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can't boot to install windows - fixed, thanks

D

dummy2001

Member
I am building a computer for the first time, hardware assembly seems to have gone ok but I can not install windows (98se). I am using the hard drive from my old machine still loaded with its software and OS (I had to rebuild the old machine to post this). When I use the new machine it seems to start ok: a short beep, it says memory tests ok, if I skip bios setup it looks at the hard drive and rejects it saying it has an invalid partition. I have a win98se cd in the cd drive and a win98 startup disk made on the old machine in the floppy, but it says no valid boot record when it looks at them.

I have tried changing the boot order and setting the bios to optimal settings. The only oddity I have noticed is that a startup screen showed my ram amount right but listed 0 DDR dimms, I put the dimm in the other DDR slot and it now shows up ok. I had thought that I could boot from either the cd or the startup floppy and do a reformat and clean windows setup from there, but even on the old machine the cd won't boot; the startup floppy boots but I get "bad command or file name" when I try to run setup. When I let the HD boot up on the old machine I can launch win98 setup fine. Sorry if this is long winded, its very confusing (to me).

The new machine (including parts from old machine):
K7S5A motherboard
Tbird 950mhz
Enhance 300w PSU AMD approved up to 1.2ghz
128mb Kingston DDR 2100 ram
Seagate 8gb HD
Plextor 8/4/32 cdr-w
samsung cd
Diamond Stealth savage4 32mb pci video card
 
Well I had the floppy cable upside down (duh), now it says "boot record..ok" for the floppy with startup disk in it, but it just flashes a cursor for a while then gives up and tries the other drives. It may be a motherboard issue, I don't want to reopen any debates on the K7S5A but I know I'm not the only one with this problem. I was hoping someone here would have some general technical insight into what might be going on. I'm pretty sure I have to boot from the floppy to do a clean install from dos onto the old HD, so unless I fix it I'm screwed.
 
Make another boot floppy, it sounds like the one you're using might be corrupted. Make sure you have the CDROM drivers on it.

Boot to the floppy. Run fdisk to delete your partition(s). Create a primary dos partition. Reboot to the floppy. Run "format C: /s" from the a: prompt without the quotes. Put the Win98 CD (by the way, it isn't bootable) in the CD drive. Change to the CD drive by typing "D:" without the quotes. Run "CD Win9x" and then run "Setup".

Good Luck.
 
Happy Puppy has it right on, you need to make a boot floppy with cd support so you can use your 98 cd. I think the drive letter will actually be "E:" though, I might be wrong. I think the bood disk makes a temporary drive after the last logical drive letter on the hard drive (the C: if that's all you created) and the CD drive letter follows that. Hmmm, I think thats how it works, its been a while. Just type "dir" without the quotes on the D: and E: drive and you will find out which is which. Then do what Happy Puppy said and run the setup from your CD.

Am I right or wrong about the drive letter designations? I think I have it right, but who knows, sorry if I am wrong...
 
Thanks everyone, especially Happy Puppy, you were concise, precise, and notably nice to take the time to help me out, er, ice. The cd was E:\, the startup virtual drive took D:\. And the floppy wasn't corrupted, it worked fine on the HP I made it on, just not anywhere else (tried it on a friends computer too). I made a new startup floppy from at my friends and it worked fine, I'm writing this from my new machine. Anandtech forums (the people on them actually) are the best. I will post this solution to the forums at OCworkbench, they have a whole K7S5A forum that is flooded with people with problems like mine but nobody like you guys to set them straight. 🙂
 
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