naked PC

Blitzkrieger

I finally got around to formatting me old 'puter to sell it but when I tried re-installing windows it won't boot

anybody seen this before?

type the name of the command interpreter (e.g., C:\windows\command.com)

SantaHoe

Yeah, sounds almost too bloody familiar

Boot off the Win98 CD or a bootable floppy and see if you can access the drive at all, if you can get to a C:> prompt, you should be in business... In which case you can switch back to your boot disk (A:, , or whatever) and enter:
sys c:
After that's done you should be able to boot from the harddrive.
But I reckon the Windows installer should have taken care of that already... but you know windows ffs.

If on the other hand, you can't access the drive from a command prompt, try another fdisk, format and re-install.
(Forgive me if I've patronized you at all )

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Fidelis

That's happened me the two times I've formatted this beast.
Big large pain in the bum is my only contribution

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Nil Desperandum

Blitzkrieger

I've already reformated a couple of times

thx anyway

azezil

if the comp is not readin from ur boot disk (floopy r what ever) check that the bios is set to check the a: or d: (cd) first.

set it too which ever ur usin...

the comp should then try run setup from the disk.

Blitzkrieger

I'm probably being tripped up by something simple but not that simple

SantaHoe

Well what happened?
Could you get access to a C:> prompt?
Can the drive be 'seen' in the BIOS?

Keeks

What did you do directly after formating the disk.

ie from what disk did you boot from.

Blitzkrieger

I formatted then booted from a floppy and installed win98 from the CD. I tried to reboot from C: but I kept getting the message above.

I can access the C: prompt and look around the disk but can't run windows


I wonder how many people clicked on this topic purely cos of the "naked" in the title

Hobbes

Boot up with your DOS disk, go to your C: drive and type

A:\fdisk /MBR

This puts a master boot record on your hard disk and should allow it to boot. This is independant of running SYS C: .

Blitzkrieger

That seems to have done the trick - thanks Hobbes.

For some reason our course hasn't covered what a master boot record is (probably a partition?) but I can't believe it wasn't created.

_CreeD_

It was created, it was just corrupt. That command overwrites the active MR with a hiddnen copy.