trying to salvage HDD

I have a unique (I think) problem. Bought a used computer with hard disk failure message. Took it to a technician and asked him to put in new hard drive. Instead he tried to salvage the old drive. I asked him to put in Win 95 as I had a legit copy of it. However he started to put in Win98 2nd Ed and before he put in the ID number it "crashed "--he called up, said it didn't work, needed a new motherboard.

I took it home and opened it up and the motherboard was loose. I put the motherboard back in, it opened to the "Put in Microsoft ID# " page, which I don't have for Windows 98, just 95. I cannot get through to DOS nor can I seem to boot with a floppy or bypass the Windows screen in any way. The tech refuses to have anything more to do with the machine...Is there anything I can do short of buying and installing a new hard drive, especially since it appears nothing is really wrong with this one?
Thank you for your help

 

Check the CMOS setting to ensure the floppy drive is set as the first boot device.

Boot from a Win98 boot disk and format the hard drive. Reboot and install your version of Windows.

 

Yes thank you I did try that--the tech suggested that the floppy controller might be gone. Should I try to get a new one and then try it again? I want to do just what you are telling me.

 

If the floppy controller is dead, it may be kinda hard to replace it. Most floppy controllers are built onto the motherboard, which (of course) means you can't just pull it out and replace it.

You might be able to get an add-on card that has a floppy drive controller on it. If the card has more than just the floppy contoller on it - i.e. hard drive controller, serial ports etc. - make sure you can and do disable the other components on the card, you just want the floppy controller to work. These cards are pretty rare now-a-days, might find one at one of your local repair shops. Once you've installed the new card and attached the floppy cable, go into the CMOS setup and disable the onboard floppy controller. Make sure to attach the floppy cable in the correct orientation - stripe on cable to pin 1 on both the controller and floppy drive.

It may not be the controller - it may be the floppy drive and/or floppy data cable. Might try swapping those out before looking for a new controller, they're a lot easier to find and not too expensive.

Did the tech tell you how Windows crashed (error messages etc.)? And what lead him to believe the motherboard needed to be replaced?

 

Hello,
Thank you for your response. Regarding the tech--no he had no messages for me...they were unpleasant because they had promised the computer a lot earlier and kept telling stories...

He said it crashed completely--was no good--dump the motherboard. But the motherboard was almost out of the groove and not snapped in. When snapping in, it seemed to work fine. No HDD failure message anymore. He said he thought it was the floppy controller, he didn't say why. But then he also said the motherboard needed replacing...

I will try perhaps putting in a new floppy and cord. I plugged in with the "shorter" on the same cable as the other one. I get a blinking cursor and that is it. Should any version of Win 98 boot disk work to boot it if it will boot from A:?

 

Hi--
a new wrinkle of sorts:
We forced the computer to boot to A: by disabling C: boot and it gave us the message :Operating System not Found. I know it is a good boot disk because I tried it on another machine.
???
Juanita

 

Not sure what you mean by this??? What's a "shorter" and what is "the other one "??

The way the floppy drive should be connected is with the stripe on the cable going to pin 1 on the controller and pin 1 on the floppy drive. Pin 1 is usually marked on both the drive and controller. The data cable (the flat gray cable) will have few wires crossed over - the cable is split and twisted - with a connector on the end after the twist. The floppy drive that is being used as the A: drive has to be attached to the connector after the twist.

Also, check the CMOS settings to make sure they're set for the correct floppy drive size/type - most likely 1.44MB 3.5 ".

 

Hi

Yes, I mean there were two connectors on the floppy cable that looked exactly the same. One was closer on the cable than the other one which was on the end. I was careful about putting it in the right way. When I put it in that way I was able to get a message from my bootable floppy that said "No operating system found." I am quite sure that it is good as it booted another machine and also I checked and found command.com & msdos.sys etc. on it--checked in the other machine.

Yes I checked the floppy in the bios and it is correct. I did get a thought (with the help of this board) that I could make a bootdisk on a CD rom as it boots with CD and bypass the floppy for now. Should I use Win 98 SE as the boot disk as the tech was trying to put on the full version?

