can't boot from floppy (boots straight to the zboot "wait" menu)

[unh0ly_freak]

I'm not sure exactly what the problem I have is.. but I'll try explaining everything the best I can.

Ok, I got a new older computer the other day and I used active@ killdisk to erase windows and everything else so I could go about installing linux. I know how to partition and everything, but when I used killdisk, it somehow messed up the hard drive and the computer doesn't even detect it anymore... so I took a hard drive from an older computer and hooked it up to the new one.

I got it to run ok, and everything's hooked up as it should be. (I'm not a computer expert at all, but I hooked it up just like the other one was.. and it's working, so yeah.. I'm guessing it's all hooked up right.)

The thing is.. on the older computer (the one I took the 2nd hard drive from), I had already successfully used killdisk and wiped the data, then partitioned it using zboot.. but I accidently set the partitioned space to a system that doesn't exist. (Like.. I forget exactly what I did.. but I named a system for the hard drive space to be used for, I think.)

But yeah, so that means I can boot the computer normally and it goes to the zboot menu (since zboot's unregistered, it goes to a menu with a timer where you have to wait to boot your system). From there, I can wait and boot the system that doesn't exist.. which doesn't do anything.

Soo.. what I wanna do is use zboot and erase the "system" that it's set to so I can install linux correctly. But my computer won't boot from floppy or disk ever since I put the new hard drive in. I can have the BIOS set to boot from floppy first, then disk, then the hard drive.. but it goes straight to the zboot menu and skips the floppy disc.

So if I can only figure out how to get it to boot from floppy again, then maybe I can fix it.

Sorry for the long explanation and if it doesn't make sense.. but I dunno what to do now or how to fix it. Can anyone help me out with this? Is there any way to force boot from a floppy or anything like that? Or anything else.. any ideas, even if they sound crazy, I'll try'em.

Thanks in advance.
-anthony-

[Dusty]

Have you reset the bios boot sequence to boot from the floppy first?

[Raptor]

Did you put the jumper back properly?

Is the HDD detected in the BIOS?

[unh0ly_freak]

Have you reset the bios boot sequence to boot from the floppy first?

Yeah, I checked the BIOS and it's set to boot from floppy, then disk, then the hard drive.

Did you put the jumper back properly?

Is the HDD detected in the BIOS?

What's the jumper??

And yeah, as far as I know, the HDD is detected in the BIOS.. 'cause it shows how much space is on it for the primary master, or whatever.

[patio]

The jumper is a little plastic nub on the front of the drive between the IDE and power cables...it determines the drive's pecking order.

[Raptor]

If the BIOS can see it, you should be able to reformat it using a bootable diskette or CD. I'd just use a Windows 98 boot disk, reformat it as FAT32 and then have your way with it.