What happened to my fixed disk?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Trish
  • Start date Start date
T

Trish

I am trying to fix an old pc from scratch, it's an old
viglen genie profeessional with a 486/sx processor. I know
it has windows 98 on it but can't raise it! while booting
up it says "fixed disk controller failure" then asked to
resume or go to setup. If you resume it says " Diskette
error - press any key" and just repeats that.

I've tried using "fdisk" to bypass it and create a new
partition to work with but it firstly flashes "unable to
access drive 1", then I try to delete the partition but it
says there is no partition to delete. i've also tried to
create a partion but it just gets stuck!!!

Can anyone help? Please.

Trish.
 
Trish said:
I am trying to fix an old pc from scratch, it's an old
viglen genie profeessional with a 486/sx processor. I know
it has windows 98 on it but can't raise it! while booting
up it says "fixed disk controller failure" then asked to
resume or go to setup. If you resume it says " Diskette
error - press any key" and just repeats that.

I've tried using "fdisk" to bypass it and create a new
partition to work with but it firstly flashes "unable to
access drive 1", then I try to delete the partition but it
says there is no partition to delete. i've also tried to
create a partion but it just gets stuck!!!

Can anyone help? Please.

Trish.
Click to expand...
Trish, make sure the cables are connected. I use to get the same error
on my old PC because the cables would come loose from time to time. Try
that and let us know what happens. Do you have a boot diskette?

--
Servo

"Shop smart! Shop S-Mart!"

tservo100 at
ameritech dot net

Slow, fiery death to all spammers!
 
Trish, make sure the cables are connected. I use to get
the same error
on my old PC because the cables would come loose from time to time. Try
that and let us know what happens. Do you have a boot diskette?

--
Servo

"Shop smart! Shop S-Mart!"

tservo100 at
ameritech dot net

Slow, fiery death to all spammers!
.
Click to expand...
Thank you for your help Servo, I've tried pushing in all
cables but that doesn't seem to work. I do have a boot
disk from a another pc which also has win98 on it, it lets
me get to the "fdisk" point and no further. Should I just
buy a new mother board and base unit? Or can this be saved?

Trish.
 
Usually when a PC states fixed disk controller failure the
unit is dead. What you can try is to unplug the cables
then put them back in on both ends, reseat, be carefull
and do not bend the pins. Another thing is to try and find
a BIOS update for that unit, try at driversguide.com, and
last if these are new cables make sure that they are
ata66, 100/133's will not work in this unit.

good luck
 
Junk it or take it to a shop (not recommended).

--
Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard :-)
 
Trish said:
Thank you for your help Servo, I've tried pushing in all
cables but that doesn't seem to work. I do have a boot
disk from a another pc which also has win98 on it, it lets
me get to the "fdisk" point and no further. Should I just
buy a new mother board and base unit? Or can this be saved?

Trish.
Click to expand...
Trish, at this point it SOUNDS like a problem with the mobo. It's not
worth fixing so I'd just go get a new one and move on :) I'm partial to
Gigabyte mobos myself. They're affordable and have lots of good features.

--
Servo

"Shop smart! Shop S-Mart!"

tservo100 at
ameritech dot net

Slow, fiery death to all spammers!
 
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