khensonm
01-03-2001, 10:31 AM
Hello! (Warning: long message ahead!)
For the first time in my life I am "creating" a "new" PC with an 8GB IDE hard drive. The plan was to
install Windows 98. The hard drive (C http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif *was* formatted (format c: /s) so that the machine would boot from C:. However, that was all that was on the drive. So far, so good.
Then I started getting some strange error during the boot about a virus
on the system, after which the system halted. So I tried booting it
from a Win98 boot disk... same message. Given that I was having problems installing Windows 98 anyway (unstable CD drive), and figuring that there may be a virus on the boot disk, I decided to FDISK and reformat the hard drive. I have a Win 95 boot disk and full set of installation floppies,
so I rebooted the system with the Win 95 boot disk. I could still switch to the C: drive from the DOS prompt, and see the files on it.
Now came the problems. Here are the steps and their results:
1) a:> FDISK /STATUS ---> shows using fixed disk 1, then hangs
2) reboot from c: ---> OK
3) reboot from a: ---> OK
4) a:> FDISK ---> shows using fixed disk 1 and message
to press <ESC> to quit, then hangs
The BIOS can still autodetect the hard drive, but it no longer boots
from C: (no operating system detected). Any suggestions why FDISK hangs,
and what to do next?
For the first time in my life I am "creating" a "new" PC with an 8GB IDE hard drive. The plan was to
install Windows 98. The hard drive (C http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif *was* formatted (format c: /s) so that the machine would boot from C:. However, that was all that was on the drive. So far, so good.
Then I started getting some strange error during the boot about a virus
on the system, after which the system halted. So I tried booting it
from a Win98 boot disk... same message. Given that I was having problems installing Windows 98 anyway (unstable CD drive), and figuring that there may be a virus on the boot disk, I decided to FDISK and reformat the hard drive. I have a Win 95 boot disk and full set of installation floppies,
so I rebooted the system with the Win 95 boot disk. I could still switch to the C: drive from the DOS prompt, and see the files on it.
Now came the problems. Here are the steps and their results:
1) a:> FDISK /STATUS ---> shows using fixed disk 1, then hangs
2) reboot from c: ---> OK
3) reboot from a: ---> OK
4) a:> FDISK ---> shows using fixed disk 1 and message
to press <ESC> to quit, then hangs
The BIOS can still autodetect the hard drive, but it no longer boots
from C: (no operating system detected). Any suggestions why FDISK hangs,
and what to do next?