help fast with a computer running windows 98

Discussion in 'PC hardware help' started by redice, May 20, 2006.

Page 1 of 3
  1. redice

    redice Regular member

    Joined:
    Jul 19, 2005
    Messages:
    878
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    26
    ok guys heres the deal i have a computer running windows 98.
    Everything was working fine but now when i got to tyrn the computer on i get a error message that says DISK Boot Failure, insert system disk and press enter

    now i put in the boot disk and it runs some checks then after its done i get the another message that says windows 98 has detected that drive c does not contain availd FAT or Fat32 partition.

    How can i get this computer back up and running? also if i need to reformat the drive and reinstall windows, How would i go about reformatting the drive? can u tell me step by step how to do it?

    thanks for al your help
    redice
     
    redice, May 20, 2006
    #1
  2. pcrepair

    pcrepair Regular member

    Joined:
    Aug 17, 2005
    Messages:
    582
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    26
    boot from cd, start with cd support, fdisk the drive, restart,
    run setup

    it looks like your drive is on it's way out unless you have had a power surge and just wiped the bootsector
    if you run setup it will reinstall windows but you will LOSE all the information that was on the drive
    you will need your product key also
     
    Last edited: May 20, 2006
    pcrepair, May 20, 2006
    #2
  3. redice

    redice Regular member

    Joined:
    Jul 19, 2005
    Messages:
    878
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    26
    @pcrepair

    how do i fdisk the drive?
     
    redice, May 20, 2006
    #3
  4. redice

    redice Regular member

    Joined:
    Jul 19, 2005
    Messages:
    878
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    26
    bump
     
    redice, May 20, 2006
    #4
  5. ddp

    ddp Moderator Staff Member

    Joined:
    Oct 15, 2004
    Messages:
    39,197
    Likes Received:
    146
    Trophy Points:
    143
    ddp, May 20, 2006
    #5
  6. redice

    redice Regular member

    Joined:
    Jul 19, 2005
    Messages:
    878
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    26
    @ddp

    i have bootdisk for windows 98
     
    redice, May 20, 2006
    #6
  7. ddp

    ddp Moderator Staff Member

    Joined:
    Oct 15, 2004
    Messages:
    39,197
    Likes Received:
    146
    Trophy Points:
    143
    boot off the bootdisk & select #2, no cdrom support. when the a: comes up, type fdisk & enter. do yes for large support. a menu will come up numbered 1 to 4 if have only 1 drive. select 3 to delete partition. once partition is deleted than select 1 to make partition & yes if using whole drive as partition. once partition is made than reboot off boot disk & select cdrom support. at the a:, type e: enter than type setup & enter as long as win98 cd is in the rom drive
     
    ddp, May 20, 2006
    #7
  8. redice

    redice Regular member

    Joined:
    Jul 19, 2005
    Messages:
    878
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    26
    @ddp

    i type in fdisk and hit enter but when i did that i got a sound from the flopy disc drive and now it's just sitting there with a little blank blinking line.
     
    redice, May 20, 2006
    #8
  9. ddp

    ddp Moderator Staff Member

    Joined:
    Oct 15, 2004
    Messages:
    39,197
    Likes Received:
    146
    Trophy Points:
    143
    you either have a problem with the drive or with the disk. try the disk on another computer to see if does same thing or not.
     
    ddp, May 20, 2006
    #9
  10. redice

    redice Regular member

    Joined:
    Jul 19, 2005
    Messages:
    878
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    26
    should i try downloading another bootdsk from that site u gave me
     
    redice, May 20, 2006
    #10
  11. ddp

    ddp Moderator Staff Member

    Joined:
    Oct 15, 2004
    Messages:
    39,197
    Likes Received:
    146
    Trophy Points:
    143
    yes or try booting off the cd. calling it the night!!
     
    ddp, May 20, 2006
    #11
  12. redice

    redice Regular member

    Joined:
    Jul 19, 2005
    Messages:
    878
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    26
    ok
     
    redice, May 20, 2006
    #12
  13. redice

    redice Regular member

    Joined:
    Jul 19, 2005
    Messages:
    878
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    26
    @ ddp

    i got the fdisk to run but now it says no fix disk present. What does mean? would you say the hard drive is dead?
     
    redice, May 20, 2006
    #13
  14. redice

    redice Regular member

    Joined:
    Jul 19, 2005
    Messages:
    878
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    26
    ????
     
    redice, May 21, 2006
    #14
  15. ddp

    ddp Moderator Staff Member

    Joined:
    Oct 15, 2004
    Messages:
    39,197
    Likes Received:
    146
    Trophy Points:
    143
    does the motherboard see the drive if only 1 connected??
     
    ddp, May 21, 2006
    #15
  16. redice

    redice Regular member

    Joined:
    Jul 19, 2005
    Messages:
    878
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    26
    i don't think so because when it boots up and tells you all the things you have on your computer (harddrive, etc.) Also in when i switch to the c from the a and i type in the dir command i get a list of all the files and i type the command to run a scandisk. Then after that done it says not errors on c. What does this mean?

    also did usee the errors that i get when the computer first comes on?
    this what i'm getting
    Everything was working fine but now when i got to tyrn the computer on i get a error message that says DISK Boot Failure, insert system disk and press enter

    now i put in the boot disk and it runs some checks then after its done i get the another message that says windows 98 has detected that drive c does not contain availd FAT or Fat32 partition.
     
    Last edited: May 21, 2006
    redice, May 21, 2006
    #16
  17. ddp

    ddp Moderator Staff Member

    Joined:
    Oct 15, 2004
    Messages:
    39,197
    Likes Received:
    146
    Trophy Points:
    143
    type fdisk from a: to see if come up with same error message.
     
    ddp, May 21, 2006
    #17
  18. redice

    redice Regular member

    Joined:
    Jul 19, 2005
    Messages:
    878
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    26
    i did that and thats when i got no fix disk present
     
    redice, May 21, 2006
    #18
  19. ddp

    ddp Moderator Staff Member

    Joined:
    Oct 15, 2004
    Messages:
    39,197
    Likes Received:
    146
    Trophy Points:
    143
    resaet the data & power cables to drive & motherboard. also is the drive jumpered as master, slave or cable select?
     
    ddp, May 21, 2006
    #19
  20. redice

    redice Regular member

    Joined:
    Jul 19, 2005
    Messages:
    878
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    26
    hold on let me check
     
    redice, May 21, 2006
    #20
Page 1 of 3

Share This Page