CANT BOOT TO DOS, OR SAFE MODE (W98)

[LIGHTNIN_JACK]

hello folks.

ill try to keep it uncomplicated, but i aint a pc wizard.

i run a win 98 pII 350mhz, 196 ram, voodoo3, sound blaster 128, us robotics modem. 3 gig master drive (original with pc) and a maxtor 40 gig slave drive.

i now basically want to do a fresh install onto the large 40 gig drive and do away with the small 3 gigger all together. incidently the 40 gig drive only has the 32gig because of my bios, well it says 27gig actuall space. (bios have been upgraded).

my problem is this, i cannot do either of the following:

1. start/shutdown/restart in ms-dos mode. i get an invalid directory error looping endlessly.

2. i cannot boot with the win 98 boot disk. its as if it reads it, but just loads windows anyway.

3. i cannot do the f8 thing to get to safe mode, the pc just beeps to tell me to stop it.

i have checked the bios settings, floppy seek on startup is enabled. i wanted to try and change the boot sequence of the floppy, hdd and dvd-rom, but there is no option to let the floppy boot first. unless i have SCSI installed. which i dont to my knowledge, and im sure it would be obvious.

i also tried to place the large slave drive on the main master position on the IDE cable, changed the jumper setting to master (also tried with cable select), and tried to boot with the floppy to install a clean fresh win 98 onto the large drive. the floppy does not boot, and the auto detect at startup of the hdd hangs, with the light off on the front of pc after flashing a few times as if being read.

i have never done a re-install since ive had the pc, but the person who owned it before me did re-install with no problems.

this makes me think i have done something to seriously screw up my pc as i am now starting to get errors in my main online game counter-strike. hence the reason i want to do a fresh install onto my nice large maxtor drive.

i should be able to re-install anytime i like with the floppy, pls help me im getting desperate.

[Andy-S]

Have you tried setting the defaults in the BIOS. The floppy drive should be the first boot option by default.

Try disconnecting the hard drives and booting from the floppy. This will at least let you know if the floppy disk is okay.

Cheers
Andy

[LIGHTNIN_JACK]

I have just tried the default settings in BIOS Andy. Yes it worked fine, to boot with floppy I mean.

I put in the large drive and set it to master with the BIOS set to auto detect. Then I booted up with the floppy. I selected option 1 from the first menu then it did a series of checks and came up with the A:\ prompt. It said there was no C: drive detected possible reasons are.....not partiontioned or formatted, wrong drive letter or a virus.

It then said I should fdisk to check to see if the drive is there. I did this, but there was no drives detected.

Could this mean I have to go back to the original settings and delete the existing partition from the large drive? Then try the fdisk from floppy boot up.

Im lost again. If it would only see my drive I could install windows now.

[Andy-S]

Try this:

Go back to your original settings with the 3GB drive as master and the 40GB drive as slave. Format the 40GB drive within Windows.

If this is successful then try to add the 40GB drive as the primary master and install W98.

Cheers
Andy

[LIGHTNIN_JACK]

Thx Andy, it never formatted the large disk in windows, the thing just terminated format near the end. So, I tried just using the boot floppy to dos and formatted it there. I also used the SYS D: command to place the required system files onto the drive to enable installation. That was fine. The large drive was detected fine and I went through the process to get to the A:\> prompt to type setup as it instructs in the handbook.

I just get a bad command or filename error. I tried typing in the cd-rom drive and the command Win98, but still the same error.

I feel there was a breakthrough today thx to your suggestions Andy and I feel very close to my goal, but this problem must be something daft. I hope anyway.

[Andy-S]

In your mail you stated that you tried to run setup from the A:. You need to navigate to your CD drive. The syntax is CD D: or whatever letter is associated with your CD drive. The CD in the syntax above means change directory.

If you are having problems then download a W98 boot disk from <a target="_blank" href=http://www.bootdisk.com>www.bootdisk.com</a>.

This will provide you with CD support and you should be able to run the setup from the CD drive.

Let us know how you get on.

Cheers
Andy

[LIGHTNIN_JACK]

Right Andy here goes:

I now have the original blue master boot floppy working. It boots up fine with just the large drive in master position and starts to want to install windows, woohoo I said.

