please could anyone help. I was given this old laptop it is a Phoenixbios(TM) A486 version 1.03,copyright 1985-1993,V1.00.00c,reference id ff, Toshiba MK1724FCU 100Mhz...the problem is there s this message :non-system disk or disk error replace and press any key when ready, i don't have a boot disk and i don't know how to get one for such an old model ???? i think what happened is since i can be really stupid, i thought that by formating the c drive ,i can get rid of all the stuff that was in there so i can install new programs, i screwed up , because since then that message is all it is given me every time i press a key thanks a lot guys

Just a quick note; sorry I don't have links available... If you successfully re-formatted the hard drive all of the files should be erased; that means the operating system (Windows 98, BeOS, whatever), all programs, and all documents. You'll have to get a new operating system... The type of computer is irrelevant to getting a boot disk; the boot disk is for the operating system, not the computer(for instance Windows comes with a Windows boot disk; BeOS requires a BeOS boot disk). If you should happen to have Windows on a CD but not the boot disk, you can download a boot disk image from the internet, or I think create one from the CD. This is a BeOS forum; are you trying to recover BeOS? It's the same - if you re-formatted the hard drive you'll have to re-install BeOS from scratch. There are file-recovery programs available for restoring erased files; I don't know if these would be any help or not since you don't have an operating system to run the recovery program... Hope I was in line with what you need to know...

I think you need to purchase a full(full) copy of Windows98. BeOS will not run on a 486. Hopefully you have a CD drive. If not you need to get dos and then some way to connect to a larger storage, be it CD or different computer on a lan. Any case I suggest that you contact a local person to assist you. Any such attempts based on your problem may be way out of your scope of knowledge. As Bob W suggested you may be able to recover the informantion that was on the laptop. Seek personalized service from a friend or local tech.