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Hi, I need some advice what to do.

Started my computer today, got a message "Operating system not found".

Decided to try and boot from the CD (Windows 98 SE) - got the same message
"Operating system not found" (didn't seem to recognise the CD drive although
the light came on and went off at startup).

Tried booting from a floppy disk, chose option "Start computer with CD Rom
support". Oak technology driver started then gave message "No drives found,
aborting installtion". I have 2 CD drives - one a ROM and one a CD writer.

After that, still booting from the floppy, I got the message "Windows 98 has
detected that drive C does not contain a valid fat or fat32 partition."

I ran FDisk which stopped with a mesage "No fixed disks present".

I could understand if the hard drive had packed in but I can't understand
why I couldn't access my CD drives which makes me wonder if both problems
are a symptom of something else (I don't want to replace the hard drive only
to find that there was nothing wrong with it).

Any suggestions?

Thanks - Joe

On Sun, 19 Oct 2003 17:36:28 +1300, "Joe Black"
<> wrote:

Disconnect the h/drive from the cable...
then try, are they both on the came IDE port?


>Hi, I need some advice what to do.
>
>Started my computer today, got a message "Operating system not found".
>
>Decided to try and boot from the CD (Windows 98 SE) - got the same message
>"Operating system not found" (didn't seem to recognise the CD drive although
>the light came on and went off at startup).
>
>Tried booting from a floppy disk, chose option "Start computer with CD Rom
>support". Oak technology driver started then gave message "No drives found,
>aborting installtion". I have 2 CD drives - one a ROM and one a CD writer.
>
>After that, still booting from the floppy, I got the message "Windows 98 has
>detected that drive C does not contain a valid fat or fat32 partition."
>
>I ran FDisk which stopped with a mesage "No fixed disks present".
>
>I could understand if the hard drive had packed in but I can't understand
>why I couldn't access my CD drives which makes me wonder if both problems
>are a symptom of something else (I don't want to replace the hard drive only
>to find that there was nothing wrong with it).
>
>Any suggestions?
>
>Thanks - Joe
>

On Sun, 19 Oct 2003 18:31:01 +1300, John wrote:

> Disconnect the h/drive from the cable...
> then try, are they both on the came IDE port?

What the man said - plus check your bios to see if the IDE ports have been
disabled.

John wrote:
> On Sun, 19 Oct 2003 17:36:28 +1300, "Joe Black"
> <> wrote:
>
> Disconnect the h/drive from the cable...
> then try, are they both on the came IDE port?
>
>
>
>>Hi, I need some advice what to do.
>>
>>Started my computer today, got a message "Operating system not found".
>>
>>Decided to try and boot from the CD (Windows 98 SE) - got the same message
>>"Operating system not found" (didn't seem to recognise the CD drive although
>>the light came on and went off at startup).
>>
>>Tried booting from a floppy disk, chose option "Start computer with CD Rom
>>support". Oak technology driver started then gave message "No drives found,
>>aborting installtion". I have 2 CD drives - one a ROM and one a CD writer.
>>
>>After that, still booting from the floppy, I got the message "Windows 98 has
>>detected that drive C does not contain a valid fat or fat32 partition."
>>
>>I ran FDisk which stopped with a mesage "No fixed disks present".
>>
>>I could understand if the hard drive had packed in but I can't understand
>>why I couldn't access my CD drives which makes me wonder if both problems
>>are a symptom of something else (I don't want to replace the hard drive only
>>to find that there was nothing wrong with it).
>>
>>Any suggestions?
>>
>>Thanks - Joe
>>
>
>
As the man Said,

I have had a Hard drive that had a bad sector that would stop any
computer booting (win98 2K and Linux) so I wonder if it is the same prob
the hard drive was fixed with low level format provided by the disk
Maker (maxtor). I did get the daata of the drive but that was long and
involved.

--
RecylerMan ICQ 22245595
Mail to :- l i n u x u s r AT i h u g DOT c o DOT n z
The early bird gets the worm but the second mouse always gets the cheese

On Mon, 20 Oct 2003 06:57:17 +1300, RecylerMan wrote:

> I have had a Hard drive that had a bad sector that would stop any
> computer booting (win98 2K and Linux) so I wonder if it is the same prob
> the hard drive was fixed with low level format provided by the disk
> Maker (maxtor). I did get the daata of the drive but that was long and
> involved.

I just had my laptop drive develop a bad sector - in the journal Inode, so
it rendered Linux unbootable (Ext3 failed, Ext2 wouldn't mount it).

IBM drive feature tool was able to map out the bad sector and a e2fsck
later I was back in business.

I'm not terribly worried about it. There are still 10,000 spare sectors
left on the thing. It's surprising I had to manually map it though, I
believed IDE drives do this automatically.

"Uncle StoatWarbler" wrote
> I'm not terribly worried about it. There are still 10,000 spare sectors
> left on the thing. It's surprising I had to manually map it though, I
> believed IDE drives do this automatically.

Laptop(LT) Hdd's are IDE, just the plug was changed and power intergrated
into it.

LT HDD's should map it automagically assuming your correct about IDE HDD's