When I go to boot this old 486 it says that the disc has developed errors and goes to scandisc but it will only get about ten percent finished and it just stops! Bios appears ok but it will not continue. Win98se. 486 16mb ram
Ideas?

Hi bronco,
This is a starting place till the pro's drop in. http://www.freeanswers.com/results.asp?ProductMenu_0=Microsoft&ProductMenu_1=Windows+98&QS=scandisk+keeps+stopping&IL=EN&CN=10&SelectedFamily=3&ListSize=-1&image1.x=29&image1.y=11

kfh.


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Sequitur Patrem Non Passibus Aequis

Well I found out that there was a loose ide cable and now it scans and finds nothing yet still will not boot. It only says same thing again and starts scanning again. I try a boot floppy and can get to a c prompt but can do nothing from there. Any command gives me a bad file name or coomand message. I ran a Microscope2000 hard drive test for 3 hors and it came up with nothing. This is about to drive me crazy. Looking at boot sector with microscope looks normal. It reports a bootable partiton with a 55aa.
Ideas? Help!

The fact that it won't work with DOS suggests a problem downstream of DOS and that means either the BIOS or the hardware.

Check out the hard drive parameters in the BIOS Setup.
If they are incorrect, the PC is perhaps being told that the drive is smaller than it actually is and when Scandisk is in mid flow trying to check your drive it thinks it has come to the end of the drive.
SOLUTION:
Get the parameters right.
1. Preferablly by "Auto" detecting ["Dynamic Auto-Detection"].
2. Or else by "Static Auto-Detection" in "IDE HDD Auto Detection" in the BIOS Setup [the parameters no longer apply after you change the hardware].
3. Or else manually if you know what the settings should be.

If the BIOS really is ok that would suggest a hardware problem but it tests ok you say.