fdisk drive

[jdunn]

The CMOS battery died on my Aptiva Win98 computer and I lost all the settings. I loaded the default settings (I think anyway), and inserted the Win98 start up disk and the Win 98 CD. It won't load the system because it can't find the HD. I tried booting with and with out CD ROM support. No Good.

At the A prompt I typed fdisk but it said it could not find the drive.
I next typed at the A prompt format (space) c:(space)/s but got the message invalid drive specification.

What to do next?

[ibmman476]

If you buy a new battery at Walmart which I think someone on here said is like $3.75 and then it should work

[iwishiknew]

if your just reinstalling win 98os in the bios change to boot from cd,

[jdunn]

Not trying to save the data, just trying to get it to work. I only want to use it for e-mail

[iwishiknew]

Not trying to save the data, just trying to get it to work. I only want to use it for e-mail..

[jdunn]

Didn't work.

Set it to boot from the A drive then the CD-Rom. I get the three start up options in Win 98 but none work. It says it can not find the drive. At the A prompt when I type fdisk.exe iI get "No fixed disk". Whe I type at the A prompt format (space) c: (space) /s it says invalid drive specification. When I typ format at the A prompt it says parameter not found.

[iwishiknew]

Didn't work.

Set it to boot from the A drive then the CD-Rom. I get the three start up options in Win 98 but none work. It says it can not find the drive. At the A prompt when I type fdisk.exe iI get "No fixed disk". Whe I type at the A prompt format (space) c: (space) /s it says invalid drive specification. When I typ format at the A prompt it says parameter not found...

[jtdoom]

hi

has this battery been replaced yet?
I ask, because you had/have to do that.

once replaced, go into BIOS, and look at settings, and change those that need changing.

a dead battery can cause a multitude of different issues, including not powering up.
Hard disk not found is one of the issues..

I would advise to not fdisk if you just want it to get running again.
whatever was on the drive when the battery died, ought to still be there, and once you replaced the battery and have the settings set right, it should boot to windows just like that.