formatted old hp, now can't load windows.

[Subsane]

Ok, heres what happend. My friends mother gavw him an old old old ooold computer. It HAD windows 98 on it but was having some problems ie. freezing, and blue screen of death. He said to me "I wish we could reload windows and get it like it was out of the box" I said I could format it and reload windows. So away I went. I had done this a few times before so it seemed like no big deal. I have a a 98 boot disk on floppy as well as the windows 98 install disk. Afetr the formatt I put in the disk but the cd-rom wouldn't spin. So i put in the windows 98 boot disk for support but wouldn't ya know it.....disk still wouldn't spin. I don't think that cd-rom is supported on the boot disk.Everything worked before the format *bangs his head repeatedly on the floor* So then I found the driver for the cd-rom and installed (correctly i think) but still didn't work. Then before I knew it was 8am in the morning and had been up alll night...I'm at a total loss.

this is where I'm at.
I have a dos boot disk and a windows install disk.
All I really ned is to get that disk spinning.

Here is as much information on the computer as I can find.

It is an HP Vectra model #VL series4 5/166
Designed for Windows 95
The motherboard says Hewlitt Packard on it, can't really find a model # on it.
It has 2 - 1.2gig hard drives installed on it.
The CD-ROM is model # CR-572-B made a Matsu****a

I have a feeling that I can't get the cd-rom to work because of the 2 hard drives installed, maybe getting the drive letter wrong?

This computer should be in the museum of History rather than on my living room floor but regardless I need to get this bad boy operational.

I figured if anyone can help, someone in here can.

any suggestions? Please .

[Norm]

Blue screens and freezing can be an indication of a hardware problem.
You can install 98 till you're blue in the face, but if it's a hardware problem you will die of 'blue in the face disease' :D

The CDRom would be the first thing to replace. Get a newer model that doesn't need drivers installed.
Check all connections PCI/AGP, IDE, RAM
Swap out the PSU
Check the fans, CPU, and PSU
Check for dust in the heatsink etcetc.
Do a diagnostic on the ram.

[Storm90]

Have you tried disconnecting one of the .Cd roms and going from their.

[Chris]

Some of the earlier proprietary systems designated a drive letter out of the norm, IBM for instance designated "G" as their CD drive, You may try that.

[Norm]

You may get lucky and find out it has been the CDRom all along causing the troubles. Older systems, it's usually the CDRom, or a fan that dies first.

[Chris]

It also appears that the original software should be on drive D
...............................................................................

HP Vectra VL Series 4, 5/166, Pentium 100 (tower)



Windows 98SE (with all Critical Updates as of 12-20-03)

HARDWARE: (Model # D4662B)

Processor: Pentium 100 MHz
Memory: 32 MB (two-16 MB, 72 pin, 60 ns) Upgradable to 64 MB
Hard Drive: 2.4 GB
Partition C: = 1.9 GB (Win98SE)
Partition D: = 0.5 GB (BACKUP) to hold the Restore Image

CD-ROM
Floppy
Onboard Sound
Onboard Video - 1 MB
Onboard Ethernet

Keyboard, Mouse, Powered Speakers

[Subsane]

Thx for your time guys, greatly appreciated.

Norm: Everything worked before the format. I tested the cd-rom, we had a disk in and were listening to music.

The blue screen of death was due to it running out of virtual memory im sure . Once i gave it more virtual memory the blue screen of death was no more. We were still thinking it would be a good idea to format...stupid stupid stupid stupid.

Storm90: I only have one cd-rom installed on that machine, did you mean remove the second hard drive?

Chris: When I'm in DOS and type a: or C: or d: or E: I can only get in "A" drive, "B" drive (which is really "A" drive), "C" drive,"D" drive which is second hard drive and not a partition. and thats it...shouldn't "E" drive be there? Wouldn't that be my CD-ROM?


I'm gunna keep trying to fix it. Maybe I could take the cd-rom out of my newer computer and install it in there....Think that would work? And if i do that i'm afraid i still wont have e:....
dare I remove the second hard drive?

[Norm]

If you use a 98 startup disk, it will tell you the letter of the CDRom drive(s) if it installed a driver for it. Usually it goes like this:

First floppy takes A:
Second floppy takes B:
First HD takes C:
Second HD takes D: (or the second partition on the first HD)
Partitions, and logical drives in the partition takes the next available letter.

If no more HD's or partitions...

Ramdrive takes E:

CDRoms come after that with F: G: etc (depends how many you have.
But, if Chris is correct, it could be G:

It is rare, but there are some CDRoms that 98 startup disk doesn't have drivers for. You'll have to put the driver file into the root of C: and add them manually (edit) config.sys, and/or autoexec.bat

[Subsane]

right now when i boot with the 98 boot disk it says: "Remove disks or other media"

I am booting with a DOS boot disk.

[Norm]

Sounds odd to me.
Never seen that message with a 98 startup floppy.
See if you can make a new one on a 98 machine. Or download a 98 bootdisk image with CDRom support from www.bootdisk.com

A Dos bootdisk won't have drivers for CDRoms, unless of course you've added them, and correctly.

[Norm]

If you're going to wipe that HD clean anyway, use Fdisk to remove all/any partitions (C: is a partition), recreate the primary partition (C:) then reboot and format it.

