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I fdisked this computer then the lights went out, when it came back on all i get is it goes to the bootup screen then to the dos screen with error message missing operating system. now when it boots up it goes straight to the dos screen saying missing operating system. i have tried to use a boot disk, a cd win98se disk, hirens boot disk, gosh i can't remember everything i have tried with out success....it had xp pro[that said it was a pirated version] on it before i formatted then fdisk. now it want do anything or go past the dos window with missing operating system on it....i even went into bios and reset the default settings still nothing....even set a floppy as startup, then set cd rom as startup and it want let me do anything, and i am at my wits end can anybody solve this problem for me? is it a headache YES!!
Thank you for all help....
What exactly did you do when you fdisked it? If you removed the partition then that's the reason--you have no operating system.
You should probably boot up with a 98 bootdisk and run fdisk again. Create (or make sure there is) a valid dos partition and that it's set active.
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Windows 98SE CD's are bootable, you need to boot from this CD and install W98SE.
I am presuming that with FDISK you removed and recreated the FAT32 Partition, then Formatted!
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as you can see i tried win 98 bootdisk but NO way will it except anything period i only get the message, missing os
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You need to enter the bios set up and change the boot order, to cd first, floppy 2nd , hdd third, save and exit.
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Your computer is not going to a "DOS screen", the "no operating system" screen is a BIOS screen. DOS is an operating system, if you get to a DOS screen then the operating system is not "missing".
Your hard drive is no longer bootable. If floppy disks and CD-ROMs will not boot, it is because you have that disabled in your BIOS setup. Or, your computer is seriously broken.
Windows 98SE CD-ROMs are NOT bootable. It is possible to create a bootable Win98 installation CD on your own, but the CDs distributed by Microsoft were NOT bootable and never will be. You have to use a Win98 startup floppy to install Windows 98 from an original Microsoft Windows 98 CD-ROM.
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Hi ohme, DAVEINCAPS, itguru, TopFarmer, pyrolitic, hi everyone
Look whom the cat brought in... yes, I have returned home once again. :-)
As mentioned by TopFarmer you, ohme, have to get your boot priority set straight. If your first boot devices is the Hard Disk Drive (HDD 0), you will not be able to boot from either the Windows 9x installation CD-ROM nor from any bootdisk.
To (re)create a valid, active, DOS partition as mentioned by DAVEINCAPS follow these steps.
(http://www.mesich.com/format1.html)HTH
Best Regards and Wishes,
The Count, Co-webmaster of mesich.com
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Yeah, likely you have the hard drive as the first boot device. When the bios gets to the OS booting process it goes to the first boot device. If it finds a disk there it stops and tries to boot from it. So if the HD is first, it stops there and doesn't try the other boot devices. If the floppy or cdrom are first but have no disks in them then the boot process passes on to the next device. Since the hard drive is always there it's usually best not to have it as the first boot device.
Hey Count, it's been a while!
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NONE of these suggestions helped so I got another hd off an older computer and guess what now the problem is solved....it was nothing but a bad hd....i thank everybody for all the help.
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pyrolitic
FYI, some Win98se CDs ARE bootable. I know for sure that OEM versions are and there could be others. Of course there are some that are not and require the boot floppy.
Interestingly enough, I have an OEM Win98se CD that is bootable but still came with the floppy disk too.
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Even if your hard drive was bad you could still boot from the floppy or CD as long as the hard drive is not the first boot device. Once that was done running fdisk again would have told us the drive was bad--if it was.
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OtheHill,
Okay, I looked into it. Actually, I was correct in that Microsoft never distributed any bootable Windows 98 CDROMs, it was an OEM thing. Here's a link describing Windows 98SE "official" releases from Microsoft:
http://www.webtree.ca/newlife/posts...
Microsoft didn't really start selling bootable installation CDROMs until 2000/XP era. I just know that I've never had or used a "factory" made bootable Windows 98SE installation CD. If I wanted one, I had to make it myself.
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DAVEINCAPS i have tried to tell everybody that was one of the first things i did was change the boot order cd first then floppy then hd....that DID NOT work i put a fat32 partition on it and never got to do anything else....having a cd set to start first did not work....any more suggestions i traded for the hd so i can still work on it...........
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With some bios' you can disable a boot device yet still have it in the boot order. Maybe that's what happened.
It only makes sense that something was awry with your boot devices because, after all, you would have no way to install an OS if you couldn't boot with a bootdisk or bootable CD.
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"Microsoft didn't really start selling bootable installation CDROMs until 2000/XP era." That's not true. :)
"So won’t you give this man his wings
What a shame
To have to beg you to see
We’re not all the same
What a shame" - Shinedown
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Right...that's not true. I had a retail version of 98 first edition that booted; my NT4.0 server disk is also bootable.
Might be others out there too.
Skip
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"Interestingly enough, I have an OEM Win98se CD that is bootable but still came with the floppy disk too."
Maybe in case the computer couldn't boot from a cd.larry
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