OS won't load

[chuneyj]

Help please.
My problem is I do not get a prompt of any kind. My computer doesnot have an operating system installed on it. So when it is turned on it gives me a boot failure insert boot diskette in A or CDrom and press when ready. What do I need to do to get this software I purchased to download. I have both a A drive and CDrom. But when I put Wins 98 in I get the same error. It does not even read the disk.

[Murray S.]

Howdy and welcome to CTH:

Are you using a full install Win98 cd ??

Have you tried making a boot floppy from www.bootdisk.com (http://www.bootdisk.com)??

Have you checked in BIOS (setup) and made sure the first boot device was set as the cd drive if trying to boot from the 98 cd OR, the floppy drive when trying to boot from a boot floppy??

have you EVER installed an operating system before??

Murray

[chuneyj]

I am using a full install CD. I have not tried to make a boot floppy. No I did not do that either my computer will not allow me to go into to BIOS. I do not know how to switch my primary driver. The error I receive is Boot failure loading boot record from CDrom and IDE-0: Not found. Then goes back to Insert Boot diskette in A: press any key when ready.

[chuneyj]

Sorry for the hijacking. How do I get to the DOS prompt? I donot think Dos is loaded to the CPU

[Murray S.]

Do you know how to get into BIOS (setup)??

Murray

[chuneyj]

No How do you do it

[chuneyj]

Have you checked in BIOS (setup) and made sure the first boot device was set as the cd drive if trying to boot from the 98 cd -- How would I perform this. I think if I could get it to recognize the CDrom drive it would work. The running light under my cdrom drive doesnot light up so i assume it is not processing the CD.

[chuneyj]

I got into BIOS now how do I change to CDROM as pri driver

[chuneyj]

I changed the boot driver and still the same thing happened. I don't know if the drive is working. One error I have seen is the IDE auto detect for the pri slave says it cannot dect the hard disk. What do I need to do? When people remove the OS I should be able to re-install another one easily.

[Murray S.]

I assume you got into BIOS from your previous posts.. is that correct??

Open your case.. is your hdd and cd-rom connected to the same IDE cable and have there own power supply??

Have you ever opened the case to do anything inside??

Murray

[chuneyj]

No I have not. What am I looking at?

[Murray S.]

No I have not.

You have not "what"?? I asked three different questions.. Try being a little more specific when answering please !! :dizzy:


urray

[chuneyj]

No I have not opened the case up before. I have never built a computer so I really don't know what these things look like?

[chuneyj]

In the BIOS I went to the Advanced screen and changed the boot drive device to CDRom? I went back in to reboot and I received the same error. I also created a bootdisk from the website you recommended and the system would not read it.(NON-system disk; replace with proper media or change drive) I also have the DOS6.22 disk and the error read the same. I have never opened the tower to look at the hdd or the CDRom so I do not know where or what they might look like. Is it possible to remove the Hard disk and the system still run? What should I do? By the way thank you for your help.

[Murray S.]

The file I said to download has to be downloaded to your system.. Then put a clean formatted floppy disk in the floppy drive and double click the file you downloaded to extrat the required files to the floppy..

Once that is done, go into BIOS and make the floppy (A: drive) the first boot device.. Press F10 to save the change and reboot the system with the floppy in the drive..

Murray

[wig]

Murray,

If I may intervene, it might help to save time.
Do you mean the file boot98se.exe (or whichever file associated with the OS he has) from that website?

I think you mean:
Goto the download site from a working computer, download the file, transfer it to clean formatted floppy, double click the file to run the file, it will self extract. Then take the floppy to the non working computer, insert and it should work.

Chuneyj,

Assuming you have downloaded the file to a clean floppy already, it won't work as a boot disk until you run the file that is on the disk, you need to go back to a working computer and run that file on the floppy, then you should have a working boot disk.

When you have done this and the boot disk works on your broken PC you will be given a few options. You will want to "start with CD ROM support".

Then you may want to type "Fdisk c:\" at the DOS prompt - assuming you want to ignore any data on the C:\ drive, i.e. you are not wanting to recover any lost data on C:\ Fdisk c:\ cleans the C: drive for a clean install.

