OK, changing the IDE configuration means messing inside the case and removing/adding a hard drive or CDRom drive. Flashing the BIOS is something for people that know what you're doing; since you said you don't know how to do either, then that is probably out of the question. Other than that, it's over my head on what could be wrong. Christianity is NOT a religion. It is a relationship with Jesus Christ.

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To RWD1996 Thank you for your reply. I did change the hard drive and CD ROM in that PC but they were working fine for at least two months before I tried to reformat the PC. They are still working fine. I know how to unplug/re-plug/replace/accidently breaking or bending the pins of the IDE cables with keeping in mind the small notch in the correct position. As far as flashing the BIOS, I have no idea if I did something like that. I have the manual on my motherboard and checked the standard BIOS setup and my BIOS has not changed since it was set up when it was first installed in 2001. The only thing that has been changed and put back in it's proper order is the first boot device so that when reformatting the PC will boot from the CD rather than the floppy drive. Once the reformat is finished the BIOS setting for the first boot device is put back to floppy. Something odd has happened and some how I will find out what it is. For all we know it has happened to others who just assumed that the CD went bad. But in my case both the original CD and it’s copy were kept miles apart. Something in the PC is causing this to happen. I can load the CD in a CD ROM and read what is on it, but cannot use it to reformat. I have not tried the CD’s in another PC for fear that they might cause problems for that PC. Pauliez

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http://www.easydesksoftware.com/rec...

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Changing the hard drive and/or cdrom may be the reason unless you've done a recovery since then. It all depends on how fussy the recovery cd is about the original hardware. You'd need to do a fresh install if you can't get the recovery cd to run. You might have to hunt down some drivers after the install but it's usually not a big deal. Gdivens51's link may help if you don't have a regular installation cd.

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"I did change the hard drive and CD ROM in that PC but they were working fine for at least two months before I tried to reformat the PC". Is the harddrive you changed the one with Windows on it? If so, how did you get Windows installed on the new drive that time?

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To OtheHill Thank you for your reply. Whenever I wanted to reformat the PC I would go into the BIOS, set first boot device from “floppy” to “CD ROM”. the restart the PC with the Magnell Recovery CD that has win98Se on it in the CD drive and when the PC started to boot up it would boot from the CD and from there when the CD opened up I would chose “reformat and reinstall the OS”. From there the HD was wiped clean and the OS and drivers that were on the CD were installed. Once that was done I removed the CD from the CD drive and proceeded to reinstall the rest of the necessary software that the PC needed. Such as the software for the hardware like the motherboard, printer, scanner, camera, sound system, and what ever other software that was needed to safely run the PC. The only things that are original that is left in that PC is the motherboard and the CPU. (Which are at least seven years old this past January and still running strong) Everything else has been changed at least once. The HD was changed twice, the CD ROM drive were changed twice, the sound system changed once, and the Floppy drive was changed twice. Even the case was changed. I was told that sometimes a Recovery CD has code in it that if it doesn’t recognize certain components it will not allow it self to be used. If that is the case how could I have changed so much in that PC and still be able to reformat it as many times as I did with that Magnell Recovery CD? It is a puzzle. Pauliez

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Oops, wrong thread. Never mind.

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And you did exactly the same procedure after you replaced the harddrive and you installed Windows to the new harddrive?

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To OtheHill Thank you for your reply. Yes. I never varied from the same procedure when formating that PC. I was in the habit of formating that PC about every six to eight months. Sometimes even sooner. Pauliez

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I ask 3 questions and you answer yes. I am trying to determine if you had the install files on the old drive. If you installed the restore files to the new drive using the Magnell CD then the restore CD must be a complete a full restore CD as opposed to a cd that just starts the restore process from the hidden partition on most pre-configured computers. I asked in the thread you posted in the 2000 forum what a Magnell CD is. Is that a brand of computer?

