Windows 98 - Disk Boot Failure Question

[kpankulu]

I need some urgent help, please.

Last night, I shut down using the Ctrl-Alt-Delete function when I was unable to close my browsers. After a few minutes, I turned on the computer, and I got the disk boot failure, insert system disk and press enter error message.

Thr trouble is, I don't have a boot disk (the computer wasn't purchased new, but built). I am at a loss as what to do in the short run to restore the computer, and I hope I haven't lost my hard drive permanently. What can I do ASAP to resolve this?

Thanks,

Kulu

[nuray]

Well, I would start to make a boot floppy on another PC (of a friend, a neighbour or whatever). And then boot from that to see if you can repair. Hope this helps.

Greetz,

Nuray

[kpankulu]

Follow up question, please:

Would I need the Windows 98 CD-Rom at all during this process (I have gotten a boot disk, thanks a lot!)

[nuray]

Use your boot disk to reboot your computer and run a diagnostic program to see what is causing the problem, and apply a fix. Maybe try to acces the Command Prompt after reboot and at the Command Prompt, type -- scanreg /restore and then press Enter. Registry Checker will scan your Registry and then display a list with the five most recent backups, listed by date. Highlight one you want to restore and then press Enter. This could help you out if your registry got corrupted on the last close down of your PC. Normaly you don't need the Windows 98 System disk for this operation. Hope this helps.

[Charliegaz94]

I shut down my computer and the same thing happened.
i will try this

[TopFarmer]

You error is from the cmos/bios saying it can not find a hdd to boot from.

Boot with the floppy and run fdisk select option #4 ,say YES to large disk support. Does it have an A (Active) under Status for any partition?

If you get an error "No fixed disks" , you will need to reboot and get into the BIOS setup and be sure the hdd is seen. Any other errors stop and post back with error.

If you have no Active partition with fdisk select option #2 and make the correct partition active.

If you have an Active partition and no error message, exit fdisk, and from dos prompt run "fdisk mbr", reboot without floppy. If you are duel booting, have a Disk Overlay program in the MBR or have any non stardard MBR do not run command and post back. NOte: if the hdd has more the 1 primary partition it can cause other repairable problems , normally it has no problem.

[romanntiko]

Okay I'm having a similar problem on a laptop. I was able to view the hard drive on BIOS, and I typed in C: dir and I am able to see files. When I pop in the boot disk I typed scanreg and it reads bad command or file name.

[romanntiko]

Found the solution:

C:, Enter
cd Windows\options, Enter
cd cabs Enter

then type setup.exe and reinstall. Turns out the system is soooooo old that it was WIN 95 that reinstalled!