disk I/O error???

[meaty]

Please help me , i am building a computer & when i try to boot from a 98 boot disk I get this:
Disk I/O error
Replace the disk and then press any key.

I have tried 3 different floppy drives & tons of different cables.
I have tried 2 diff boot disks & tried the one that comes with the maxtor HD.
I have messed with setting in bios but still nothing.
When i try with the floppy disk that came with the maxtor HD ( some partioning proggy?)
i get cannot load dos!


What is this i beg for help as this computer is being built for my boss & i am super late on delivering it.

 

[Supergax]

Never seen this before, I would check the bios settings for the floppy drive, make sure they aren't set to something stupid like a 2.88MB or 740k floppy drive, and that 3 way floppy drive support is off.

 

[meaty]

checked both & wasnt that , thx for reply

someone please!

 

[Pederv]

Just the normal floppy problem causes, visually check where pin#1 is on the floppy, don't assume which pin it is look, and that the red stripe goes to pin#1 on the motherboard and Pin#1 of the floppy. Are you using the last connector (the one after the twist) on the cable? Is the power properly connected to the floppy?

 

[miken]

possible cause in order of probability:

Hard drive lost Master boot record, pc will not boot with boot disk because it still looks at the hard disk MBR when it boots. unplug hard drive and boot with disk, if successfull then this is your problem. fdisk /mbr or zero out drive to fix.

IDE Controller failure. Boot from different controller to test.

Master/Slave on HD set incorrectly, check disk to see settings.

BIOS failure. clear cmos

Incompatible hardware or HD overlay software corrupt. try HD on different PC.