[Subsane]

K, I will go get a 98 boot disk. I erased the other one to copy the drivers for the cd-rom. I have a feeling that cd-rom is not included in the 98boot disk. I wish i hadn't (accidentally) erased the original 98boot disk.

[Subsane]

I made the 98 boot disk and run it. I chose to start with cd-rom support. While its doing its thing i notice it says no drives found, aborting installation. Then there there is an eror reading disk a: and says abort, rety, ingoner...



si i have the drivers to the cd rom on a floppy, i put that in drive a: run it and seems like everything goes a ok.



then i put the 98 boot disk in try to start with cd rom support again...no go.



when i go into the BIOS i disable boot from hard disk and enable boot from cd-rom it says operating system not found...

[Subsane]

Volume in drive e is MS-RAMDRIVE

so f: would be disk drive right? But there is no f drive

[Norm]

"aborting stallation"?
We haven't got that far yet.

Take the 98 CD out when you boot, or it will go straight into the install..

It appears to me that your partition is corrupt, and you need to remove it, and recreate it with Fdisk. Then format it before windows 98 will install.

[Norm]

Originally posted by Subsane
Volume in drive e is MS-RAMDRIVE

so f: would be disk drive right? But there is no f drive Ok, I jumped the gun.

Either your CD rom is screwed or 98 boot disk doesn't have drivers for it.


Do you know what you're doing?

[Norm]

To make this easier. Take that HD out and hook it to another PC.
Fdisk and format it.

Copy the Win98 folder off the 98 CD to the hard drive (C:)
Put it back into the orig machine, boot with 98 boot disk
Then install 98 from c:\win98 instead of the CD.

c:
cd win98
setup

[Storm90]

What Norm says. Yes I meant the second hard drive. But sense your haveing such a hard time. I would do what norm suggested.

[MadDoctor]

A while back I had an old HP that came with one hard drive. I put a second drive in (slave) and had the same problems you’ve indicated. Turns out my power supply was inadequate to support the second drive. I put a 400 power supply and things were corrected right a way.

Not that this helps you now… but it might after Norm helps you get your OS loaded.

[Subsane]

Thanks guys. I'm going to try some of your suggestions and I'll let ya know how it goes. Most likely I'm going to use fdisk, create my primary partition and the format it. Then I'll take the hard drive out, stick it in my newer machane and copy the windows 98 install to it.Then stick it back in the old HP.

Kinda like performing a major operation on it haa haa....I'll let you know how it goes.

[Subsane]

I should test the cd-rom by putting it in my working, much newer computer as well....couldn't hurt. That thing is so old....it sounds like a fridge, no joke.

[Joe]

google works ;-)

Try this...

http://home.ptd.net/~don5408/win98/install/clean.html

Read and try this maybe...

http://www.duxcw.com/digest/Fromshop/software/windows/startup/startup-6.htm


you may try this.. read the info (its for xp but may work)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=55820EDB-5039-4955-BCB7-4FED408EA73F

as well as making sure the cdrom is set as the boot device in the bios.

[TonyT]

Keep in mind that the HP restore partition *may* not be a FAT32 partition and FDisk will not even see it at all, esp if it's a hidden partition. If this is the case, you will need a drive utility program that can recognize multiple file systems in order to manipulate the partition,

What I do in these cases is boot from a live CD w/ linux and use CFDisk, which can recognize and write about 80 different filesystems to the drive. I use CFDisk to delete the partitions and create 1 new FAT32 partition. Then boot from the floppy and use windows FDisk to finish the job.

[Joe]

Originally posted by TonyT
Keep in mind that the HP restore partition *may* not be a FAT32 partition and FDisk will not even see it at all, esp if it's a hidden partition. If this is the case, you will need a drive utility program that can recognize multiple file systems in order to manipulate the partition,

What I do in these cases is boot from a live CD w/ linux and use CFDisk, which can recognize and write about 80 different filesystems to the drive. I use CFDisk to delete the partitions and create 1 new FAT32 partition. Then boot from the floppy and use windows FDisk to finish the job.

his cdrom doesnt spin up ;-)

[Subsane]

I'm hoping once I install windows on that system I'll be able to fix the cd-rom problem from within windows. And if worse comes to worse, my friend only uses that computer for messenger and website browsing anyway. Just to be sure though I'll stick the cd-rom onto my xp machine and see if it works.
*mission impossible theme plays in background*

[Subsane]

OK
The whole problem was related to a corrupt boot disk...can't believe that. After formatting (finally) I took the hard drive out, loaded it into my XP machine and then copied the windows 98 cd to it. After replacing the hard drive back into the old HP I installed widows easily. BUT.....

Now I have having trouble loading the correct ethernet drivers and sound drivers into the old HP....Any suggestions? Where do I start?

Should I make a new thread? *Bangs head on table while saying " stupid stupid stupid stupid"*

[Norm]

Use google, and find a program called aida32.
Install it.
It will tell you exactly what sound, and ethernet you have.

Then google again for the drivers, and download/install them.

[Subsane]

What would I do without you guys.

[MadDoctor]

More importantly… what would we do without people like you?

*puts on happy shoes*

:)