My compaq deskpro 2000 crashed, i've formatted the hard drive, but do not have a boot disk. Can anyone help me get this thing running again.

welcome anne clm to dal the online computer help forum

please try following this link for details on how top make a boot disk

if you need any more help please get back to me

hope this helps

right, if you have formatted your drive, and you dont have a boot disk,,.. next time.. call the AA!.. ..well.. make sure you always have a boot disk, or at least 4 different types,.. you will want to get win95/98/me/xp so you can try all.. they are all good for different things.. personally.. 98 is the best boot disk, xp wont budge a 95 system,.. and the 95 system is without cd-rom drivers.. ME.. is generally good.

right aside that.. theres not really anything you can do, the link that guy sent is slightly wrong,.. he assumed you had windows to create a boot disk from??.. maybe read it wrong.. we have no operating system to create a boot disk from, therefore.. the only way you can get it to boot.. is with a boot disk, and you cant get it from windows.. therefore.. go to an internet cafe, take a floppy disk, download a 98 boot disk from somewhere,.. take another floppy also, and make sure you get a good few boot disks,.. i have downloaded some before that are corrupt or incomplete, so always get more than one in that scenario.

one you have your boot disk, if you have had the knowledge to format your drive,.. then you need me to say no more.. (put it in and kick it up the )..
boot it.

Contrary and an interesting and useful bit of info.. you can make your hard drive bootable with out a boot disk when installing operating systems, this is the silly bit.. you'll need a boot disk to start with.. and what ya do.. is put in your boot disk on your blank system.. and use this dos command from the a: prompt.. (thats when you have your boot disk in and are at the 'a' prompt...(just type this in!)...

sys c:

this copys the system files needed for boot from the boot disk.. to the hard drive c: (or whatever you have named it in the format).. and makes it bootable on its own. without a floppy disk,

I had to use this when i was prog'ing a laptop which had no cd-rom drive ,ihad to upload an operating system onto the hard drive through a laptop hard drive to usb adaptor.. using my main p.c.. i formatted it,
dragged an dropped an operating system on it, stuck it back in the laptop.. used the 'sys c:' command when i was in the a: drive etc.. , it copied the system files.. so.. turnt it off.. booted it, it boots to a c: prompt.. then navigate to the windows folder.. and hit setup as normal.. then it uses no floppy disk to load windows.. it boots from the hard drive... see that kind of install is good when you have a laptop that can only use one type of drive at once.. namely.. the infamous.. panasonic toughbook CF25!!.. as generally.. you need both types of disk drive to install an o/s.. see.. thats not true if you have the equipment.

darned if im ever buying one again.. never the less,.. the more you tamper with your installs.. the more you will learn.. but i conclude there is no way to boot from an empty system without a boot disk.. or.. if you took your hard drive to a friends house.. get them to plug it in to a spare scsi/ide plug on the system board.. and copy the sys files from the a: driv to the hard drive that way to make it bootable, still boot disk is needed,.

i guess you have fixed it by now anyway.. but if you havent.. give us a shout and i'll source a legit link for a good boot disk.. and of course.. im actually looking for a good 98 boot now.. thats how i came across your message!.

http://www.answersthatwork.com/Downr..._bootdisks.htm

i assumed that she had an operating system installed as the thread was posted in the windows 98 forum

could you please give as much information in future please

thanks

Either that, Spud, or you fairly correctly assumed that Anne_Clm has access to another working PC as she had got onto the Internet to post in this forum

(correct) apologies, theres always that in't there, now where do i find a boot disk?.. still, the world pays peanuts.

www.bootdisk.com

i appreciate that, i have many boot-disk, i was merely thinking, if people have the savy for forums..then they could surely find a ...
but then i guess ...
ah well..
no matter