bridgeofjedge
08-13-2003, 11:09 AM
and good day all but the issue is this:
friend offered his old pc (which was having problems: sudden powerdowns, freezing; never a lucid explanation but i believe the pc wld just shut down intermittently, no input reason. . .), an IBM netvista 2254-G04, 2001 with celeron 900 cpu, 20Gb hdd, cd-rw, floppy, one RAM @ 64mb. . . acbel powersupply, all stock equipment upon purchase. . . upon reception, the hdd was erased/ formatted, and using a DOS 3.30 startup/operation floppy i ran fdisk successfully, proffering correct stats. . .then played with format/ partitioning, as it read "active dos partition already installed". . . the original OS (factory installed) is win ME, and having no copy of the disc nor any indication of its presence on a protected partition, i elected to attempt installation of Linux Redhat 8.0. . . the install page came up, i typed "linux text" <enter>, it ran swift page of stats, setup info, then returned to the install page where i wld enter "linux text" and same process, same dead-end recursive cycle. . . then i tried installing my win 98 (just to see if she cld boot into a successful install), and upon starting the process an error message came up suggesting inadequate space for install (as though it were trying to install on the RAM memory?). . . so 86'd that idea, called ibm requesting recovery cd. . .
y'day the cd's arrived; hurriedly, fervently, with all the earnestness at my command (and some caffeine-enthusiasm)! i rushed into the system, w/drew the dos floppy, plugged in recovery cds (am excited 'bout learning ME, then a dual-boot system with Red Hat or Corel or GNU/Unix likely red hat as common linux choice but want to be "multiplatformed" as i pursue this computer/tech 'cosm with all sincere interest in potential career) and the first cd ran-- read in huge ongoing listings scrolling down page-- "extracting x"-- where x represents various numerous numerous files, too fast to read obviously; then "inflating x"-- and again numerous files, likely a repeat of list extracted-- then the cd depleted its function and read "please put in recovery disk 2" and i did so, pressing <enter> as instructed, the files continued w/ illegible speed, but i saw under every effort at writing/installing file x, "Warning!! cannot write file x. . ." and then it wld repeat that incalcuable times with the incalcuable files/folders but thirty seconds later "remove all disks and cds from drives and press enter to restart yr computer".
with excited perspiration pouring down my tensed forehead, <enter> and the computer powered down then up and the blue ibm screen, then a beep, big deep infinite paynes gray screen with white words atop: "no operating system found. . ." so screen flickers momentarily and then shows bigbig shot of floppy entering the floppy drive, with function buttons listed at bottom saying with two flashing arrows to "press F1 to repeat boot sequence". . . this was the original problem-screen, as if the hdd cannot be written to, but i do not know what the essential obstacle is. . . have considered picking up a new hdd, but having attempted the same with a 10Gb drive (old model from old 98 computer though fdisk read it fine), said cannot write to drive. . .
system diagnostics (also on recovery cds) suggest all elements of hardware are healthy and functional and no mobo lights nor tell-tale beeps and i ask: why can the diagnostics load/run yet an OS cannot, but thats not my point. anyway, having manipulated and toyed inside case, and with software setup for some frustrated time, and read throughout the forums (while debating which post to tag w/ this post) several days hoping to find a parallel thread but unsuccessful so here i am, throwing myself into the mercy of the brilliant constituents of this most beautiful and genuis forum on the w3!
any help/ suggestions are appreciated. . .
j.edge.
friend offered his old pc (which was having problems: sudden powerdowns, freezing; never a lucid explanation but i believe the pc wld just shut down intermittently, no input reason. . .), an IBM netvista 2254-G04, 2001 with celeron 900 cpu, 20Gb hdd, cd-rw, floppy, one RAM @ 64mb. . . acbel powersupply, all stock equipment upon purchase. . . upon reception, the hdd was erased/ formatted, and using a DOS 3.30 startup/operation floppy i ran fdisk successfully, proffering correct stats. . .then played with format/ partitioning, as it read "active dos partition already installed". . . the original OS (factory installed) is win ME, and having no copy of the disc nor any indication of its presence on a protected partition, i elected to attempt installation of Linux Redhat 8.0. . . the install page came up, i typed "linux text" <enter>, it ran swift page of stats, setup info, then returned to the install page where i wld enter "linux text" and same process, same dead-end recursive cycle. . . then i tried installing my win 98 (just to see if she cld boot into a successful install), and upon starting the process an error message came up suggesting inadequate space for install (as though it were trying to install on the RAM memory?). . . so 86'd that idea, called ibm requesting recovery cd. . .
y'day the cd's arrived; hurriedly, fervently, with all the earnestness at my command (and some caffeine-enthusiasm)! i rushed into the system, w/drew the dos floppy, plugged in recovery cds (am excited 'bout learning ME, then a dual-boot system with Red Hat or Corel or GNU/Unix likely red hat as common linux choice but want to be "multiplatformed" as i pursue this computer/tech 'cosm with all sincere interest in potential career) and the first cd ran-- read in huge ongoing listings scrolling down page-- "extracting x"-- where x represents various numerous numerous files, too fast to read obviously; then "inflating x"-- and again numerous files, likely a repeat of list extracted-- then the cd depleted its function and read "please put in recovery disk 2" and i did so, pressing <enter> as instructed, the files continued w/ illegible speed, but i saw under every effort at writing/installing file x, "Warning!! cannot write file x. . ." and then it wld repeat that incalcuable times with the incalcuable files/folders but thirty seconds later "remove all disks and cds from drives and press enter to restart yr computer".
with excited perspiration pouring down my tensed forehead, <enter> and the computer powered down then up and the blue ibm screen, then a beep, big deep infinite paynes gray screen with white words atop: "no operating system found. . ." so screen flickers momentarily and then shows bigbig shot of floppy entering the floppy drive, with function buttons listed at bottom saying with two flashing arrows to "press F1 to repeat boot sequence". . . this was the original problem-screen, as if the hdd cannot be written to, but i do not know what the essential obstacle is. . . have considered picking up a new hdd, but having attempted the same with a 10Gb drive (old model from old 98 computer though fdisk read it fine), said cannot write to drive. . .
system diagnostics (also on recovery cds) suggest all elements of hardware are healthy and functional and no mobo lights nor tell-tale beeps and i ask: why can the diagnostics load/run yet an OS cannot, but thats not my point. anyway, having manipulated and toyed inside case, and with software setup for some frustrated time, and read throughout the forums (while debating which post to tag w/ this post) several days hoping to find a parallel thread but unsuccessful so here i am, throwing myself into the mercy of the brilliant constituents of this most beautiful and genuis forum on the w3!
any help/ suggestions are appreciated. . .
j.edge.