (SCANDISK [drive letter]).

This reminds me of what happened to me in DOS Plus a while ago.
So for example, if there's a spurious entry of an earlier cdrom.ini, you perhaps can't create that file again until the FATs get fixed.
That's just an idea, however. Perhaps the file or FAT on the floppy was already damaged and caused that issue.

Or maybe the compressed archive has two cdrom.ini files ? If for example, one is in the root directory,
but another one is located in a sub directory, problems could arise if the archive was not properly extracted.

I mean, if the extraction/decompression was done without the re-creation of the sub directories, one of the cdrom.ini
files would overwrite the other one. Normally, the decompression program would then show a warning message, though.

PS: Sorry for my poor English. I'm sleepy right now. (=_=)

Edit: Never mind. Seems we were writing at the same time.

Actually it didn't help with the game, because the same thing is preventing any software from reading the cdrom.ini file even if I managed to make the file while I didn't have config.sys and autoexec.bat file.
if I do command "type cdrom.ini" to read what is in the file, it gives error "Invalid device request reading device CDROM. Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail?"

Edit: It is the oak cd rom driver that prevented me from making or reading a file that has that name. Removing mscdex from autoexec.bat file didn't change anything, but removing cd rom driver from config.sys did allow me to read and write that file again. Are there any othe cd-rom drivers that I could try that would allow me to play the game while having cd-rom access?

You can use any CD-ROM device driver - they are all compatible. I usually use from Mitsumi.

My best bet is that "cdrom.ini" is an alias for the Oak CD ROM driver, and so when that driver gets loaded "cdrom.ini" is reserved system-wide.

The easiest way to check would be to create a system that doesn't load the Oak CD ROM driver, try creating a file "cdrom.ini", and then try again after manually loading the Oak CD ROM driver.

You don't happen to have the device id as "CDROM", do you? I mean having the .sys and mscdex using /D:CDROM
If this is the case just change it to something different because"CDROM" become a device and cannot be used like the rest reserved device names

konc wrote:

You don't happen to have the device id as "CDROM", do you? I mean having the .sys and mscdex using /D:CDROM
If this is the case just change it to something different because"CDROM" become a device and cannot be used like the rest reserved device names

Thanks. That solved the problem. I had not even thought about what I had as device name in config.sys.

Wow, that was a weird one! I would never have thought of that! For the device name I use ATAPI-CD, as sometimes I have SCSI cd drives, which I name SCSI-CD.

One thing about oakcdrom.sys, it uses a HUGE chunk of conventional memory, talk about big. I found another cd-rom driver, vide-cdd.sys, and have never looked back, uses a tiny amount compared to oakcdrom. Also, if you run EMM386 with EMS (Expanded memory) enabled, you can put a switch on MSCDEX (I think /E?), and it will load its buffers into expanded memory and save you even more conventional memory

Cheers! Bellarmine

Or just use the modern UDVD2.SYS / XDVD2.SYS, which takes almost no memory, supports SATA, caching, and what not. I only use that since I found about it.

bellarmine wrote:

Wow, that was a weird one! I would never have thought of that!

Me, neither. I always use MSCD001..