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I have a Compaq Deskpro 4000 machine with Windows 98 that has apparently
lost its boot sector. It will boot to a Win98 floppy, and I can see the
contents of the drive. Remind me of the appropriate procedures for
rebuilding the boot sector without having to reinstall Windows. I
thought fdisk /fixmbr might work, but now I cannot remember whether that
works for Win98. Of course, I have already run Scandisk. Fdisk shows
correct partitioning.

Also, I cannot get into the BIOS. F10 is supposed to work, but it does
not. Nor does the disk that I downloaded from Compaq's web site. The
CMOS battery was dead.

mcp6453 <> wrote in message
news:...
> I have a Compaq Deskpro 4000 machine with Windows 98 that has apparently
> lost its boot sector. It will boot to a Win98 floppy, and I can see the
> contents of the drive. Remind me of the appropriate procedures for
> rebuilding the boot sector without having to reinstall Windows. I
> thought fdisk /fixmbr might work, but now I cannot remember whether that
> works for Win98. Of course, I have already run Scandisk. Fdisk shows
> correct partitioning.
>
> Also, I cannot get into the BIOS. F10 is supposed to work, but it does
> not. Nor does the disk that I downloaded from Compaq's web site. The
> CMOS battery was dead.

FDISK /MBR & then SYS C: should help.

On Thu, 05 Feb 2004 09:23:11 -0500, mcp6453 <>
wrote:

>I have a Compaq Deskpro 4000 machine with Windows 98 that has apparently
>lost its boot sector. It will boot to a Win98 floppy, and I can see the
>contents of the drive. Remind me of the appropriate procedures for
>rebuilding the boot sector without having to reinstall Windows. I
>thought fdisk /fixmbr might work, but now I cannot remember whether that
>works for Win98. Of course, I have already run Scandisk. Fdisk shows
>correct partitioning.

fdisk /mbr


Have a nice week...

Trent

Follow Joan Rivers' example --- get pre-embalmed!

mcp6453 wrote:
> I have a Compaq Deskpro 4000 machine with Windows 98 that has
> apparently lost its boot sector. It will boot to a Win98 floppy, and
> I can see the contents of the drive. Remind me of the appropriate
> procedures for rebuilding the boot sector without having to reinstall
> Windows. I thought fdisk /fixmbr might work, but now I cannot
> remember whether that works for Win98. Of course, I have already run
> Scandisk. Fdisk shows correct partitioning.
>
> Also, I cannot get into the BIOS. F10 is supposed to work, but it does
> not. Nor does the disk that I downloaded from Compaq's web site. The
> CMOS battery was dead.

Are you positive its F10? COuld be delete or one of the other function
keys. Usually its F1 or F2, and the Compaqs I've worked with were
always F2...but then again these were ancient.

--
Night_Seer

"Night_Seer" <ecamacho4 at hotmail dot com> wrote in message
news:fJ6dnW_W7vsQ8L_dRVn-...
> mcp6453 wrote:
> > I have a Compaq Deskpro 4000 machine with Windows 98 that has
> > apparently lost its boot sector. It will boot to a Win98 floppy, and
> > I can see the contents of the drive. Remind me of the appropriate
> > procedures for rebuilding the boot sector without having to reinstall
> > Windows. I thought fdisk /fixmbr might work, but now I cannot
> > remember whether that works for Win98. Of course, I have already run
> > Scandisk. Fdisk shows correct partitioning.
> >
> > Also, I cannot get into the BIOS. F10 is supposed to work, but it does
> > not. Nor does the disk that I downloaded from Compaq's web site. The
> > CMOS battery was dead.
>
> Are you positive its F10? COuld be delete or one of the other function
> keys. Usually its F1 or F2, and the Compaqs I've worked with were
> always F2...but then again these were ancient.

Nearly every Compaq I've worked on, F-10 was the key to press. You have to
press it when you see the big cursor blink briefly in the upper righthand
corner of the screen.