Gah....

When it asked me for the system serial number, I thought woohoo (again hehe), its wanting the certificate of authenticity product key on the front of the win98 manual. So, after it asked for the master cd number 1, I typed it in .

But!!!!

I think I have made a mistake. The amount of numbers required when it asks for the serial number, is not the same ammount on the front of the manual. I never realised this and without looking at what I had typed, pressed enter to suddenly realise that the last block of digits did not fit into the entry box.

It then continued to do some checks and eventually came up with this message:

This Computer Has No Valid Information.

I tried a couple of more times, each time thereafter, it would not take me to any options screens or ask for the serial number again, it just keeps coming up with this same message.

I also tried with just a start up floppy disk instead of the original boot floppy. I used the clean install instructions from this page: http://home.pacbell.net/dbk4297/preinstall.html to the letter. This process went well untill the final command to type in setup to finally install windows. A bad command or file name would appear again.

I must point out that when the origianl boot floppy started to install windows, I got past the options of what to install ie, typical install, custom etc etc. Thats when it asked for the serial number.

If this is because I have typed in the wrong serial number, how can I get around this now?

Is it going to be a case of simply re-install windows over my original 3 gig drive and keep the large drive as slave. This does defeat my whole purpose of what I am trying to do.

Thx for your advice Andy, you have got me this far m8.

[Andy-S]

Now we're getting closer. Looks like the blue diskette you have is a Packard Bell recovery diskette. The serial number you should have entered was your unit serial number or a serial number that came with the recovery disk. Packard Bell should be able to confirm what serial number you need to enter www.bootdisk.com (http://www.packardbell.co.uk/support/node194.asp>http://www.packardbell.co.uk/support/node194.asp</a>.) and you will have no issues.



Cheers
Andy

[LIGHTNIN_JACK]

I downloaded the win98 boot disk from bootdisk.com, it was the same one I made for myself i think. Anyway, I tried this floppy.

I get as far as the E:\SETUP &gt;prompt, then I type in SETUP only to get a bad command or filename error again.

In most of the instructions I have come accross, they point to the commands SETUP or WIN98 to get the thing moving along. Maybe its just a wrong command.

When I browse the master cd 1, there is a SETUP folder which is fine, but there is no WIN98 exe file which many instructions require this command to work, I will list the .exe files:

Arj Application
Bioslock Application
Info Application
Instdrv Application
Kill MS-DOS Application
Oemsetup Application
Restore Application
Treecrc Application

I dont know if this is any use at all but im lost again.

I tried to type in the command E:\SETUP&gt; prompt oemsetup, which just gave a bad command or filename as well.

[Andy-S]

It looks like the CD you have is a recovery CD for Packard Bell and not the retail version of Windows 98. In order for it to work you will need to get the correct serial number that it was looking for.

Unfortunately in some cases the re-install can only be done on the original drive as some OEM's write to a couple of hidden sectors on the HDD (one's that are not overwritten by a format) and then read them prior to doing the installation.

In your case I think you may be okay as you got as far as the serial number prompt. If the number of characters required is equal to the machine serial number (on a label on the chassis) try entering this. If not you will need to contact Packard Bell to get the location of the serial number.

Going forward you should use the Packard Bell boot floppy and the CD. Don't use the one you downloaded from bootdisk.com.

Cheers
Andy

[LIGHTNIN_JACK]

Thx Andy again dude, its all fixed now and I owe most of it to you buddy.

I went to the Packard Bell site to see what there was on this error. It was a fairly common problem on the PB pc's, so a fix was easy to find. Then when I retried again and all was fine.

I now have a nice healthy clean install of WIN98 onto my large 40giger. woohoo.

Incidentaly, when I was finished all this operation, I fixed the 32 gig limit on my pc somehow. Before this all started with the 40 gig as slave, the pc only saw 27 gig out of the 32gig it was supposed to, due to my BIOS being old. Now on the other hand, it sees the full 32 gig, which I know is all it will see untill I upgrade my motherboard.

Anyway, thx again buddy, my pc has never run better.

Once again WOOOOOHOOOOO!!!!

cya

[Andy-S]

No problem. Glad you got it working.

Cheers
Andy