system troubleshooting

[mike garratt]

I have a problem booting my system.It does not recognise the C: drive.The message'invalid drive specification'appears after boot.The system worked OK until I deleted some files to free up memory to run a game.It is possible I have deleted some important files,etc,
The system is very old,hence it has a 486DX2 CPU 66MHz,only 500mB hard disk,32mB RAM memory,CD ROM,floppy disc drive.
I can boot from A: so I have tried to install DOS to no avail.
I believe the'invalid drive spec' means I have to run FDISK to partition and format hard disk.
I tried to run FDISK from A http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gifDOS v5.0)but I get message'error reading fixed disk'
I get same error when using DOS v6.22.
Basically I cannot run FDISK,to partition hard disk.

[tjaymadison]

Welcome, mike! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

Are you also running Windows on that system? Which version?

Do you remember what files you deleted and how?

What exactly did you do when you "tried to install DOS"?

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"I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."
-- Charles Babbage, mathematician, computer pioneer, analytical engine designer (1791-1871)
-- (Question: 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?')

"Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand."
-- Homer Simpson

[jmatt]

Go into the bios & make sure the HD is being recognised . If not & auto dos'nt work , the spec's are on a label on top of the HD .

[Paleo Pete]

Sounds like the hard drive is dead. Invalid drive specification means the machine doesn't like what the BIOS says it's supposed to have, or it can't read the drive to identify it. When you run fdisk and get the error message "Error reading fixed disk" it means exactly that. Both of those together usually mean the drive has seen it's last successful boot up...

If you try replacing the drive, you'll probably be limited to a 540MB drive or less, not many 486 machines could handle larger drives. The exception is if it happens to have an EIDE controller, than it should handle up to 4 GB, possibly 8GB, but I wouldn't bet on it.

You might try another ribbon cable, the cable or controller could cause problems such as this, but if it's the controller usually the error message will indicate that is the case. If it's the ribbon cable, it can go either way...make sure oyu check the orientation of the cable before removing it, the new one must be plugged in correctly. Watch for a red or blue stripe on one side, it should go back in the same position.

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[mike garratt]

Yes,the problem was the Hard Drive. Originally posted by Paleo Pete:
Sounds like the hard drive is dead. Invalid drive specification means the machine doesn't like what the BIOS says it's supposed to have, or it can't read the drive to identify it. When you run fdisk and get the error message "Error reading fixed disk" it means exactly that. Both of those together usually mean the drive has seen it's last successful boot up...

If you try replacing the drive, you'll probably be limited to a 540MB drive or less, not many 486 machines could handle larger drives. The exception is if it happens to have an EIDE controller, than it should handle up to 4 GB, possibly 8GB, but I wouldn't bet on it.

You might try another ribbon cable, the cable or controller could cause problems such as this, but if it's the controller usually the error message will indicate that is the case. If it's the ribbon cable, it can go either way...make sure oyu check the orientation of the cable before removing it, the new one must be plugged in correctly. Watch for a red or blue stripe on one side, it should go back in the same position.