not booting please help!

[imfisherman199]

I have a desk top with me home on it. I got it from a friend after while it would not boot. all i get is a message device manager not found. so i tried boot disk.com for a new start up disk. all it did is say this is not the system disk. I tried 2 diffrent startup disks from seprate desktops and the same result. I want to just wipe the hard drive out. and install a new system. but it appears that since i cant boot how else can i wipe it out. or how could i get it to boot. i wish the previous owner would of made a start up.. I would just trash it but it was rebuilt. and has a memory of about 900.and when it works it is fast. so any ideas would be apreciated. have a great day.

[Kalandros]

Unfortunately, there isn't much possible in this case. Since the last owner did not make a boot disc for your computer it makes it a little more aggravating. You cannot use another computer's boot disc in any instance only because they are designed for that computer, and it helps defeat computer software pirating.

The only thing I can think of, aside from finding a Windows ME disc, is that if it is a brand name computer that it has a Recovery Partition. HPs, Compaqs, Gateways, etc. usually have a part of the hard-drive that holds the image of the computer's defaults. The option to boot into it is during the start-up, but if you don't have that there is not much you can try. Downloadable boot discs only help the computer post, and won't generally reinstall the operating system unless they are Recovery Discs.

For further information I'm going to need to know what kind of computer you have. Brand, Model, Specifications.

Looking forward to helping solve your issue,
Kalandros.

[imfisherman199]

my comp was built. but i think i'm going to install a new hard drive mine is pretty dated. im thinking of linux operating system. have you ever tried linux or would you no some one that has. i have the gibson 2008 version. it appears to be much diffrent than im used to. i have an amd k7 proccesor. they say you must at least have a 6 for the linux system.98 me just plain sucks. before it went i had tons of problems with it. my hard drive is only a wd200 i would atleast like to double that. the techs at the shop said 75 to reformat and add my new operating system. shoot i can replace my drive with a much better one for 50. ive tried to figure how to instal the drive im not getting to much info though. well thank you for your time.

[Kalandros]

Well, when it comes to Linux, I use it as my secondary operating system. With my old computer, it was my primary with XP as a backup. This new one will have Linux when I get a hold of a new HDD.

The Linux you have is called Gutsy Gibbon, or I would assume. It's a Ubuntu distribution? Right?

Well, before you consider seriously upgrading your computer, you always want to make sure things will be compatible with everything else. The new hard drive, if you computer is as old as I believe, will have to be EIDE which is also known as PATA. Of course, you can always increase your hard drive space, but is your hard drive 200 GB? or is that the model number?

Though, replacing a hard drive can seem complicated it's fairly easy when it's a complete replacement. Two hard drives can get a little interesting with the Master/Slave components.
But, if you'd like I can guide you through the hard drive replacement, but it's suggested that you have a backup computer to actually be able to get online if such a problem arises that isn't easily fixable.

Regards,
Kalandros.

[imfisherman199]

I sure could use the help. when i got my computer my brother said the system showed high memory something like 996 he said. but i was suprised when i took out the old drive and it was only 20gb. i would love to upgrade a bunch but i'm a single parent of two and im so broke I cant afford to even pay attention. but I can work up two an 80gb. I hope that will do my chip is an amd k-7. i did read where it atleast took a k-6. to run linux. i was shocked that there was a twenty in it. why would it say 996 is there other places to store memory. I just hope an 80 would work. i got the computer and in 2003 it was rebuilt just before i got it. they replaced the mother board and some additional chips although I would say. they forgot about the hard drive. it did hold the window me program. i really had lots of trouble with that operating system. well evently it really killed me off so to speak. I'm still kinda confused why they put wme on it. they claimed the rebuild was 900 shoot i would of just got a new computer. but i guess you never can figure why some people do what they do. I will just keep my finger crossed that this computer will hold the linux system. thank you for your help it really is appreciated.....Timothy!! ps if I go with a wd hard drive just bigger would it still be compatable. they are bolth eide or pada i think it was.

[photolady]

Memory and harddrive space is two different things. Memory is a piece of hardware inserted in memory slots inside your computer. Harddrives are what is listed as 20gb, 40gb, etc. It is not memory.

The 996 is the RAM (Random Access Memory) amount. Memory stores data only at the time the computer is up and running, once it's restarted that data is cleared from the memory. That's why we need harddrives because anything written to the harddrive is not erased when we restart our computers. So the 20gb you're seeing is the harddrive amount of space. And depending on your motherboard's BIOS, it might let you use an 80Gb drive.....or you might be stuck with just a 20gb.

Btw, after you downloaded the bootdisk, did you actually create the boot disk from the executable, or did you just drag and drop the file to a floppy? Cause if you did that, that won't work.