Installing on Blank PC

[newPCbuilder]

WARNING: EXTREME NEWBIE QUESTION:

What do I need to install Win98 on a new PC with nothing but a BIOS on it? What kind of boot floppy do I need, if I need one? I can't seem to get the Win98 CD to boot from CD.

[Gallaeglagh]

You need to Win 98 boot floppy disc.

[newPCbuilder]

And if I don't have that? (Lost it somewhere.) Also, I can't get a Boot disk I just made off of this computer to even start to register with the new computer. Set the bios to boot Floppy only, and my monitor registers nothing when something should be happening (displays bios and RAID loadup settings, then nothing, just keeps running with no signal to the monitor).

[Gallaeglagh]

Looks like you'll have to beg borrow or a steal the precious floppy.

[Whyzman]

Since you have apparently have access to a computer to get you on the Internet you can download a boot disk from HERE. (http://www.bootdisk.com/)

[Gallaeglagh]

Which reminds me of a story. About a year ago I was set to reinstall Win98 and I had 3 bootable floppies so I thought I was ok. The first was corrupt, the second was written on top of. The third seemed to be alright at first. But then after running it for a few seconds it was obvious that the case of the floppy was rubbing up against the internal disc so it was making all this noise. Took about 30 minutes to do it's job and we had a good laugh at the "lil' disc that could".

I guess you should always have a few extra laying around.

[newPCbuilder]

Found the boot disk (Win98), but it doesn't work. Same thing happens. The computer wont boot from floppy. I'm also getting checksum errors with my bios, and I can't get them to go away. I have a feeling I'm doing something wrong in the bios.

[Steve]

Yup...He, from the land of cracked windshields, is correct. Get to a working computer that is running Win98 and make a boot disk. Start > Settings > Control panel > Add/Remove Programs > Startup Disk.

Put the startup disk in your A: drive and restart your computer. Choose "start computer with CD-ROM support". Put your Win98 Installation CD in your CD drive and at the DOS prompt type in setup.exe and hit enter. Follow the directions on the screen.

I just saw your new post. Reboot your computer. Hit whichever key gets you into BIOS. Find the setting for boot order. Choose A,C,SCSI or whichever setting allows you to boot from your A: drive. Then go back and continue with the setup. Make sure you're making your boot disk from a Win98 machine.

I hope this helps. :)

[Whyzman]

It appears you can gain access to the BIOS, so choose the option that sets the DEFAULT values...save and exit, then reboot using the Win98 bootdisk.

[newPCbuilder]

If only it were that simple. I've already tried that... set the floppy to boot, also tried only the floppy to boot and the default (Floppy, HDD-0 ,LDA??), nothing works, all yield the same result.

[Whyzman]

What have you got hooked up on this new build? Did you build it or was it purchased assembled?

[Steve]

If you're getting checksum errors, you might want to look at THIS (http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/sys/booterrGBER08-c.html) link before you continue.

[newPCbuilder]

Built it myself:

AMD 2000+ XP
KX7-333R mobo
nothing on Primary IDE
CDRW and DVD-ROM on Secondary IDE
2x Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm 60Gb in Raid-0 array (on mobo)
Enermax 431W power supply (old power supply caught fire)
ATI Radeon 8500 128MB video card

I'm not getting a light on the floppy drive, so I'm installing a new cable for the floppy. (This one may have been damaged in the fire). Hopefully this will work...

[newPCbuilder]

I don't have another floppy cable like I thought I did. Will try reversing the one I have now...

The BIOS recognizes the floppy, but the floppy light never turns on... could this be due to something other than the cable?

Reversed the cable... didn't work.

[Whyzman]

You have to install the cable for the floppy correctly...

Check the PC GUIDE (http://www.pcguide.com/proc/config/fdd-c.html) for the proper procedure.

[HewittC4]

Did the floppy drive work in the past? If not, you might want to return it.

For some reason I have bad luck with floppy drives. I have bought 2 defective drives in the last year. I buy from a different store now.

[newPCbuilder]

The guide is out of date... the cable I have has a connection at each end that is identical, and twist in the cable (1/2 of it twists) at one end. The twist is NOT in the middle, and there are NOT two connectors.