 

If you attached the floppy drive to the connector nearest the middle of the cable, that's most likely the wrong connector. Try using the other connector on the cable, it couldn't hurt and just might work

Your system may boot from the CD-ROM drive. Make sure the boot sequence is set to boot from the CD-ROM drive first and try to boot from the Win98 CD disk.

I'd really try to get the floppy drive working, you're going to need it sooner or later (probably sooner).

 

Thank you --I shouldn't have posted twice I guess
Still I did get a ton of great ideas. Thanks to all of you and I will let you know how things go.

 

Cliff is right. The boot floppy can be connected at the end of the cable only. This connector has a few twisted wires on it. This designates it as drive A. The other connector is drive B. You cannot boot from a driver connected to the center connector.

 

Hi
I just downloaded the Win98SE bootdisk--put it on CD-Rom and tried to boot from CD...I enabled CD boot. Same story. When I boot from <<either>> floppy <<or>> CD , I get the message:" Operating System not Found." When I boot from the hard drive, I get the Windows screen, Enter Name and Company, then, enter Key # . I have no Key so I have to terminate.




Thanks for the information about the middle connector. I begin to think there may be nothing wrong with the floppy either. Because otherwise why would I get Operating System Not Found for both floppy and CD??

Thanks again for everyone's help.

 

I'm about out of ideas on this. Can you borrow a boot disk from someone else? Test it on their system first, to make sure it does work.

 

Hope I'm not intruding, but the thought just hit me.
Have you tried reloading your setup default settings???
In bios setup.
Since it's been worked on by someone else they might have changed something!!!

 

Cliff--
I used a working floppy boot disk--also I copied the bootdisk onto a CD rom and neither will recognize an operating system--so clearly there is nothing wrong with the CD or the floppy. It must have something to do with where they stopped putting in the Windows 98SE--just before the key--probably did not copy much in the way of files onto the hard drive...???I am still confused. Thanks for your help...

Roger. I will try what you say. Can't hurt, surely. Ever intruding. All help and ideas always appreciated by all. Stay Happy and Thank you

 

Not being able to boot from the floppy drive doesn't have anything to do with what is installed or not installed on the hard drive. You should be able to boot from the floppy drive not matter what - if there is no hard drive installed in the system, if the hard drive doesn't have an operating system installed, if the hard drive has a partitally installed OS, if the hard drive has a corrupted OS, if the hard drive has a fully operational OS - it doesn't matter, you should be able to boot from the floppy drive.

Copying the boot disk to a CD disk isn't likely to work. Instead, if your CD burning software has the ability to create a bootable disk, use that option. To boot from a CD disk, make sure the CMOS recognizes the CD-ROM drive - set the controller in the CMOS to either Auto or CD-ROM. And make sure the CD-ROM drive is set as the first boot device.

 

Have you tried using another floppy drive?

 

You want to maintain proper compliance with License and install the Win95 you own, but the Windows 98SE version that your tech installed has got you stopped and you can't get past that or boot from floppy or CD. You aren't really sure if you have a bad hard drive, a bad motherboard or what.

Option 1 -
Fix the dang floppy (note, new computers don't use the twisted cables to set drive select, they use a 'pull-up' technique which allows the drive to self-select on an untwisted cable). Try another floppy disk drive.

Option 2 -
This is the desperate "don't do this" thing you might consider trying - - Surf the web to find a Win98 CD KeyCode (they are out there) and enter this code to get past the Win98 prompt to complete the Win98 install. You'll need a CD copy of W98 to continue. Then, use the snot out of your computer for a week or two to verify that the mb and hd are even worth all the hassle. If things prove good, then fix the floppy boot issue and boot to a Dos prompt from your repaird floppy drive and fdisk/format the hard drive (clearing the illegal copy of W98 partially installed). Reinstall W95 and your back legal.

 

Have you tried moving the HD to another PC, format it, start the installation of Win95 and then move the HD back and finish the installation?

I've done this once on an old PC that wouldn't let me install because of the hardware and it worked. Afterwards I had to delete some components inside System and thereby force the OS to install the correct drivers

 

The last time I had the error message " Operating system not found" was when I had improperly configured the jumper setting on the HDD. Check this out and also select "Auto" and "LBA" in your BIOS. That helped me before.
Good luck.