I had been trying to install the drivers for a CD drive and started fiddling with the Bios setup. Now the system does not boot even with the boot disk. It comes upto the line-" Loading boot record from IDE 01 and hangs. I tried changing the boot sequence to IDE 01, floppy but without any results. It stops at the same line and doesn't continue. The system is a old one with a Socket 7 Motherboard, Pentium MMX 166Mhz, 32 MB RAM, 2.1 GB hard disk. What could be possibly wrong? I tried loading the bios details too! But without any effect. Please advise.

Hello prasad, We are providing you some tips to increase your system performance. You can try this. Before you perform the below given tasks, please boot your system in safe mode. 1. Defragment your hard disk once a week if you are using your computer everyday or defragment once a month if you are using it rarely. Defragmentation is the process of re-arranging the files on your hard disk, so that each file is arranged in a proper order so that the programs will start faster. To defragment your hard disk, 1. Click on Start Button, Go to Programs -> Accessories -> System tools -> Disk Defragmentor. 2. Select the drive you want to defragment, Click Ok. Note: If You have more than one drive, Defragment all the drives and will consume more time. 2. Clean up all your temporary files. 1. Click on Start Button, Go to Programs -> Accessories -> System tools -> Disk Cleanup. 2. In the " Disk Cleanup" Tab heck all the "Files to Delete" Option. If you want to free more disk space by removing optional windows components go to "More-Options" tab. 3. Click OK Note : Clean Up your disk every week. 3. Check up your system for viruses. Use a anti-virus software say Norton, Solomon's or some standard anti-virus package for checking the viruses. 4. Increase your Virtual Memory. Provide Virtual memory of atleast of 300 MB on your hard disk. Following are the steps to do so. 1. Right Click "My Computer", Click Properties. 2. You will get a System Properties dialog box, Click the Performance Tab. 3. Click the Virtual Memory Button. 4. Select the " Let me specify my own Virtual Memory Settings " option 5. And specify at least 300 MB as the minimum virtual memory in the Minimum Text Box ( by default it will be zero ) 6. And specify 350 MB or higher as the maximum virtual memory in the Maximum Text Box. 5. Use Scandisk utility also, it prevents and repairs hard disk errors ( if any ), To Find Scan disk: 1. Click on Start Button, Go to Programs -> Accessories -> System tools -> Scandisk 2. Choose the "type of the test" you want to perform from the options in the Scandisk Dialog Box (i.e.,) Standard or Thorough 3. You can also Check the option for fixing the errors automatically by checking the option " Automatically Fix Errors " 4. Click OK. 6. Compress your Mail files regularly. 7. Empty your recycle bin regularly. 8. Remove the unnecessary files in the startup, this helps in starting windows faster. This may help you, Regards, Sherlock holmes@qsupport.com

dear KSV, perhaps it wasn't such a good idea to fiddle with the BIOS eh? at any rate, what you need to do, is you need to change the boot sequence to "floppy, IDE01" (or on some computers, "a: c:". what it's doing (according to what you have written in yhour message), is it's trying to read yoiur harddrive first, and then looking to your floppy. so you want to make it look to your floppy first, i.e. boot to your floppy drive. don't forget to save the settings upon exiting the BIOS. if you wanna fiddle around in the BIOS a bit, i would suggest that it might be a good idea to do a bit of research on it first (in case you get stuck again!). if you do a bit of searching online, you can fine support sites that explain your computer's BIOS both in a general sense, and in a more specific sense i.e. for certain models. james

I think you played with your hard disk settings. Go to bios setup. Detect hard disk. Select normal, lba, or large after detected. Save and exit.

how does one get to safe mode? Thanks!