Originally Posted by Dan Penny

Welcome to D-A-L.

What bios is on the machine? (Award, AMI, Phoenix, IBM, etc) What version/year?

Also please post a little info about the machine. Age, laptop?, desktop?, amount of RAM, etc.

Was your boot floppy made on a working 98SE machine? (ie; is it a 98SE boot disk?)

If you need one, (98SE) you can download one here. (See * below.)

Boot the machine with the 98SE boot floppy. When you get the A:\> prompt, type in fdisk/status. Does it find any hard disks? If so, post the information.


*
The above bootdisk image file is a self extracting file and has to be executed (run) from a running Windows machine in order to create the actual startup diskette. (This image file produces the same bootdisk which 98SE creates.) This downloaded image file will format the floppy disk, write the files to the disk, then verify the file write, so it'll take a minute or three to create the bootdisk.

Ensure the floppy drive is set as the first boot device in the bios.

When you boot a machine with this boot floppy, it creates a RAMDRIVE in system memory to contain DOS system tools. Thus it will move your "normal" CDROM device/drive letter "up" one level. (If your CDROM is normally E:, it will be F: when booting with this bootdisk.) Watch for the CDROM device letter which will be assigned near the end of the floppy boot process.

i hope you don't mind me jumping in, but i have the same problem, i have a p2 333 64 ram award bios v4.51pg 1998,the h/d was used as a primary slave and i am trying to use it as a master as the old h/d is dead(the jumpers are set to master and it is detected on boot up,when i boot with the floppy i get the dos windows start menu, with command prompt only i get config errors on line 2,and 3, c:\>/l:500 f:5100 bad command or file name then c:\>set msinput=c:\msinput bad command or file name then the c prompt,if i try chkdsk i get bad command or file name.if i set it to boot from cd i get read failure and it boots into win98 start up in dos, when i get the c prompt and try scanreg i get bad command or file name any ideas how i can get win98 loaded?

Hello longroughrider, and Welcome to D-A-L.

I have started a new thread for you even though your problems may be similar. (From the DAL Site Rules (Section B, 6): "Please do not Hijack other members posts. For example, if you are browsing the Forum and see a member has posted a question with a problem very similar to your own, PLEASE DO NOT post in the same thread and say "I have this problem also! please help!" Instead simply click the new thread button and ask your question in your own thread. There are a ton of reasons for this but the main one being that although your problem sounds the same, it will most likely require a different solution.") It's also easier helping one person in a thread as opposed to two. Much less confusion.

In order for a hard disk to boot, it has to be set up with a primary, active partition, which contains the boot files for the O/S. (Operating System) From the responses you're getting, it looks as though there may be an active bootable partition with some boot files already.

If you are getting a c:\> prompt the machine is not booting from the floppy drive. Since we already know your disk is recognized in the bios, and it appears to be booting, at the C:\> prompt type in dir/a/o/p. If you get a listing, type in dir/a/o> c:\dirlist.txt. Put a blank formatted floppy in the A:\ drive and then type in copy/v c:\dirlist.txt a:\. Bring this floppy to the machine you're posting on and copy the contents of this file and paste it into your next post.

Next, I'd like to get a "picture" of the hard disk in question. Enter the machines bios and set the boot device sequence for the floppy drive as the first device. A suggested boot sequence is FLOPPY, CDROM, IDE HARD DISK, OTHER DEVICE. Post back if you have problems entering, or setting the bios parameters. Award bios should be the DEL key to enter.

At the A:\> prompt, type in fdisk and hit the Enter key. Choose Y (Enter) for large disk support. Next choose option #4 to display the partition parameters. You will get; (a bit scrambled in the post but...)

Display Partition Information

Current fixed disk drive: 1

Partition Status Type Volume Label Mbytes System Usage
C: 1 A PRI DOS DISK1 PART1 8001 FAT32 21%
2 EXT DOS 30161 79%

Total disk space is 38162 Mbytes (1 Mbyte = 1048576 bytes)

The Extended DOS Partition contains Logical DOS Drives.
Do you want to display the logical drive information (Y/N)......?[Y]

Press Esc to return to FDISK Options

This screen will provide the information of the ACTIVE partition, and, if you have an EXTENDED partition containing LOGICAL drives. (D, E, F, etc)

Note that hitting ESC will "backstep you out" of fdisk. Also Note that fdisk/status or fdisk option #4 won't harm existing data. At this point we are "only looking". I will inform you when changes to the hard disk will occur.

Based upon your reply, my next suggestion will probably be;

FIRST: If there is data on the disk that you want to keep, I suggest that you "slave" this drive to a working machine and copy the data to another media.

If you don't care about the data on the disk, then things are much easier.

Post back with your results.

first let me apologise for hijacking a post,and thanks for taking the time to help.
i have done as you suggested up to the c:\>copy/v c:\dirlist.txt a:\ i put the floppy in and the green light comes on then i get the not ready reading drive a abort,retry,fail? and thats as far as i can get,
up to that point all you suggested worked o/k.i have set the bios to boot from a on start.

Does the machine boot from a floppy now?

Also ensure the floppy drive is set up in the bios as (A=) 3-1/2", 1.44, ~and~ read/write enabled. This setup is usually in the MAIN or first screen, where time, date, etc is. The read/write enable "switch" may be in the Advanced setup screen.

Try another floppy disk. A disk can read/write fine in one machine but not in another due to age of the floppy or drive, the head alignments, dirty heads, etc.

If the above doesn't "fix" things, enter the bios and load the Factory Default settings. This will set the above parameters as well as memory timings, and other things so the machine should boot (to the selected device) pretty well no matter what. Don't confuse the Factory Default with Optimal Default (if present).

unfortunatley the machine i am posting on has no floppy drive, the hard drive has been formated and the dirlist reads,volume in drive c has no label
volume serial number is 2545-14e3
directory of c:\
dirlist txt 221 02-13-06 4:16p
1 files 221 bytes
0 dir(s) 14,575.98 mb free
having run fdisk i have,current fixed disk drive:1
partition status type volume label mbytes system usage
c:1 a pri dos 14590 fat32 100%

total disk space is 14590 mbytes (1mbyte=1048576 bytes)
i have slaved another floppy drive in and it now works o/k

If I read your last post correctly;

1- the problem machine had a bad floppy drive, you've swapped it with another, and now the floppy drive works.

2 - The (problem machine) hard disk has an Active Primary FAT32 partition, ~15GB, had been formatted, and now contains only the dirlist file.

If the above is correct, you've probably got Windows loaded by now.

I'll leave this posting open until I hear a confirmation, just in case.

"it's a good day when your computer comes back to life"
i managed to get the a drive with a 98 start up floppy in it working,when the set up floppy finished set up i expected the 98 cd to start as i had opted for start with cdn support, but i just got the a prompt, when i looked in d:dir all the win 98 files were showing so i typed in setup.exe and away it went,i now think the cd drive is on it's way out.many thanks for all your help,it is fantastic that you guys take the time to help us not so informed.i have another thread going and will look at that next.

When booting with a 98 floppy bootdisk, and choosing CDROM support, all you need to do at the resulting A:\> prompt is type in "setup". The "path" to the CDROM (and thus the O/S setup files) is loaded by the floppy.

Glad to hear you're up and running.

Thank you for utilizing DAL as your solution provider.