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Do I need a HDD present to boot?

  • 10-03-2002 9:08am
    #1
    marauder
    Closed Accounts Posts: 285 ✭✭


    I always thought not but just in case...

    I "acquired for free" an old dell P120 with no drives,but with 80meg RAM + Memory Card + Sound +Video card. I want to use it for something so before I went and got a cheapo HDD I wanted to see if the thing would boot at all. So I hooked up just a floppy and tried it out.
    The floppy is detected but it can't seem to boot of the disk, I keep etting "Insert boot media in the appropriate drive". BIOS seems to be fine, even the sys clock is correct.
    The floppy works and the disk works so I figure either
    A the thing is shagged (likely) or
    B its not happy about no HDD.

    so should it boot? or do I have some parts to flog.....


Comments

  • #2
    sisob
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,026 ✭✭✭sisob


    the floppy could be shagged

    but make sure that the bios is set to boot from floppy
    and try a few different boot disks.


  • #3
    WhiteWashMan
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,099 ✭✭✭✭WhiteWashMan


    without going into more troubleshooting the only options are that
    a) your floppy disk is brokem
    B) your floppy disc is corrupt
    c) your floppy drive is not working properly for some reason

    apart from that it seems fine.
    can you install a cd rom drive and test it?
    or take a hard drive from another system?


  • #4
    SantaHoe
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,488 ✭✭✭SantaHoe


    Yep, there should be no problem booting a machine without a HD.
    Try another boot floppy, make 100% sure it's fully readable etc.
    Check the data cable going to your floppy drive, make sure it's the right way around... you should be able to recognise a wrongly connected FDD because the LED is always lit regardless of disc activity or lack there of.

    Other than that, the drive may have dirty heads - preventing it from reading the disk... if you're feeling adventurous, you can open the floppy drive and clean the heads with some meths and a cotton bud... or some spit on the end of your finger wrapped in a sock... wichever you're more comfortable with. :)
    I've found the latter more convenient.

    Double-check the BIOS settings, and make sure the floppy drive type is set correctly (there should be a number of options for floppy disk type/density)
    Also have a look around the BIOS settings for an option called (something like) "Onboard FDD controller (Enabled/Disabled)" make sure it's enabled, that one's caught me out in the past :)

    Having checked all that, I'd say there's something fried.


  • #5
    Harmo
    Closed Accounts Posts: 310 ✭✭Harmo


    Originally posted by WhiteWashMan
    without going into more troubleshooting the only options are that
    a) your floppy disk is brokem
    B) your floppy disc is corrupt
    c) your floppy drive is not working properly for some reason

    apart from that it seems fine.
    can you install a cd rom drive and test it?
    or take a hard drive from another system?


    Id hav to agree wit him 1 of these could be ur problem


  • #6
    po0k
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,815 ✭✭✭✭po0k


    You don't need a hard rive to boot.
    You used to have to use floppies to boot.
    it's a BIOS option and then WWM's recourse.
    There's a large possibility the disk is flucked btw, but less so for the drive, as they haven't been used half as much in the last 5 years.

    Goog luck with it btw, and remmeber, a Linux Firewall can fit on a floppy :)


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