After that insert your win cd and you should have been given a message saying CD ROM drive is E: or CD rom drive is F: or whatever letter it is
type that letter like this >>> F:\ and hit return

your CD should now be reading

Next type "setup" (without the quotes) hit return and it should all start working for you.

****But I think you should wait for Murray to confirm what I have said, I'm only an amateur and he might know a good reason not to do something I said.

Also my DOS commands are a bit rusty "Fdisk C:\" etc

[chuneyj]

I went to someone who had an A drive and created an MS-DOS start up disk. It worked and I am now at the A:\> prompt. How do I now go to the CDROM and upload WIN98?

[chuneyj]

Also when I tried to run one of the bootdisk files on the webpage I received an error. It said that WIN image extract was not supported. I am running XP on my system. I wonder where do i go from here. I got the DOS prompt, but I am stuck on the A drive. This computer has no operating system at all. I wonder what to do next.

[chuneyj]

Also when you say "You will want to "start with CD ROM support". " How would I do this.

[chuneyj]

By the way thank you for your help

[Murray S.]

When you use the floppy to start the system, you should get three options right at the beginning..

One of them will be "Start with CD-Rom support"..

That being said, if you are going to reformat your system, you can save a couple seconds right now and use the "Start without cd-rom support"..

Once everything has been loaded and you are back at the a:\ prompt, type in "fdisk" (no quotes" and press <enter>.. Your first choice will be to remove all partitions starting with all NON-DOS partitions..

Once that has finished, use the command to remove the Primary DOS partition..

After that has been completed, you will need to reboot the system using the floppy.. This time, when to get back to a:\ prompt, you will need to CREATE a primary DOS partition so use that fdisk option (say yes to all questions)..

After the Primary DOS partition has been created, reboot keeping the floppy in the drive.. Now, at the a:\ prompt, you will need to type in "format c:"..Again, say YES to all questions.. Depending on the size of your hdd, the above steps may take some time !!

Murray

[chuneyj]

After i did the above I was sent back to A prompt. I then went to the drive E. IT says Drive E: = Driver MSCD001 unit 0. I assume this is my CDROM drive? I then went in and typed setup and hit enter but got a CDR101: Not Ready reading drive E (Abort, Retry, Fail). What do i do next? Thank you again for all the great help.

[Murray S.]

Your install cd was in the drive??

Did you change the drive prompt to your cd drive letter (from showing a:\ prompt on the screen to e:\ prompt) ??

Murray

[chuneyj]

YES I did

[chuneyj]

I still get that error. CDR101: Not Ready reading drive E (Abort, Retry, Fail).

[Murf]

chuneyj

1. When you booted with the start-up floppy disk, did the screen tell you what drive letter it assigned to your cdrom?

2. When you are at the A:> prompt I want you to type the following and tell us what happens.

sys c: (hit<enter>)

c: (hit<enter>)

[chuneyj]

Yes it assigned the driver thename MSCD001 unit 0 and assigned it to the E:drive

Once I used the command above it returned system transfered

[chuneyj]

sorry about that I hit the return before finishing my message.... I hit the c:\ next and it put me on the C: command line

[chuneyj]

I got the same error what should I do now

[Murray S.]

How old is this system and what operating system was on it originally??

Murray

[chuneyj]

I believe they ran Microsoft ME but the hard drive was wiped. So the O/S was removed.

[chuneyj]

I am not to sure how old the system is no older than the 90's

[jmnew51]

Maybe the drive is no good. It sounds like the system is picking it up, but the system is responding like there is no disc in the drive. Make sure the disc is OK. If it is, try temporarily swapping out the cd rom drive with a known good one.
Jim

[chuneyj]

Okay I will try that. I thought that it might be the driver, but the driver is installed. I will try that and send a message back with how it turned out. Thanks..

[chuneyj]

Still no good. This time it read the cd, but I go the same error. What else could cause that error?

[chuneyj]

I received a Fail on INT 24 -WIN98. I am not to sure what that means exactly.

[jmnew51]

When you say it read the cd, do you mean when you typed SETUP at the E: prompt? How do you know it was reading the cd? Did you swap out the disk or the drive?