FDISK & CMOS/BIOS setup

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graham_doh

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Hi
I've just bought a new PC and that's fine.
However, I've tinkered with my old PC and wish I hadn't!!!!
I re-formatted the drive with fdisk just as one big partition and then re-loaded windows (ME). However the drive doesn't boot. I think I should have made an MS-DOS boot partition. Can I still do this or do I have to start again?

If I have to start again I have another problem. When I hit the DEL key on boot up to go into the BIOS/CMOS setup menu I used to be able to change things in here, but everything is now greyed out. The thing that has changed that I want to change is that my PC no longer boots to a CD. The settings have changed to first boot : floppy drive, 2nd boot :HD-0, 3rd boot : a tape drive! and I can't change it.

Can anyone clever help me out?

If you need anymore info then let me know.

Doh!
 
I think yur sayin the bios isnt working.

Ya might have to reset it.

A little screw driver work, on the mother board should be a the 3 pin jumper by the battery. Unplug the power first, move the jumper to the other pins for a few seconds and then back that should reset it.

Find the mother board part number and google the brand and number if ya want a photo or diagram of where the jumper is.

Hope this gets ya goin.
 
Sometime it help to format C: from the ME disk.

Boot from the Me start disk and go to ME CD in dos, like D:\format C:

It seem to work better that format C: from the start disk.

Youll see it formating it take a few minutes.

Then type D:setup

Your set and happy.
 
I havent used format c: Ive used fdisk and created 1 big partition.
Next i've booted to my ME cd which is a recovery cd that came with the system not one from microsoft.
This then has a pop up box to ask if I want to format the disk and install ME on my hard disk.
On answering yes I would expect it to go away and do this and it does (install ME, that is), but it does not create a bootable disk. The only way I've found to get the c: drive to boot is to next install a copy of linux and this it does alongside the windows ME and at the same time creates a boot partition with a choice of booting to linux or windows when the computer is first turned on.
 
I happy its all working for ya.

What ever the software is doing is good. If ya had a ME disk formating in DOS from Windows CD disk seems to work better than formatin with DOS on a startup disk.
 
HuH!

I'm confused here ... :confused:

You do not "format" using FDISK ... you format AFTER using FDISK ... and where did you get fdisk from?

All you needed to do was boot from your ME CD and follow instructions ... there was no need to FDISK anything.

Now to set that straight you WILL have to use FDISK to delete the partitions or you'll have a corrupted HD.

:rolleyes:
 
Everythings cool.

thats what I was wandering where did he get fdisk with no boot disk.

He had multi patitions and only wanted one. That why he fdisk.

I think the factory install disk had ME and linux on it and he only wanted ME.

I think he has it going now.

I dont think he has a windows ME disk only a factory install.
 
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I needed to use fdisk as formatting only formatted the windows partition that was on the disk and I had a linux partition on the disk aswell.

The problem i am now left remains as follows :

the disk has 1 partition (using fdisk). I then boot to ME installation disk and it appears to do all the formatting and installation. I re-boot the system removing floppy & cd and the system hangs.
 
ah, now we get somewhere ...

You're getting your 'terminology' muddled up ...

FDISK is a partitioning tool, not a 'formatter' ;)

You can use FDISK to re-partition your hard drive ... use it to delete both or any partitions, even Linux (non DOS) ... then make a sole partition of the whole HD.

Once the HD is partitioned you then need to format it ... a Win98 boot disk is perfect for both jobs.

Do you have a Win98 BOOT disk on floppy (not an ME boot disk) ... if not, get one off the net.

Once that is all done then use your Win CD to re-install and you should find everything back to 'normal' ... ;)
 
I think this might be happing.

The factory install disk wants to also intall Linux but it doesnt have a patition to install into because ya made only one. That might be whats hangin it up.

If ya have patition software ya might make the number of patitions the way it was reinstall with the factory disk. Then when ya get ME goin good, delete the linux partition and expand the ME patition but ya would have to use nondestructive patition software.

