Ok, I'm screwed.

Remember that computer I was trying to install Win98 on?

Anyway, I replaced the cdrom drive, and tried win98 again, but I got the same problem.

I then remembered that I have an old win95 ful lversion laying around, and once I had win95 in there, I could upgrade to 98. I figured that the computer was too slow and old to load windows 98 directly, but it should be able to handle 95. (I have a win98 upgrade disc that a friend gave me once, but it's only First edition.)

Anyway, I installed windows 95 on the comp, but halfway into the install I remembered that there was a 30% windows 98 install on that hard disk. Anyway, it seemed to be working fine so i let setup continue. When it came time to reboot, I rebooted the computer only to have the message:

"Please insert a bootable disk and press enter to continue."


I popped in a startup disk that I made during win95 setup, but I got

"i/o error. Replace disk and hit enter to continue."

I tried a win98 startup disk and got the same thing. I couldn't even get a dos prompt until I tried the emergency diskette that came with that computer, and I was finally able to boot until the point where I got the following message:

"CD ROM Drive not detected."

After a few seconds, it gave me a A:/ prompt. I figured that I would format C so I could reinstall windows, but when I gave the format C command, I was told that there were no valid hard drives that could be formatted.

The long and short of it is that the computer only reconizes the A:/ drive and nothing else. It can't find the actual C drive or the cdrom drive either. (I can access C:/, but it is a virtual ramdisk that can't be formatted instead of the actual drive). I think CMOS was screwed up when I accidentally installed win95 over 98.


Can anyone tell me how I can fix this problem so I can at least boot to dos? I can take it from there. (I've installed windows so many times recently that I can do the procedure in my sleep)

Thank you!


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Most people regard me as the dark and immoral side of Massassi. At least I'm getting what I want out of life.

[This message has been edited by Pagewizard_YKS (edited January 06, 2004).]

[This message has been edited by Pagewizard_YKS (edited January 06, 2004).]

[This message has been edited by Pagewizard_YKS (edited January 06, 2004).]

I dunno if this would help, but try clearing the CMOS by popping the battery out then put it back in. Then boot into BIOS and try to auto recognize (I think thats what its called) the drives you have.

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Roses are Red
Violets are Blue
I'm a schizophrenic
and so am I

Do NOT pop the battery unless you absolutely HAVE TO. Oftentimes they are soldered onto the MOBO. Use the CMOS reset jumper on the mobo. (Refer to the MOBO's manual on where that is.)

Also, I would check the drive's IDE cable. Many computers have their HD and CD-ROM on the main IDE cable, which would explain why both went out. The floppy has it's own cable. It may have come loose or something.

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.hack//SIGN - The World - Just Believe

(Yes, This is Cool Matty)

Have you beat it up yet?

I think it's calling you out.

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A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops.
On my desk I have a workstation...

I said Linux would fix it...guess that wasn't appreciated. I always thought you couldn't go back? like from 98 to 95.. I always thought you had to go FORWARD.. I'd love to go from 2000 back to 98 :P. But don't go fiddling around in your PC unless you know what your doing. We took apart Playstations in Electronics, I think by the time we were done 5 out of 20 of them still worked

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SAJN_Master had sticky Shift button - wrote 179 lines in CAPS.
Sample: [17:42] <SAJN_Master> Flexor

this machine is 8 years old, so I'm not sure how much it complies with today's standards.

After removing the dust, I found the battery underneath a horizontally mounted modem card (It looks like a big watch battery, about the size of a quarter. It's firmly implanted into a sort of white housing around it, and it won't come out easily. (I was too smart to try and force it and risk breaking off a piece of my MOBO. My pocket knife probably would have gotten it out, but I didn't want to risk shorting out my mobo if the blade by chance touched both the circuitry and the battery)

How would I reset the cmos jumper? That comp never had a decent technical manual, so I don't know the precise layout of stuff on the board, so I need to know what to look for.
Also, finding complete documentation on a 8 year old MOBO would be damn near impossible. When I had the case open, I saw a jumper-like device off to the side, but I didn't know what it was for so I didn't touch it.



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Most people regard me as the dark and immoral side of Massassi. At least I'm getting what I want out of life.

There will probably be a little jumper very near to the battery itself.

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Roses are Red
Violets are Blue
I'm a schizophrenic
and so am I

Yeah don't pop the battery out, I did that on a Compaq system I have, and when I booted it back up there were no options in the cmos setup for IDE devices. So... don't do that. Anyway there is usually writing on the board that says what the jumpers are, like

J11: CMOS RESET

And then there will be a J11 off somewhere else. It will probably be 2 pins and hopefully there will be a jumper on one of them. If not just grab the one off your hdd, just remember where it was.

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http://www.sporkaudio.com

Why dont you just pretend to be totally uninterested in it?

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The future is here, and all bets are off.

Now I'm no expert here, but if you can't even see your hard-disk root ("C:/" in Windows) then chances are that you haven't got/installed an active partition - try running "fdisk" (it should be on your backup/bootup/recovery floppies) and make sure you create an active partition with which you can then start "building back up"...

Once you've got an active parition, format the drive ("C:") and then carry on "the norm" with the Windows installation ...

Hope this helps (in some small way)

-Jackpot

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"lucky_jackpot is the smily god..." - gothicX

"Life is mostly froth and bubble,
But two things stand in stone,
Kindness in another's trouble,
Courage in your own"
("Ye Wearie Wayfarer" - by Adam Lindsay Gordon)