Slave & Master Drives

I have a 12GB primary (master) EIDE HD and a secondary (slave) 2.4 GB HD on a PIII 500. The Primary disk holds the operating system (Win98SE) and other programs and data. For what ever reason, the system will not boot from this disk any longer. I would like to set the 12GB disk as the slave and the 2.4GB disk as master, reinstall Windows to the 2.4GB disk, recover any data from the 12GB disk then reformat the 12 GB and use it as the "D" drive. Anyone see any flaws in this thinking...?

 

Bigger deal than it seems.

May be easier to fix the drive to boot!

Tell me what happend to cause it not to boot.

And what happens if you try to boot?

If it replies no boot record or non system disk do the below.

boot from the win98 floppy

at the a: prompt type

sys c:

when finished reboot try to boot from c:

let me know results.

mike

 

OK Mike, Here it goes...

System starts up, goes through BIOS check. Initially I had some dropped BIOS info till I replaced the battery. That's OK now. Also updated the BIOS to a more current version on recommendation from mfg. (Dell). After BIOS check, Win98 starts. I get my wall paper to show and just as the icons are about to appear I get the following blue screen Fatal Exception error:

Fatal Exception 0E has occurred at 0028:C1837F58 in VXD Flashvsd (02) + 00000038. Program will be terminated. Press any key to continue.

Flashvsd? Flash BIOS problem? Thanks for any input Mike.

Rick

 

Then you do not have a HD problem, you have a windows problem!

Try this!

While booting hit F8 repeately to get the boot menu then chose safe mode. If we can get to safe mode we may be able to fix this!

I am headed to shower will check bac in 10 minutes.

mike

 

I'm at work now and won't be home till about 5 central time. I'll try the F8 key option and let you know how things go

 

10-4!

Should be here!

Will look for a reply!

mike

 

Fatal Exception 0E has occurred at 0028:C1837F58 in VXD Flashvsd (02) + 00000038.

Questions only.

Dosn't this indicate either an incomplete or otherwise improper flash of the BIOS ?

And if it is related to the BIOS Flash should it even be in Windows ? Isn't Flashing supposed to done from just a plain DOS Boot disk with nothing but the three system files on it ?

Not a Windows created startup disk. In other words a floppy with just the SYS command done on it.

And even if the Flash did go properly it may require a re-install of Windows to make it work properly.

Also if the no boot problem existed before the Flash, Flashing the BIOS may have been a not so good an idea.

I agree with Mike to a point. If Windows gets that far into the startup it is more a Windows problem ( bad driver or an IRQ conflict ) than BIOS.

Just changing the battery * MAY HAVE * created just enough changes to mess up Windows.

Do you have the BIOS set to NO for P-N-P OS ? Sometimes that can make a difference.

BillyBob

 

Minor boot problem prior to changing battery. I kept getting a BIOS error of a mismatched drive a type. I would enter the system configuration (<DEl> on my system) and reset the drive to 1.44MB 3.5. Start up would be sucessful and machine ran OK. On subsequent startups, both cold and warm, I would get the same BIOS error.

P-N-P is set to NO. I printed out all BIOS settings before changing battery so as to replace them accuratly.

Exactly what 3 files should be on a DOS boot disk?

Thanks
Rick

 

A clean un-adulterated boot disk contains just three file.

Command.com.
IO.sys
MSDOS.sys.

I will check on that and come back.

The Windows startup disk also contains these file along with umteen others that should not be when Flashing the BIOS.

The Windows startup disk also puts stuff into RAM that may interfere with the Flash.

And I believe the instructions for Flashing the BIOS state very clearly about using a straight DOS boot disk with nothing but the three files.

This is assuming that I read correctly when I was THINKING ONLY about flashing my BIOS.

No actual problems so I no fix. ( unusal for me ) But once in awhile I listen to what my common sense tells me.

BillyBob

 

OK Billy...help me get the whole "flashing the BIOS" straight. Doesn't this occur each time you start up the system or is it a procedure to follow when encountering trouble. Sorry to all who are reading this...getting a bit away from "Hardware" than I thought it would. Thanks again for your input Billy

Rick

 

I just did an SYS command to the A: drive.

I see the three mentioned files are there and Drivespace is there also. But I did it from Win98.

When it boots is says starting Win98 but it really is not. It does not even know Windows exists.

BillyBob

 

I do not think this is supposed to occur everytime you start Windows.

I believe it should be a done all from DOS and a one shot deal.

It is possible that the BIOS may make changes when you boot but that is not the same as flashing it.

And it is not ( in my opinion ) a procedure to follow when encountering trouble. Unless it is a known to be BIOS problem.

That is a problem that some OEM Techs have. It seems that when they can't find or think of an answer it is either Flash the BIOS or Re-format and start over.

BillyBob

 

No a BIOS flash does not and cannot happen during BOOT.

It is a very specfic proceedure that requires very specfic conditions and a very specfic file to burn witha very specific program.

Try without any of these specifics and either it will not work, or you have dead BIOS PROM therefore a dead computer.

The flash??? that you are seeing is a Macromedia Flash VXD.

BTW: BillyBob the drivespace.bin is a carry over from the old doublespace/drivespace disk compression schemes win31 and dos used to use. It can be deleted to make that much more space on a floppy!

Trag! THERE IS NO INDICATION THAT YOPU HAVE A HD OR BIOS PROBLEM AT THIS TIME.

When you get home it should come up in safe mode. If it does you should go to Add/remove and remove anything to do with Macromedia Flash.

If you cannot find an Add/Remove enrty then check c:\program files\ for a Macromedia folder and look for an uninstall.exe or unwise.exe.

If you still cannot find a program to remove then do a search for Flash???.* and rename all to the same name but ad an "X" to the end so that flashvsd.vxd is now named flashvsd.vxdx.

Now try to reboot to full mode, you will probably get errors about missing files.

Then we will handle that!

Mike

PS out for erands now back in couple hours

 

I do tend to agree now that Mike straightened me out on the Flash error message.

Thanks for the info on the Flash message and about Drivespace.bin

BillyBob

 

Thanks so much for the info Mike. I can't wait to get out of work and get home to see if I can get this machine back up and running. I'll post later (hopefully from home) and let you know how things turned out. Thanks again

Rick

 

OK...I think I'm making progress.
Logged in under Safe Mode.
Uninstalled from Program Files/Macromedia.
Did search for Flashvsd.vxd.
Found it in Windows/System/IOSUBSYS.
Changed the name to Flashvsd.vxdx...Restarted.
Same error message. Safe mode again only this
time moved Flashvsd.vxdx to the D drive...restarted...
SUCCESS!!!.

Seems the flashvsd file was part of "Shockmachine ", an online gaming thing my son had installed. My question...was the file just corrupt ...should I stay away from Macromedia altogether...What about the Flash Plugin for NS or IE?

Seems like the more I figure out the more questons I have...

Does it ever end???

Thanks again Mike

Rick

 

Hi Rick

No reason to stay away from Macromedia it just got scrambled. You should go ahead and delete the file and uninstall the game that put it in.

Then cleanup and reinstall the game!

Ok you got it from here?.......................?

Mike

 

Thanks again Mike. I think I learned something today. You can bet that if I have any more problems with my machine, I'll be back to you fine folks here. Thanks!!!


Rick

 

thanks for the thanks.

mike