Rescue Disks

Hi Guys,
I'm not really sure whether this is OT or not, but I DO run 98SE.
I have a 12 gb HDD that seems to be dead, but remember someone telling me that if only the Boot Sector is damaged it may still be able to be used as a slave drive.
They mentioned something about a "Rescue Disk ".
It is a Quantum Fireball (not sure of ALL details) and was wondering if anyone had any ideas.
It actually belongs to my 68yo old mom and she is running with a Pent 266 with a 3 gb Master.
Can this be saved to become a Slave Drive?
Thanx in advance
Den

 

Hello DeeGee88
First remove the master drive, having ONLY this drive installed.

I'd try this command at the dos prompt, First boot with 98 floppy disk,

A> Fdisk /mbr
A> Fdisk /mbr
A> Fdisk /mbr
Note: You need to do the above all three times and there is a space.

A> sys C: (enter)

If that doesn't work, I don't think I'd use the drive

 

Hi LD,
I have tried that. Fdisk recognizes a Drive , but NO parameters.
I tried to use it as Prim Mast - BIOS picks it up (in 'Auto-Detect') but won't read after POST.
Unfortunately, the M/B BIOS will not accept a drive larger than 12gb or I would gladly give her my WD 40gb.
I'm sure someone told me that some drives were recoverable through S/W means.
Anyway I'll keep looking.
BTW - My mom IS 68yo and only decided to get into compures about 2 years ago - I thought I'd spend the rest of my life on the phone trying to explain that a 'megabyte' doesn't need lotion like a 'mosquito bite' does

 

If there isn't anything important on the drive, have you tried Fdisk and create a partition?

I think most of us who know anything about computers understand what you're saying. I hope she is not a long distance phone call