stuck in DOS

[hancock85]

PLEASE someone help me. I am stuck in DOS and it isn't recognizing my disk drive or loading it first. What do I do?

[Dias de verano]

More information please. What does "stuck in DOS" mean? Are you trying to run Windows? What version? Did it work before?

[hancock85]

ok, i am trying to reformat my father's computer he wants me to take out all the crap he has had stored up in it and he wants me to upgrade it to windows 2000. (he has 98 in it now). I started the program in dos did a format c: s/ and now can't get out of dos

[Dias de verano]

can't get out of dos

Well, of course you can't. You just wiped the disk of everything (format) and then made it a DOS bootable disk (/s).

Next, you need to enter the BIOS and set the machine to boot off the CD drive, place the Windows 2000 installer disk in the CD drive, and restart the computer.

[hancock85]

well crap! i have to go to work in 5 min. How do i get to the bios screen

[hancock85]

sorry for double posting. I thought this was fixed

[Dias de verano]

How do i get to the bios screen

usually you press a key as the machine starts up, often it is the Delete key. Without knowing what kind of machine you have, I can't say what key it is. Sometimes you see a message such as "Press <key> to enter setup" at the bottom of the bootup screen.

[hancock85]

ok i'm on a gateway. I did all that and said to boot from cd rom first but it  is still going straight to dos. what do I do now

[Dias de verano]

If the disk a genuine Windows 2000 install disk in good condition and you have properly set boot from CD in the BIOS, then something is wrong with the computer. Are you watching the screen closely, there may be a message saying press a key now to boot from cd

[hancock85]

usually it does but since I messed it up its not saying anything

[Dias de verano]

There will only be such a message if the actual disk is set up that way. Some disks don't give you the choice, they just boot straight up. Windows install disks do usually give you a message and wait about 30 seconds.

What do you mean "messed it up"?

[hancock85]

"messed up" like I said with the 1st explaination I gave you. I have waited and it stays in dos with the C:\ > that's all it shows.

[Dias de verano]

Well, what the computer is doing is perfectly normal. Like i said before, you have formatted (blanked) the hard drive and installed DOS system files. What did you expect to happen if you waited?

have you actually set the boot disk to CD in the BIOS?

[hancock85]

i didn't wait to do anything. Now i just want to know how to put the microsoft 2000 in the computer. I put the disc in told it to boot the disc first in the bios section and it still does nothing but goes straight to dos when turned on.

[Dias de verano]

In that case the Windows 2000 disk must be bad.