Windows 98 BIG PROBLEMS

nckgb · #1 April 4th, 2003, 05:33 PM

will not boot says file allocation table bad drive c. I tried downloading boot disc but copy it to floppy drop in th notebook adn turn on power. still says the same thing, when I try to change drives I can, but all I can do is open the dir. HOW CAN I GET THIS TO WORK???. I have a presario 1240 notebook with win98 from the factory. I have run my recovery CD and run diagnostics, says all ok. I even though this is my last choice as I do not want to lose volumes of work on my notebook, using the restore, but it also returns the file allocation table bad. AFTER, I get the boot disc to boot the computer then what to restore it to boot itself. Thank you for any help, I desperatly need my computer back
nckgb@yahoo.com

1966 · #2 April 4th, 2003, 05:46 PM

How long have you had this problem and when did it start?

1966 · #3 April 4th, 2003, 05:49 PM

Re reading your post, am curious, you say you can change drives.
Do you have two hard drives?

nckgb · #4 April 4th, 2003, 05:54 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by 1966
How long have you had this problem and when did it start?

I just tried to start my computer and this message came up
file allocation table bad, drive c
and it will do nothing more.

nckgb · #5 April 4th, 2003, 05:58 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by 1966
Re reading your post, am curious, you say you can change drives.
Do you have two hard drives?

No, I have only the factory hard drive, what I meant was the factory hard drive is on C and my flopy is on A
I copied boot disc from the web on a floppy and then put it in drive A, but will not auto boot or start the floppy. I checked it by typing A:>dir and the directory shows. I need to know how I can get this computer to boot up so I can run scandisc and fix my problem with my hard drive on C

HKEd · #6 April 5th, 2003, 05:43 AM

Hi nckgb...please let us know the make of the hard disk drive. There may be a disk repair utility at the manufacturer's site. That's the only way we're going to fix this problem, methinks.

lneilson · #7 April 5th, 2003, 02:58 PM

nckgb try this :

make a boot disk and put a copy of scandisk.exe on it boot from a:\ scandisk c:\ run a virus scan

lneilson

nckgb · #8 April 5th, 2003, 05:10 PM

Thx, but where can I get a copy of scandisc. This computer is running on Windows XP home edition OEM. What you are saying is also what I think may work, BUT I need to get ahold of scandisc. The copy of bootdisc I( have extracted to a floppy) does not start the computer itself when it is put in the floppy drive
Thanks. Can anyone zip me a copy of scandisc and email it to me??? nckgb@yahoo.com (I have moved to Germany from the US and have nobody here to get a copy from.

1966 · #9 April 5th, 2003, 06:53 PM

I thought you stated you had Win98 on the machine, but either way you might try a scanreg/fix from DOS. a:\scanreg/fix c: The suggestion on going to the HD manufactuer site for help is a good one. Have you tried getting into the bios as it boots up?

nckgb · #10 April 5th, 2003, 09:12 PM

No, I do have windows 98 on the notebook, what I meant was that I have Windows XP on this machine I am posting now from (desktop), so I can not copy files from this machine to use on that machine. Please tell me about Bios as someone told me that one reason the floppy with bootdisc would not boot my notebook was that bios was set to boot from the C drive and that I would have to change this to the a drive (floppy) to get the bootdisc to boot the machine up. Is this correct? If so, how do I do this?

1966 · #11 April 6th, 2003, 07:26 AM

As the computer starts its boot, hold the delete key down and see if it will let you in.