Hard Drive Woes

[XL]

I bought a wiped computer online.

I am trying to install a new OS but i cant get the computer to
recognize the CD ROM drive ( I tried at least four different drives
that i know work) the power to the drive comes on but it seems as if no
data is being transfered.

I even tried to use an old hardrive with an OS already installed. Still
no CD ROM Drive Recognition.

Is the Data Cable bad?
Is the mother board bad?
some other way to load the BIOS or the OS?

thanks-Harry

 

[Rod Speed]

I bought a wiped computer online.

I am trying to install a new OS but i cant get the computer
to recognize the CD ROM drive ( I tried at least four different
drives that i know work) the power to the drive comes on
but it seems as if no data is being transfered.

Have you got into the bios and told it to attempt to boot from the CD drive ?

I even tried to use an old hardrive with an OS already
installed. Still no CD ROM Drive Recognition.

What happens with a Win98 bootable floppy from bootdisk.com ?

Is the Data Cable bad?

It should be obvious how to test that possibility.

Is the mother board bad?

Thats always possible.

some other way to load the BIOS

What do you mean by 'load the bios' ?

or the OS?

Yes, you can load the more primitive ones like DOS from floppy.