Computer Problems? Computing.Net has over 1,000,000 posts about all things technology related! Over 90% answered within 24 hours! Click here to start participating now! Also, be sure to check out the New User Guide.
formatting crisis!
Name: jcafaro10 Date: June 7, 2006 at 15:15:13 Pacific OS: xp CPU/Ram: 2/2 Product: dell
Comment:
I tried to format a virus infested PC using my XP cd but i couldn't get it to boot to the cd (or any other xp cd i could find). The cd rom drive opens and closes and spins but does not recognize the cd. I formatted with a floppy disk but now that I need to install an OS on it, i need a cd-rom drive and it still won't recognize anything and i jus tget invalid system disk, replace, error messages....help
Name: StuartS Date: June 7, 2006 at 15:23:38 Pacific
Reply:
Did you set the CD-ROM as the first boot device in the BIOS?
Stuart
0
Response Number 2
Name: street1 Date: June 7, 2006 at 15:31:18 Pacific
Reply:
Even a win98 boot disk should do the job.You appear to have a problem with your optical drive or your BIOS.
Have you went to bootdisk.com and downloaded the file that makes a bootable floppy disk?Download the win98 SE OEM file. also use another floppy disk you never know.
http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm
0
Response Number 3
Name: don2006 Date: June 7, 2006 at 15:47:01 Pacific
Reply:
I just ran into the same problem. No matter how I set the boot sequence in the BIOS, it wouldn't boot from a floppy nor a CD. I finally had to disconnect the CDROM and the DVD drives and plug in another CDROM. Then it booted from the CD BUT an XP OEM CD from Dell is not bootable or so it seems, so I had to use a w2k CD and then after installing that, I went for the XP. A win98 floppy might boot the machine but you won't be able to run setup in DOS mode. It appears the reason for the boot problems is the way the jumpers may have been set on the drives.
0
Response Number 4
Name: jcafaro10 Date: June 7, 2006 at 17:27:52 Pacific
Reply:
switched cd rom drives, and it worked, now i gotta buy a new one i guess
0
Response Number 5
Name: don2006 Date: June 8, 2006 at 19:15:16 Pacific
Reply:
Before you buy one, check the jumper on the old one. Make sure it's set the same as the one that worked.
Summary: I recently reinstalled XP pro after a graphics card problem, and now XP thinks the 300GB backup HD needs to be reformatted and doesn't see and data on it. The drive shows up on explorer as F drive but...
Summary: I've got 2 IDE HDs, 80GB & 250GB set as Primary & slave. Formatted only 80gb when loading OS(XP sp2,Media Centre), when looking to format the 250gb it's showing as 32gb capacity in my computer. ASUS P...
Summary: i rec'd a couple of zip 250 disks from a friend. they're almost new and seem to be in great shape. but when i stick them in a zip 250 drive the drive can not read them and refuses to format them. he ...
0 
Dead Dimension