[randyrhoads1981]

The connector ,without the twist, plugs into the motherboard and will only fit one way,...the other, with the twist, plugs into the floopy drive. If you install it wrong and you boot up the floopy light will stay on all the time. If its right it should work. If it doesnt and you have the floopy drive selected to boot from 1st in the bios ..then its ither the ribben cable your using..or the floopy drive needs replaced..also check both connections .. on the motherboard and the floopy drive to make sure you havent bent a pin.

On my floopy the red stripe on the ribben cable is facing away from the power connector..where as the other drives they usually face the power connector.

[Whyzman]

Does one edge have a red wire? If so, I would say that would still need to go to the number one pin.

Wow RandyR...look at the time of our posts...I wonder if we were down to the hundreth's of a second? :D Yours was more detailed though, so I guess that I should come in second anyway...hehe!

[randyrhoads1981]

Seen that :D and i edited mine also..i assumed they were like Cdroms and hardrives..i really havent paid that much attention to floppies..i 1st said the red stripe should face the power connector but i took a peek at mine ( i run the case off) and it was away from the connector:rolleyes: so i learned something too :p .

Ok i have 2 computers here.,,on this one the red stripe is facing away from the connector and on the second its facing the connector and both do work..so it may depend on the floopy drive itself. Just try it one way and if teh floopy light stays on all the time then you need to shutdown and flip it over where it conencts to the floppy.

[Whyzman]

Fortunately, it appears that many of the new IDE devices and Motherboards are "keyed" so you'd really have to mess things up putting them in wrong! :eek:

It would be nice if they'd do the same thing to the floppy drives....

[newPCbuilder]

Floppy light DOESN"T go on at all, and I just bought the floppy drive today. Will buy a cable tomorrow, and hopefully that will work. Thanks! (Will update when I try this out).

[newPCbuilder]

Re-asking this question in Hardware, since its evidently a Motherboard/BIOS problem. A new floppy drive and cable (plugged in properly) didn't work. When I reversed the cable, the light was on full time (wrong cable orientation), but the right way around the light never turns on.

[phish]

I also am a newbie at this but have had days recently resolving similar issues. Here's my findings:
There was nothing wrong with my floppy nor cables.
I had to update my BIOS which I found from the MBrd manufacter (Abit). Then became the tricky part. To get my PC to look at the floppy, I had to properly format it, then include the new BIOS update files. correctly.

Here's what I did to get my PC's attention:
Go into "My Computer", highlight your A drive and right click. Hit "format" and click on "Copy System Files Only". This will load onto the floppy those files necessary to wake your computer up. With those files loaded, add onto it your the updated BIOS files. Incidentally, you must open that new x.exe bios file and move each resulting file onto the formatted floppy (A).

Then, stick the floppy into your A drive and turn the PC on, and I hope your new PC will enjoy reading for it's first time, at least as much as mine did.

One other side note (?), that "Copy syst files only" formatting of your floppy might be relevant to setting up your downloaded Win 98 boot disk??? Try it, you have nothing to loose.

[newPCbuilder]

Tried this... still nothing, as I expected. How can the BIOS be updated if the Motherboard is not recognizing the Floppy at all??? The lights NEVER go on on the floppy, unless I install the cable upside-down.

I was able to read the quickly flashing text before the monitor flashes off.. something like 'loading DMI' or 'DPMI'

[Whyzman]

Hmmm....Cable checks out good on another computer, Floppy checks out good on another computer? :confused:

Seems like a direct MB problem especially if no power is delivered when hooked up correctly! :(

[john5211]

FWIW, I had a problem like this a couple of years ago (cable one way = no light, cable the other way = always light). Turned out that the floppy controller (hence, the motherboard) was bad.

John

[Steve]

I had a problem just like this, this past winter. I couldn't get the floppy working even with an add in controller card. I'm using the floppy drive and cable in my current machine and all is well. I used that old motherboard for target practice and felt much better! :)

[newPCbuilder]

I figured it was the floppy controller. Good thing its still under warranty (the motherboard). Taking it in on Tuesday. Thanks for the suggestions.