HDD Error/fdisk problems
A 79 year old friend of mine is having what seems to be major computer problems. It began maybe two weeks ago when her computer would not shut down normally. She just had to turn it off. I could not find the problem there.
On the weekend her computer took another turn, and everything went blank. She called me and asked me to come look. At first, on boot up the hard drive was not being recognized.

Now I believe the hard drive is being recognized, but it is not recongnizing the A: or the boot disk. Yes I have one in the A: drive.

At last try the screen said...
Wait...
Pri Slave : 18.20D18 WDC WD200BB-00AUA1
Ultra DMA Mode-2, S.M.A.R.T. Capable and status OK
Sec Master: 1.02 CRD-8322B

Pri Master HDD Error
Run setup
Press F1 to resume.

I have run setup and fixed what I can see with the Pri master hard drive. No luck.

I have pressed F1 to resume and that is when I get no boot disk.

I am working with a celeron 300
I am stuck for what to do or where to go next. If you can help me out here I would muchly appreciate it.

I was here last night asking questions. Today I have a little more knowedge of what is going on.

How can I use fdisk if a program I am installing is doing something to the partitions on the hard drive? Therefore I don't have a c:\ drive so I can't run fdisk.

Here's what happened. I took the computer in to get fixed this morning. I told the tech to just get me to the prompt. I took the celeron 300 home and proceed to setup windows. I was almost ready to return the computer to the owner when I installed Nortons Antivirus 2002. The computer went right back to were it was when it was given to me.

All I know is the tech delete the partitions and formatted the drive.

Can anyone help me do this when I can't run fdisk.
I appriciate any help I can get.
Thanks

It quite possibly didn't even need the first formatting....it looks like it may be a dying CMOS battery.....usually when the drives come up missing (sepecially on a system that is several years old...like a 300 Celeron would be) it is a sign that the BIOS settings are changing when the power is off...which means the CMOS is being cleared (the job of the battery is to prevent this). One telltale sign is that the primary drive needs to be reset each time you power on. Another sign is the loss of time or the clock does not keep accurate time (like it resets to 12:00 01-01-1980 or something like that.....).

Usually when the battery is replaced and the settings are being sved and "remembered" properly the next boot will have everything back to normal, but since there was a format and re-install after you get the drive properly recognized you will need to finish with the in stall (remove NAV and reinstall it) or format and re-install from the top.....

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.