after format...

[HORNS]

I recently got a computer (486dx/IBM) from a friend who couldn't get it to boot. I could only get it toboot with a bootdisk. Without the bootdisk it would boot to some screen I have never seen before. A black screen with two "boxes". One in upper/middle of screen that looks like a square with a "chevrolet logo" inside. Underneath that an outline of what looks kinda like a floppy disk.(there is an arrow that moves from the "box" in the middle to the one above it) On the bottom of the screen there is a row of small boxes with the #'s F1 to F12 under them. The box that has F1 under it also has 2 sets of flashing arrows pointing to it. If you push F1(the ONLY key that will do anything) at this screen it switches to another screen that only has #'s in the top left corner(19990305 I think).
I thought maybe a virus had messed up the startup files so I formatted the C drive. It STILL can't boot without the boot disk( still get that screen above). I have a win95 cd but can't read my CD-ROM from a DOS prompt. It will say "invalid drive specification".
I am not sure what to do next and what is that darn screen with the arrows? Sorry if I seem dumb here...this is the first time I have done this. Can some please explain this to me? Thanx in advance!!
BD

[bassvax]

I don't know about the screen you were seeing...but you will need to create or download ( www.bootdisk.com (http://www.bootdisk.com) ) a bootdisk suitable for your operating system needs. You will need to add the cd-rom drivers to the boot disk to be able to use the cd-rom. If you d'load a boot disk make sure it is for your O/S and I believe they offer ones with generic CD-rom support. I would suggest booting with the disk and using the f/disk command to see how the HD is set up and determine if you want to enable FAT32 (check your Win 95 disc to see what version you have because the earlier versions only allow for FAT16-I think 95c allows for FAT32). When you format the HD you need to add the /s command to the end of format like this format c: /s this will make the HD bootable. After the format you will need to restart the computer and then enter the BIOS to see if & how the HD is detected as well as the CD-ROM.
This site should help a bit http://www.cyberwalker.net/columns/jul99/2907.html
Let us know if you need more help. Wait a few to see if the others suggest something more or different for your particular situation.

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Jerry