harddrive not being detected

[Raptor]

I suggest you set the Boot order in the BIOS to floppy first.

What is it exactly you have done in order to run into these problems?

[merlin_2]

what o/s and what pc is this >http://www.dictacomm.com/Trouble/control.htm   how is oldthis computer? and is it the same one with the audio/problems etc.......is it the win95 you were play with?

[marybeth]

first things first. the computer im having a harddrive problem is not the one with record problems. The one with hard drive problems is and old original computer. Im not even sure the make. it does say colorado on front of casing. It is sheer determination that keeps me trying on  that thing, but i am sure learning alot about what makes these computers tick. And thats a plus. (thanks to u guys). i am running win95 on it, until i encountere the black screen, while i was on black screen i was pushing buttons F1,F2,etc.. that the bios web page said to push and when i finally got screen to work(unplugged and reconnected with other monitor) it came up with this new problem on fdd. ok here goes this is exactly whats showing up now. 1st page of  bootup says:

rom bios 1990 american megatrends inc.
lasermaster corp.
invalid configuring slot 3
softwere port nmi inoperable
fail safe timer inoperable
then it says wait.  (Is this my whole bio page?)
then it goes to next screen and say:
system configuration and tells processor lm486, floppy drive 1.44 mb and so on then it says drive not ready error.please insert boot disc in A:  
but i tried putting boot disc in but in just keeps saying the same thing. ok any suggestions. back to feeling like giving up again
                                 

[marybeth]

ok hold on i think i have something here. i got to bios set up program ami bios set up and it looks like this.
standard cmos setup
advanced cmos set up
auto config with bios default
auto config with power on defaults
change password
hard disc utility
write to cmos and exit
do not write to cmos and exit

load bios setup default values for advanced cmos and advance cmos chipset set up
not sure what to do next, doess this info help? any clues? i did read all about bios but still not sure. i now realize this is probably my bio page. thank you

[Raptor]

I am not sure what you are saying, I suggest you load either the failsafe or the standard defaults in your BIOS.

[marybeth]

told you it was an oldy. im in bios setup program-advanced cmos set up now, and im trying to change floppy disc seek at boot from disabled. any clue how to on that one, as suggested previously.

[Raptor]

You are not being very clear.

What is it exactly you have done in the BIOS?

I recommend:

• Loading failsafe and/or standard defaults
  
• Setting your floppy drive as the first boot device.
  
• Check if your harddisks are set to properly
  

[marybeth]

ok im in bios now in advanced cmos setup. where it says floppy drive seek at boot: it is disabled. how do i change that to enabled? and how do i change the order of the sequence boot up from c:, A: to A:, C: as you previously suggested

[marybeth]

or what about this. Couldnt i make a boot up disc on to cd from my floppy boot disc on my good computer, then use that to boot up crappy computer?

[Raptor]

I never tried copying the contents of a boot disk onto a CD-ROM. To be honest, I barely have used any bootdisks.

If your floppy drive seek at boot is set to disabeled, you should be able to enable it by pressing enter and selecting 'enable' or whatever other option there is.

However, I am not entirely sure wheter this is the option you are looking for. You can try, you can also set it back if it doesn't work.

[merlin_2]

do has raptor has said set up defaults option hit the f6 key in the bios save and exit>http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=cache:HaCiD5k_I0wJ:www.soltek.com.tw/soltek/download_file/Manual/socket478/INTEL/85SD-CV2A/85SD-C-AMIBIOS.pdf+ami+bios+setup&hl=en

[Computer_Commando]

or what about this. Couldnt i make a boot up disc on to cd from my floppy boot disc on my good computer, then use that to boot up crappy computer?

Not necessarily.  Many of those old computers are unable to boot from CD.  Some won't even see the CD with the Win95 boot floppy and CD.  They require the original disks that came with the computer.  If it's a 486 or even a Pentium 60 or 90, it probably not worth the trouble.