Thor wrote:
>
> "Night_Seer" <ecamacho4 at hotmail dot com> wrote in message
> news:fJ6dnW_W7vsQ8L_dRVn-...
> > mcp6453 wrote:
> > > I have a Compaq Deskpro 4000 machine with Windows 98 that has
> > > apparently lost its boot sector. It will boot to a Win98 floppy, and
> > > I can see the contents of the drive. Remind me of the appropriate
> > > procedures for rebuilding the boot sector without having to reinstall
> > > Windows. I thought fdisk /fixmbr might work, but now I cannot
> > > remember whether that works for Win98. Of course, I have already run
> > > Scandisk. Fdisk shows correct partitioning.
> > >
> > > Also, I cannot get into the BIOS. F10 is supposed to work, but it does
> > > not. Nor does the disk that I downloaded from Compaq's web site. The
> > > CMOS battery was dead.
> >
> > Are you positive its F10? COuld be delete or one of the other function
> > keys. Usually its F1 or F2, and the Compaqs I've worked with were
> > always F2...but then again these were ancient.
>
> Nearly every Compaq I've worked on, F-10 was the key to press. You have to
> press it when you see the big cursor blink briefly in the upper righthand
> corner of the screen.


It's not on this one. I cannot get into the BIOS.

I had to reinstall Windows. Now I cannot get Windows to recognize the
CD.

On Thu, 05 Feb 2004 12:49:01 -0500, mcp6453 <>
wrote:

>Thor wrote:
>>
>> "Night_Seer" <ecamacho4 at hotmail dot com> wrote in message
>> news:fJ6dnW_W7vsQ8L_dRVn-...
>> > mcp6453 wrote:
>> > > I have a Compaq Deskpro 4000 machine with Windows 98 that has
>> > > apparently lost its boot sector. It will boot to a Win98 floppy, and
>> > > I can see the contents of the drive. Remind me of the appropriate
>> > > procedures for rebuilding the boot sector without having to reinstall
>> > > Windows. I thought fdisk /fixmbr might work, but now I cannot
>> > > remember whether that works for Win98. Of course, I have already run
>> > > Scandisk. Fdisk shows correct partitioning.
>> > >
>> > > Also, I cannot get into the BIOS. F10 is supposed to work, but it does
>> > > not. Nor does the disk that I downloaded from Compaq's web site. The
>> > > CMOS battery was dead.
>> >
>> > Are you positive its F10? COuld be delete or one of the other function
>> > keys. Usually its F1 or F2, and the Compaqs I've worked with were
>> > always F2...but then again these were ancient.
>>
>> Nearly every Compaq I've worked on, F-10 was the key to press. You have to
>> press it when you see the big cursor blink briefly in the upper righthand
>> corner of the screen.
>
>
>It's not on this one. I cannot get into the BIOS.
>
>I had to reinstall Windows. Now I cannot get Windows to recognize the
>CD.

On the Compaq Deskpro 4000, specifically, it *IS* F10.

That machine would have a small FAT12 partition containing the
software used for accessing the BIOS. You call that program with the
F10 key. If you fdisked and formatted the disk, without knowing what
you are doing, you have probably hosed this utility partition.

BB

BinaryBillThesailor@Sea++.com wrote:
>
> >It's not on this one. I cannot get into the BIOS.
> >
> >I had to reinstall Windows. Now I cannot get Windows to recognize the
> >CD.
>
> On the Compaq Deskpro 4000, specifically, it *IS* F10.
>
> That machine would have a small FAT12 partition containing the
> software used for accessing the BIOS. You call that program with the
> F10 key. If you fdisked and formatted the disk, without knowing what
> you are doing, you have probably hosed this utility partition.

I believe you. However, someone must have repartitioned before me as I
cannot get F10 to work. If that is the case, what is Plan B?

On Thu, 05 Feb 2004 15:48:54 -0500, mcp6453 <>
wrote:

>BinaryBillThesailor@Sea++.com wrote:
>>
>> >It's not on this one. I cannot get into the BIOS.
>> >
>> >I had to reinstall Windows. Now I cannot get Windows to recognize the
>> >CD.
>>
>> On the Compaq Deskpro 4000, specifically, it *IS* F10.
>>
>> That machine would have a small FAT12 partition containing the
>> software used for accessing the BIOS. You call that program with the
>> F10 key. If you fdisked and formatted the disk, without knowing what
>> you are doing, you have probably hosed this utility partition.
>
>I believe you. However, someone must have repartitioned before me as I
>cannot get F10 to work. If that is the case, what is Plan B?

That's a pretty old model, but you used to be able to download files
needed to make a set of special boot floppies from Compaq's website.
Those floppies are a replacement for what was on that special
partition. If they no longer have them, maybe try googling "Deskpro
4000" and see what comes up.

BB

"Thor" <> wrote in news::

> Nearly every Compaq I've worked on, F-10 was the key to press. You
> have to press it when you see the big cursor blink briefly in the
> upper righthand corner of the screen.

Yup. I was working with a Deskpro with a P166 in it today, and F10 was the
key. That booted DOS off a hidden hard drive partition and ran the setup
program.

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