Windows and HD Boot Problems

[Gudos]

I(novice) put together a K7-TBird 800, 132 MB SDRAM 133 (NEC),Asus A7V MB, IBM 20 GXP model 7200rpm,50X Acer CD rom, ATI All-in Wonder Radeon 32MB DDR graphics card. The system is up and running up to the BIOS. I don't see the HD in the bios boot up menu, the primary master is indicated as my cd rom and in the secondary master there is none. I have double checked all my cable connections and all seems to be fine. The first time I tried to instal Win 98 I could not format the hard drive with a Win 98 boot disk. it kept on giving me the error "format not supported on drive c: " So I downloaded the IBM software,Disk Manager Version 9.54, for formating and partitioning the HD. (The disk diagnostic software did not see the HD even though it partioned it later on ???)All went fine until I was about to install Win 98. I get the error "SETUP CANNOT CREATE FILES ON YOUR STARTUP DRIVE AND CANNOT SETUP WIN 98. IF YOU HAVE HPFS OR NTFS YOU MUST CREATE AN MS-DOS BOOT PARTITION. IF YOU HAVE LANTASTIC SERVER OR SUPERSTAR COMPRESSION DISABLE IT BEFORE RUNNING SETUP....."
what is HPFS or NTFS anyway??.
The jumpers on the hard drive are set to master and its the only HD installed. Help !!!!!!!!!!!

[Reid]

Some hard drives have a default position for the hard drive jumper when there is only one drive on the cable, rather than using the Master setting.
I couldn't find the specs on your hard drive to check that possibility.

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reido@my-deja.com

Friends don't let friends install Windows ME

[Gudos]

Actually the stupid cables were mixed up. After I switched them correctly I was able to fdisk with a win boot disk and installed my OS. The first time there were just so many errors because I forgot to remove the sound card. The second time it was installed without major blue screens. I still have to wait and see if antthing goes wrong again. Thanks a lot man for the reply!!!. You are the man.!!!!

Originally posted by Reid:
Some hard drives have a default position for the hard drive jumper when there is only one drive on the cable, rather than using the Master setting.
I couldn't find the specs on your hard drive to check that possibility.

[Reid]

It is easy to overlook something like a cable or jumper in the wrong place; I know from my own experience http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif The last time I built a system I finally resisted the temptation to start with everything installed. I just put in memory, a floppy, and a generic video card, then added one piece at a time. It all went very smoothly.

Your system is fairly close to what I was thinking about building next. The CPU prices are rapidly dropping into a reasonable range for me.

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reido@my-deja.com

Friends don't let friends install Windows ME

[Paleo Pete]

Same here, I spent nearly two hours troubleshooting a sudden video problem while building a computer about 3 years ago, until a friend walked over and turned on the monitor...and even more recently forgot to back up my Favorites, and only thought I had backed up My Documents. I discovered that one last night when I went looking on the storage drive for my webpage so I could update it. Fortunately it was the only file in the My Documents folder that I really needed, and I was able to get it back off the web. Got in a hurry...

Update..another gotcha...I did back it up...looked yesterday on the wrong drive, just now found the entire My Documents folder intact...on a different drive, that I thought I hadn't used yet at all...Favorites is nowhere to be found though, it's gone forever...

I can't believe I'm actually admitting to all this...

CRS STRIKES AGAIN!!!!

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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines!
Note: Please post your questions on the forums, not in my email.

Computer Information Links (http://www.geocities.com/paleopete/)

[Randy_tx]

Speaking of confessions.......I learned how important it is to "pay attention" when I plugged the RED wires of a power supply connector on a Socket 7 mobo into the CENTER of the sockets.........sparks everywhere! It was a $130 lesson I'll remember for a LONG time http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

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Wore out my Ctrl/Alt/Del keys with Win ME

[Gudos]

Thats true guys. Actually the saga, was that I was following some geek, from some famous website that built a computer just like mine. He had Win Me instead of Win 98. He connected his hard drive the way I had done and of cource that didnt work. I finaly just switched the cables the way it was in my old faithful AMDK2-333 system. Take home lesson, "..alway trust your instinct...."

[Paleo Pete]

randy: Been there, done that too...fortunately I didn't get a fireworks display, but the board did fail the "smoke test".

OK, what is the smoke test, you ask? I'm glad you asked, I have the answer...

All electrical devices have a certain amount of smoke contained inside from the factory. This smoke is there for troubleshooting purposes, and under normal circumstances should never be released. If, however, the device should ever experience a serious malfunction, this smoke is released, usually in copious amounts, thereby letting you know the device has a serious problem.

The smoke test is performed by simply plugging the device into an electrical outlet and turning on the power. You will usually know fairly quickly if the smoke test is passed or failed.

No smoke: Passed.
Smoke: Failed.

http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

The opinions and information contained in this article are not intended to reflect the views or opinions of the management, and are not intended to portray incidents related to any person living or deceased.

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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines!
Note: Please post your questions on the forums, not in my email.

Computer Information Links (http://www.geocities.com/paleopete/)

[Randy_tx]

It's soooo comforting to know they put the smoke in there prior to shipment....how considerate of em http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

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Wore out my Ctrl/Alt/Del keys with Win ME

[Paleo Pete]

They've been doing it since the tube radio days. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines!
Note: Please post your questions on the forums, not in my email.

Computer Information Links (http://www.geocities.com/paleopete/)

[Reid]

I really like the electrolytic capacitors that whistle when they fail, in case you didn't notice the smoke. Tantalum capacitors, which are too small to whistle or smoke, spray out metal instead to make it easier to find the bad ones.

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reido@my-deja.com

Friends don't let friends install Windows ME