Disk boot problems

[mizoram]

Hi,

I want to repaired used computer, win98 OS. But while I boot up, it always display 'DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER'. Please help.

[SS]

Sounds like you've got a knackered hard drive to me.

 

3 things to check:

 

- Check the BIOS and see what device its trying to boot from. The above message can be as simple as the PC trying to boot from a floppy/CD with a non-bootable disk in the drive. You want the option called "Boot Priority" or similar.

 

- If its trying to boot from the hard-drive, check the BIOS to see if its recognising the drive. Somewhere in there is usually a screen which displays the IDE devices. It should list your hard-drive (probably) as primary master, and then (probably) your CD drive(s) as secondary master & slave.

 

- If the BIOS can see the drive (meaning it isn't totally dead) then you could do worse than download (or get a friend to download) the Ultimate Boot CD - http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/. It is a self-booting CD which contains lots of diagnostic tools. Choose one for hard-drives, run a test and see what results you get.

 

Report back and we'll see what we can do.

[AdvancedSetup]

You could also go here and get a bootable floppy image and try using

 

FDISK /MBR

 

Then reboot and see what you get. It could be that just the Master Boot Record is messed up, but if so then probably due to age or other issue.

 

 

http://www.bootdisk.com/