Killed a computer

[buffyo]

I got a second hand pc yesterday, it worked fine running win95 pentium mmx. Then i tried to add my 24.5G HDD as a slave this didnt work and i returned pc back to original state. Now it wont boot (invalid system disk) cmos is correct for the ,original- fujitsu HDD. i got bootdisk from bootdisk.com and this runs 'NTLDR missing ' message. the pc i am currently using here is gateway win2000 prof but cd-rom doesnt work so i cant use it to install windows on HDD. I hope all this makes sense as i am stressed and in a pickle!! please help

[tramtwo]

You could try this... Boot with win 95 startup disk which contains the Sys.com file. At a command prompt, type sys c:. This command rewrites the Windows 95, boot code with accurate BPB information.

Also you can have a look here
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=255220

Good luck.

[buffyo]

I dont have win95 startup disk. I have win 98 though, think maybe i should format active partition of old HDD and install 98 onto it?! can this be done with out booting windows. I can use 2nd pc to format HDD but cd-rom doesn't work so cant install win98 on 2nd pc

[Alfons]

Then i tried to add my 24.5G HDD as a slave this didnt work and i returned pc back to original state.

When you did this, did you:
1. Have both HD's jumpered properly? Many disks have a special setting if they are installed as a Single Master rather than a Master (MA) with Slave (SL) attached to the same cable. Was the second (new) HD set to SL
2. Determine if the BIOS can recognize anything larger than 2 gig? 8.4 gig? etc.

cmos is correct for the ,original- fujitsu HDD

If you're able to set the CMOS settings to AUTO for each IDE position, it should pick up on any discrepancies that occured while the bigger disk was attached - assuming that the original is still functional. Just attaching a disk doesn't screw up the boot sector.

You could try selecting the Auto Detect Utility in the BIOS and have it re-detect the original disk - this will set the CMOS with the actual disk parameters and as a USER type. If you install another disk, you should run this utility to see if it will pick up the changes - if it doesn't you don't have to save the changes and you're back where you were before.

I can use 2nd pc to format HDD but cd-rom doesn't work so cant install win98 on 2nd pc

You can do this, but make sure that you jumper the drives properly or it won't work there either. You can still format the disk on the original computer by using the W98 Startup Disk and then at the A prompt, use the FORMAT C: command.

If you aren't using that particular W98 on any other computer, then yes you can install it - even without a CD, there are tutorials on this site that will give you that detail.

[buffyo]

Fantastic detailed help i cant thank you enough!! have now successfully installed w98. I had to update the modem driver which was simple enough with the beauty of the internet!! now to see if i can successfully set up all my internet accounts! (thats the only problem with remembering passwords on pc as opposed to pen & paper!) if i can get cd-rom on w2000 proffesional to work i will have 2 working pc's!! any advice? i would like to over write this w2000 with w98 is this possible?