To bad ya dont have a Windows disk.

I dont have any experience doing a dual OS factory disk, and what your trying to do.

Help. someone Help!!!

excuse me Ill get my grip in a minute.
 
TG ... what are you babbling on about ??

TECHGUNS said:
I think this might be happing.

The factory install disk wants to also intall Linux but it doesnt have a patition to install into because ya made only one. That might be whats hangin it up.

If ya have patition software ya might make the number of patitions the way it was reinstall with the factory disk. Then when ya get ME goin good, delete the linux partition and expand the ME patition but ya would have to use nondestructive patition software.

To bad ya dont have a Windows disk.

I dont have any experience doing a dual OS factory disk, and what your trying to do.

Help. someone Help!!!

excuse me Ill get my grip in a minute.
Click to expand...
HuH!

NO 'factory' install disk has ever had Linux & Windows on the same CD ... MS would throw a fit if they knew. :rolleyes:
 
Ok I took a break. feelin better.

Muckshifter I dont think he has a Windows CD only a dual OS factory install disk.

Ya might have to find a Windows disk if the factory disk cant do it or setup the patitions the way they were, delete Linux patition and expand the Windows patition.

I think..???
 
Look TG, I don't know what post you are reading but, he has a 'factory' CD with ME ... AND ... a separate no factory of a mag or downloaded Linux CD

If we knew what the name of the PC was I would dig you out the CD from my collection.
 
He didnt say what model PC.

Lindows came out on a lot of PCs about the same time ME did.

My guess is Lindows.

Im goin by post 5.
Quote:The only way I've found to get the c: drive to boot is to next install a copy of linux and this it does alongside the windows ME and at the same time creates a boot partition with a choice of booting to linux or windows when the computer is first turned on.

MS did rasie some hair about Lindows now Linspire. Oh and I think Linspire ****.

Lindows wasnt free like other Linux distros.
 
OK. Let me start again.
1st - I cannot download and windows 98 boot floppy from the net as my new PC does not have a floppy disk drive!

My old (knackered) PC is a Systemax (Simply Computers, now taken over by Misco) machine.
It has a 1.33GHz AMD athlon processor with 512MB RAM.
The recovery CD that was shipped with the system boots up to a Systemax logo and then does all the disk formatting & Windows ME stuff.
The Linux is nothing to do with the original setup. This is on a bootable DVD I got from Linux magazine issue 51 and is Mandrakelinux 10.1 Official.
This was all setup on my old system when I bought my new PC. My old system kept hanging in windows after being had many things installed/removed/tweaked for the past 4 years. So having got all my data off and onto the new PC I decided to (try) and get my old PC back to a plain old Windows only PC that was hopefully a bit more stable.
This was when I ran FDISK to scrub everything and start a fresh. The Fdisk is on a ME boot floppy that I had made when I'd first got the system as instructed.
I havent used FORMAT at all.
When I boot to Hard Disk only the system look for a boot floppy, then a boot CD & then hangs. The VDU shows F 99 99 99 99 and then lots more 99 99 99s for about 10 lines and everthing just stops.
I can get the hard disk to boot by re-installing the Linux with the magazine disk which gives me a dual system that I can live with if Windows doesn't keep hanging, but it would be nice to get what I want, ie a straight Windows system.
Is that any clearer????
Graham
PS thanks for your patience so far!
 
plain as day ...

Graham, That was clear from the start ... ;)

OK,

Use FDISK ... delete any, all partitions ... make 1 new one ... then restart the PC with the same disk in the Floppy driver and type at the A prompt ... format C:\ ... then reboot to your CDrom drive and Win should install. If it does not, then you have one strange fecking system.

Is I said ... you must format after using FDISK

Good luck! ;)
 
As I said ... you must format ... after using FDISK ... I don't care how.
 
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