Disabled Standard IDE HD controller

[cjackson]

In attempting to remove excess Standard IDE HD controllers from my Compaq 575 (75 Mhz Pentium I) installed devices, I accidentally removed them all. Now, the only way I have of booting my computer is with Windows 98 Startup diskette -- which cannot find any hard drive. How can I re-install the Standard IDE HD controller?

Help!

C. Jackson

[mjc]

Where did you disable them?

BIOS? or Windows?

If it was in Windows it should not affect the ability of the floppy to see the drives.

[Budfred]

Did you remove them from your BIOS somehow? Your BIOS should be able to detect your hard drive and you should be able to work with it if it is set to detect in BIOS. Windoze should automatically reinstall the device settings when you boot up.

Budfred

[Sylvander]

If you haven't changed your hardware or software but have only changed some [configuration] settings then:

Go to a DOS command prompt and use "scanreg /restore" to restore a copy of the registry [and configuration files] taken on or before the day the unfortunate alteration was made.
Windows [scanreg] automatically makes a backup of these at the first successful boot of each new day [after midnight].
You then made changes to these after that successful boot with a "good" registry.
You must restore it or one of those taken before it.

[Budfred]

I don't think he can run "scanreg /restore" if he can't access the hard drive. Most possible solutions require being able to access the hard drive which is why it sounds like a BIOS problem.

Budfred

[cjackson]

I removed the Std HD controller in Windows 98 Control Panel/System/Device Manager. I'm unable to access the BIOS, which used to work by pressing the F10 key on bootup.

As a result, there is no 'C' drive, and no access to any Windows commands. I only have a floppy drive and a Windows Startup diskette, which tells me that I have no HD installed. Because the CD-ROM is on the same cable as the HD, no Cd-ROM drive is available.

Thanks for your suggestions, but I'm stymied right now. If I could somehow load some kind of OS into my RAM, no doubt the HD controller could then be enabled.

C. Jackson

[mjc]

Try powering on and holding down a key on the keyboard, it should generate a stuck key error and give you the chance to enter the BIOS.

If you get into the BIOS make sure that the IDE devices are set to auto-detect.

[cjackson]

Problem solved.

Went to the Compaq page on Internet and downloaded two diagnostic diskettes, which let me get into BIOS and reset it to recognize the HD and also to set it to the proper value.

System comes up OK now, without any kind of 'New hardware found' messages. There is still a 2nd HD controller installed, but I have disabled it in the software.

Thanks for your help.

Charlie Jackson