Tom's Guide | Tom's Hardware | Tom's Games
 |
 |
 |
I am about nuts here. I have a computer that I replaced the CD drive in since the door wouldnt open. I believe the motor was burned out on it. Then when the machine booted back again it had TONS of bad sectors, which had been happening for some time, however this time there were a lot more that I could not get out of. So I decided a brand new hard drive would solve the problem. I installed a 40 gig hd without problem, but then the BIOS would not detect the HD or the CD. I did get that fixed by checking the cables etc. Now I want to reload windows and the computer is not detecting a floppy drive apparently. Or at least I do not see it in the BIOS. I have checked the cabling to make sure it is secure. The message "Invalid system disk" keeps coming up after the POST even tho I have no disks in. ANy help is appreciated before one of us goes off the bridge! :o)
I should add that there are no disks in any drive and I have already tried to switch around the combination of booting sources...i.e floppy, CD etc.
0 
1st thing you should do is double check all your cable connections to make sure nothing was knocked loose when you installed the new HDD. It would help to know what motherboard you have, but try this:
1. Make sure the jumpers on your HDD & CD drive are set properly. If they share the same IDE ribbon cable, the HDD should be set to Master & the CD set to Slave. If they are on separate cables with no other devices, both should be set to Master. Also, make sure the ribbon cables are flipped the right way.
2. In the BIOS, under Standard CMOS Setup, set the Primary Master/Slave & Secondary Master/Slave to AUTO. Set the Mode to AUTO as well. And double check that Drive A: says 1.44M, 3.5 in.
3. In the BIOS, go to IDE HDD Autodetect & detect your IDE devices.
4. Make sure your first boot device is either set to A (or floppy).
5. Save your settings & exit.
Hopefully when you reboot, all will be well. Are you going to partition the HDD? Now would be the time to run FDISK (from the bootdisk) & divide up the hard drive however you like.
Good luck!
0
Wow! Thanks for your help. I do know this much which I can share before I head home to check all the things that you suggested. The hard drive in on one cable alone in the first slot. The CD drive is on the second, along with an external zip drive. I set the jumpers on the hard drive to master. The CD drive is set to master, and the zip on that drive is set to slave (altho in BIOS the zip is not listed. BIOS does detect the HD as primary master and the CD as secondary master, so does that not mean that at least I have those cable correct?
0
ANd a PS to your motherboard question. It is an intel 440Lx board. And a really stupid question. I do have all of the cables with the red stripe to pin 1 on the board, and I have played off and on with the cable to the floppy to make sure I had the connection AT the floppy drive to what I thought was pin 1. Also..the twisted end in the floppy drive cable---does it HAVE to be at one end or the other? Just thought I would ask. Thanks JAM. I am headed home to test out your suggestions.
0
Yes, Peggy, it does mater which end the twisted part of the cable is on. It should be the end on the floppy drive's connector. The twist, I believe, denotes drive A.
0
Well..I HAVE made some progress here. The BIOS shows a floppy, a HD and a CD. NOW it says "Looking for boot record from floppy--OK" but will go no farther. It just hangs there. Next step? This is the first time I have ever used one of these forums. What lifesavers you are! Tell me what to do to get it to boot to install windows and I think I am home free!
0
MORE PROGRESS!!! I made a new boot disk that actually does boot! BUT now when it says A:/ and I type D or even E, it says bad command. How can I assign letters to the CD drive or is that something I need to set up somewhere?
0
Good for you! I believe you can just go from the A:\ prompt to R:\ & then start the Windows setup. Bootup with your boot floppy in place & the Windows disk in the CD drive...when you get to the A:\ prompt, do this:
A:\
A:\R:\ [ENTER]
R:\
R:\setup [ENTER]
Windows setup should begin...Actually, Windows setup may start automatically with the floppy & disk in place when you bootup.
OR...you can try changing your first boot device in the BIOS to the CD-ROM drive & boot directly off the Windows disk.
Good luck!
0
YAY!!! I got it all up and runing. All I have to figure out now is the graphics drivers, since right now I can only choose between 2 and 16 color. Installing the software for the card did not help, so Intel must have a chip on the board that I havent found yet. Since it is an intel 440, it may be hard to find since intel does not provide technical support for that board anymore. I tried the drivers from the intel site and they installed the USB etc, but not the graphics. This is a minor problem compared to what I have been thru. THANK YOU!!!!!!!!
0
Glad to hear you got it up & running.
What videocard do you have? Or is it onboard graphics? Did you try the manufacturers website for the latest drivers?
0
well, I have an ATI Voodoo 3 video card, but installing the drivers for that did not help. I do believe if my memory serves me correctly that there was a card in it before which I replaced with the Voodoo one, but cannot be for certain. There is not a spot for the monitor to plug in ohterwise, as there is with onboard cards that I have seen, so I assume that when I put the voodoo one in, that there had to be an old one to come out. I do know that the Voodoo folks filed for bankruptcy or something a few years ago, so maybe that is some of the problem. Any suggestions as to how to get my graphics back to above 16 colors? maybe I am just missing something simple. Altho for an ex-ICU for 22 years I think i do pretty well in the computer area, considering no formal training except disasters like this one..LOL. Let me know and how can I ever thank you??
0
LOL...you've already thanked me!
As for your card, it's a 3dfx VooDoo3...not ATI. I'm still running a Voodoo3 2000 in my backup machine...it's a great card, even in these days.
Here's where you can get the original 3dfx VooDoo drivers:
http://www.voodoofiles.com/type.asp?cat_id=0&Orders=DESC&Sort=Date&listall=Y&Hide=
Here's where you can get 3rd party drivers:
http://www.voodoofiles.com/type.asp?cat_id=1
0  |
 ATX 12v and 20 pin?
|
new HD shutdown 
|
This post is quite old and has been locked from receiving new replies. Please create a new posting instead.
| Ads by Google |
