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Author Topic: Having One Heck Of a time with a boot disk  (Read 6541 times)

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SnowbirdSJ

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Having One Heck Of a time with a boot disk
« on: October 11, 2006, 10:42:56 AM »
Here are the steps I took and then will explain what I'm getting now.

I was wiping out a hard drive due to it being virus ridden and re-install Windows 98 on the system and used a Win98 Boot Disk to do an FDisk.
That went fine. Rebooted system. Took forever to get back to a Command Prompt. Tried to do FDisk again to make sure that I did it properly but ever since all I get is this error "Incorrect MS-DOS version" I have tried other boot disks and keep getting the same error.  [smiley=thumbdown.gif]

I'm at my wits end  :'( trying to figure out why or how to fix this problem. Currently the system will not read the CD-ROM. If I set the BIOS to read the CD-ROM 1st it goes directly and says "No Operating System Installed".

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated to fix this problem.
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2k_dummy



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    Re: Having One Heck Of a time with a boot disk
    « Reply #1 on: October 11, 2006, 11:17:15 AM »
    Quote
    I was wiping out a hard drive due to it being virus ridden
    Your boot disk probably got infected.
    Go to bootdisk.com and download a new w98 bootdisk. Write protect the disk before inserting into the screwed machine. Rerun fdisk, then run format/s. If you booted with cdrom support, insert the cd and continue with the installation.
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    SnowbirdSJ

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    Re: Having One Heck Of a time with a boot disk
    « Reply #2 on: October 11, 2006, 11:36:02 AM »
    That's the problem.. I've tried several different Win98 Start up disks to do the fdisk and it won't let me and with the WIN98 boot disk that I got from bootdisk.com it says this program cannot be run in DOS mode.
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    2k_dummy



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      Re: Having One Heck Of a time with a boot disk
      « Reply #3 on: October 11, 2006, 12:13:51 PM »
      It sounds like the machine is still trying to boot into windows. Have you set the boot order in bios?
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      SnowbirdSJ

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      Re: Having One Heck Of a time with a boot disk
      « Reply #4 on: October 11, 2006, 12:20:09 PM »
      Yes. I have the boot order as

      1. floppy
      2. cd rom
      3. hard drive
      4. network

      but it's not currently nor will it be connected to a network
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      2k_dummy



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        Re: Having One Heck Of a time with a boot disk
        « Reply #5 on: October 11, 2006, 12:25:58 PM »
        Are you sure the floppy drive is working properly? Have you tried booting directly from the cd?
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        SnowbirdSJ

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        Re: Having One Heck Of a time with a boot disk
        « Reply #6 on: October 11, 2006, 12:29:09 PM »
        It's not recognizing the CD-ROM yet and I've replaced the floppy drive. I can see what is on the floppy disks with no problem but it won't do anything...Everytime I try to FDisk it says "Incorrect MS-DOS version".
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        2k_dummy



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          Re: Having One Heck Of a time with a boot disk
          « Reply #7 on: October 11, 2006, 12:37:01 PM »
          At the A:> prompt, type sys c:<enter>. This should copy the system files from the floppy to the HD. If successful, they should now both have the same DOS version. Try fdisk again. Be sure to set an active DOS partition.
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          SnowbirdSJ

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          Re: Having One Heck Of a time with a boot disk
          « Reply #8 on: October 11, 2006, 12:50:38 PM »
          I tried that just now with the Win98 Boot Disk and I get "Bad command or file name". I tried it with the start up disk and got the same thing.  :'(
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          QBasicMac

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          Re: Having One Heck Of a time with a boot disk
          « Reply #9 on: October 11, 2006, 01:03:13 PM »
          Dang!

          Anyway, you problem know this but "Incorrect MS-DOS version" means the fdisk you are trying to run is not the same as is supposed to be run given the version of DOS you are on.

          If you boot from floppy and fdisk does not work, your floppy has the wrong version of fdisk. You have to get a boot floppy from a better source.

          If you boot from floppy and it works fine and you do whatever and then remove the floppy and boot Windows, you will not be able to use fdisk from your floppy. Windows DOS is not the same as floppy DOS. If your Windows DOS does not have the command fdisk, you are out of luck. Maybe it has been renamed or some other program does that function. In general, I doubt Windows DOS will allow an fdisk type operation. You need to get out of DOS and use Windows utilities.

          Mac
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          2k_dummy



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            Re: Having One Heck Of a time with a boot disk
            « Reply #10 on: October 11, 2006, 01:13:15 PM »
            When you booted it should have loaded a ram disk and shown the letter for it. See if sys.com is loaded to the ram disk. If so, run the command from there instead of a:>.
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            SnowbirdSJ

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            Re: Having One Heck Of a time with a boot disk
            « Reply #11 on: October 11, 2006, 01:15:45 PM »
            I Thank everyone for all of your help. I have no windows operating system on it now. It allowed me to do fdisk once and then from then on nothing. not able to do anything but read the floppy disks and not all the programs will work in dos either and I'm totally unable to copy them to the hard drive to do it from there either as well as no cd rom support. I don't know what more to do, I'm totally at a loss of trying to figure this out.  I've used a Win95 Start UP Disk and a Win98 Start Up Disk and neither one of them work and I've even gotten several versions of them from different locations as well and I'm still befuddled.

            Anyway thank you all for your help. I'll try to figure something out.
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            patio

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            Re: Having One Heck Of a time with a boot disk
            « Reply #12 on: October 11, 2006, 07:11:58 PM »
            If the FDisk went properly you now have to format it before Win will recognise it.
            Re-boot to the floppy and type format C: /u and hit Enter.
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            GX1_Man

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            Re: Having One Heck Of a time with a boot disk
            « Reply #13 on: October 11, 2006, 08:19:39 PM »
            Quote
            I Thank everyone for all of your help. I have no windows operating system on it now. It allowed me to do fdisk once and then from then on nothing. not able to do anything but read the floppy disks and not all the programs will work in dos either and I'm totally unable to copy them to the hard drive to do it from there either as well as no cd rom support. I don't know what more to do, I'm totally at a loss of trying to figure this out.  I've used a Win95 Start UP Disk and a Win98 Start Up Disk and neither one of them work and I've [highlight]even gotten several versions of them from different locations as well[/highlight] and I'm still befuddled.

            I suspect we have made this a LOT more difficult than it needs to be.

            1) Boot with the boot disk. Use FDISK to remove all of the partition(s), then remake partiition(s). To simplify things just have one primary partition. When asked about large drive support choose yes.

            2) Reboot and type in fdisk/mbr from the A:> prompt and press enter.

            3) Then type in format c:/u/s and press enter.

            If you are doing ANYTHING else, you are doing it wrong. If you have no hardware problems, this fixes it. Period.  ;)

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            SnowbirdSJ

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            Re: Having One Heck Of a time with a boot disk
            « Reply #14 on: October 12, 2006, 06:38:59 AM »
            I would love to FDisk the system again but you see that is the problem, it is not allowing me to FDisk. It's not allowing me to boot from a boot disk. I've already removed the original operating system and now I'm unable to do anything. This normally isn't that difficult for me to do but for some reason this is not allowing me to do anything. I can't fdisk, I can't format, i can't copy absolutely nothing... I have trouble getting to the A:\ prompt but I can get there. The floppy drive is brand new and works fine. I'm able to see all of the information on each and every disk. It isn't recongnizing the C:\ drive. I can get to a C:\ prompt on it but if I do a dir to see what is on it... it says disk error.
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