I have a Sharp notebook PC model 3040 which has run Windows 95 (ver A)beautifully for five years. Now I've fouled it up by trying to partition the hard drive using partition magic to install Win 98 on part of it. Somewhere in the end of the process I ended up in DOS where it asked me to select something. I think it had to do with the master boot record. Whatever I did it was wrong.
Now when I turn on the computer, the bios runs to the point where the screen reads:
"0048128K extended RAM Passed
Fixed Disk 0: Identified
Mouse initialized"
then a flashing cursor
and then . . . nothing. No boot, nothing. I've tried every rescue and/or emergency disk I have, including all the Win 95 floppies, Norton Utilities, etc. Nothing boots from the A drive. The keyboard is totally dead except that I can turn the power off, then on, and enter the bios setup where I've tried every combination of settings. Nothing works. I've restored all of the settings to the default values. Once the boot continues it stops where I indicated with the keyboard still dead.
I'm fairly sure I've somehow fouled up the master boot record, and instead of looking in the old partition where Windows 95 is residing, it's looking for instructions to continue in a new partition that just aren't there.
I've checked the troubleshooting guide, but there doesn't seem much on working around the master boot record. Anyone have suggestions? Thanks...

I don't mean this to sound like I'm jumping on you, but for future reference ALWAYS be absolutely sure you KNOW what DOS is asking you to do. Write it down if necessary, so if any problems result you at least know what the command was. DOS does not ask if you really want to do most things like Windows does, it thinks you know what you're doing, and just does it...and if you make a mistake, you make that mistake real fast...I'm not fast enough to stop it even on a 4.77MHz XT machine...the [Enter] key is final...

It sounds like BIOS is set to boot to the C drive first, check the BIOS options again and look for Boot Sequence. Usually it's in Advanced CMOS Options. Set it to A;C, save changes and reboot.

I'm not familiar with Partition Magic, so I have no idea what it might have been doing in a DOS screen, maybe some of the folks who have used it will know. If it rewrote the master boot record, you can try the fdisk_mbr command, using a space in place of the underscore ( _ ) ised here for clarity. That should rewrite the master boot record, but having no idea what Partition Magic did I have no idea if it will work in this case...

Since windows 95 didn't have the scanreg utility, once you can get the machine to boot to a floppy it might be possible to replace the registry manually, but I don't really think it will work, unless by pure chance Partition Magic was making registry changes as well...

Almost clicked Send and had another idea...if you can get it to boot to a floppy, try switching to C drive and run a directory command (dir) to see if C drive still does have files on it. Then switch back to A and run fdisk, use option 4-view partition information-and see if the FAT is either FAT 16 or FAT 32, and partition 1 is active. Use [Esc] to exit fdisk, and DO NOT make any changes, it will not affect the drive at all.

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Thanks for the reply. I'm new to discussion/chat rooms, and obviously new to tinkering with computers. Since I've tried changing the boot sequence and my keyboard and cursor still seem to be unaccessible, it looks like my old notebook is toast.I'll continue to try and regain control of the keyboard, but it seems the only time it works is in the bios setup. Once I exit setup it just smirks at me. Thanks again..............
Originally posted by Paleo Pete:
I don't mean this to sound like I'm jumping on you, but for future reference ALWAYS be absolutely sure you KNOW what DOS is asking you to do. Write it down if necessary, so if any problems result you at least know what the command was. DOS does not ask if you really want to do most things like Windows does, it thinks you know what you're doing, and just does it...and if you make a mistake, you make that mistake real fast...I'm not fast enough to stop it even on a 4.77MHz XT machine...the [Enter] key is final...

It sounds like BIOS is set to boot to the C drive first, check the BIOS options again and look for Boot Sequence. Usually it's in Advanced CMOS Options. Set it to A;C, save changes and reboot.

I'm not familiar with Partition Magic, so I have no idea what it might have been doing in a DOS screen, maybe some of the folks who have used it will know. If it rewrote the master boot record, you can try the fdisk_mbr command, using a space in place of the underscore ( _ ) ised here for clarity. That should rewrite the master boot record, but having no idea what Partition Magic did I have no idea if it will work in this case...

Since windows 95 didn't have the scanreg utility, once you can get the machine to boot to a floppy it might be possible to replace the registry manually, but I don't really think it will work, unless by pure chance Partition Magic was making registry changes as well...

Almost clicked Send and had another idea...if you can get it to boot to a floppy, try switching to C drive and run a directory command (dir) to see if C drive still does have files on it. Then switch back to A and run fdisk, use option 4-view partition information-and see if the FAT is either FAT 16 or FAT 32, and partition 1 is active. Use [Esc] to exit fdisk, and DO NOT make any changes, it will not affect the drive at all.