Boot Problem

[twyborny]

I have a used Micron PIII that won't boot. I can boot from a: with Win98 startup disk. fdisk tells me that there are no fixed disks, format tells me about the same. I had a new drive which I put in to check and get the same messages. Booting with a WinME startup told me there were no FAT or FAT32 partitions, and still would not let me format. Any Suggestions?

[iisbob]

Hi, and welcome to the http://www.pcguide.com/ubb/pcgubb.gif !

First, does your BIOS report your Harddrive correctly? If so, then try creating a partiton when you run FDISK, you can't format a partiton if it doesn't exist yet.

Partitioning lays the structure down on the Harddrive to tell windows where to put it's file systm ( FAT32 usually ), if you don't create a partition-then windows doesn't know where to place the file system markers.


Ok? http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

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iisbob

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[This message has been edited by iisbob (edited 01-24-2002).]

[twyborny]

The BIOS is not recognizing a Primary Master. I'm venturing a guess that that was what I was looking for. If so, what to do with it now?

Originally posted by iisbob:
Hi, and welcome to the http://www.pcguide.com/ubb/pcgubb.gif !

First, does your BIOS report your Harddrive correctly? If so, then try creating a partiton when you run FDISK, you can't format a partiton if it doesn't exist yet.

Partitioning lays the structure down on the Harddrive to tell windows where to put it's file systm ( FAT32 usually ), if you don't create a partition-then windows doesn't know where to place the file system markers.


Ok? http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

[mjc]

If you have the option to set the drive to auto detect in the BIOS then do it, also check the jumpers,and the cable is firmly attached etc...


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mjc
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[twyborny]

Unplugged and re-plugged all cables, I did find the auto-detect in BIOS, and I still get the same messages.

[Paleo Pete]

Try a new IDE cable. If you're using a new or known good hard drive and get an error message or BIOS and fdisk won't recognize the drive, and you have checked connections, that's always the next thing to check for.

Also make sure the hard drive jumpers are set correctly. Check the documentation that came with the new drive, if you pan to use it together with an existing drive you will need to find out jumper settings for it too. Some have separate settings for Master, Slave and Master with or without Slave settings...it gets confusing...

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