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To OtheHill Thank you for your reply. Sorry I thought I answered the questions you asked. About three years ago I used the Magnell Recovery CD to format a brand new HD that had nothing on it. The Recovery CD formatted the HD and installed the OS. The reason that was done was because the old HD (a Maxtor 60gb) died and everything on it was lost. (Lucky I back up my files every week on RW’s) I sent away to Newegg for a WD 80gbHD. Once the new HD arrived I used the Magnell Recovery CD to get the PC up and running again. Everything worked fine until I tried to reformat the PC again to get rid of some of the garbage it had accumulated. I can make copies of everything that in on that CD and post them to you as an attachment so that you can see everything that is on it. It will take time because there are three folders and each folder has many more folders, etc. Magnell is/was the name of a company that now goes by the name of ABS. I contacted them and got nowhere real fast. They were more interested in selling me a new PC than helping me understand what happened to the CD. They also told me that the lifetime tech support I had on that PC was no more. I guess in their world lifetime is a year or two. I hope this answers the questions I answered yes to. Pauliez

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Yes, that clarifies things. The name ABS is familiar, although I didn't know they were still around. Back in the days of Computer Shopper they ran ads. I was trying to think of what parameters on your computer could signal such a message. Change of hardware, you did that previously, correct? Elapsed time? Try setting the BIOS clock back a year or so and see if that has any effect.

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To OtheHill Thank you for your reply. By changing the BIOS clock, do you mean the time that is displayed in the lower right corner of the desktop. ABS is still around. Just talked to them about a month ago. Pauliez

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If you are just trying to install Windows you wouldn't have that screen. No, I mean in the BIOS itself. In the first screen of the BIOS you can set the time and date, along with other items. When inside the BIOS screens read the onsreen prompts to learn how to move around and change settings. The keystroke to enter the BIOS MAY be del. Continously tap that key when starting the computer. Watch the screens a startup to see if there is a message instructing you to use a keystroke to enter Setup.

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To OtheHill Thank you for your reply. I am aware of getting into the BIOS. On that PC which has an FIC AD11 motherboard it is the Del. key that needs to be tapped as the boot up starts. I will open the BIOS and change the clock settings. Can't do it today. I will be spending the whole day with my daughters and grandchildren. Just turned 65 today so they have a big day planed for me. Will get back to you tommorow. Pauliez

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OK, Happy Birthday.

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To OtheHill Thanks for the Birthday wish. Came home and set the BIOS clock back one year at a time all the way back to 2001 and the CD still gave the same message. I had a thought. Could the BIOS be set to only allow the Recovery CD to recognize a HD that is 60gb or less. When that PC was originally set up it had a 60gb HD. Then when that one died a 40gb was put in it's place and worked. Now there is an 80gb HD that is trying to be used and could the BIOS be saying to the Recovery CD "to work, you will only recognize a HD that is smaller". My daughter’s neighbor’s 12-year-old son who claims to be a PC wiz claims that is the problem. Said I should get into the BIOS and reconfigure it to recognize a larger HD. Did not say how. I did not know something like that could be done. I was under the impression that the chips on the MB were fixed and could not be reconfigured. ?????? Pauliez

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There shouldn't be a problem with the bios properly seeing an 80 gig drive. Anyway, the bios isn't telling the recovery disk what size drive to accept. In cmos/bios setup the drive will usually be set as AUTO. When it's set that way, the bios queries the hard drive firmware which returns the drive size. You can manually set the drive size but that's rarely done anymore. Just check to make sure it set as AUTO. Then on the posting screen the drive model number should show. Now there is a problem with the 98 partitioning commmand, FDISK, for drives larger than about 64 gig: http://support.microsoft.com/defaul... Possibly the restore disk takes that into account and won't install on a drive larger than 64 gig. You might try repartitioning the drive with a 98 bootdisk containing the updated fdisk. You could partition it as the full 80 gig and then see if the recovery disk takes it. If that doesn't work, run fdisk again, remove that partition and repartition it as a 60 gig drive, leaving the remaining 20 as unpartitioned space or create a 20 gig logical drive there. (If that's confusing maybe the 12 year old wiz can help--if he's familiar with something as old as win98!)

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Good advise DAVINCAPS. When trying to figure what changes could have triggered the CD to refuse to install. You didn't mention the drive size. Guess I assumed it was the same.

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i just used a restore CD on my 7 year old emachines & it had no problem recognizing & installing Win ME on my 80GB hard drive. Computer came with 700mhz celeron processor (upgraded to 1 GB), 20GB hard drive (upgraded to 80GB) & onboard sound (upgraded to PCI sound card).

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gdiven, was that a recovery CD, or was it the Windows ME OEM disc? Anyway, it doesn't surprise me that a company would put boolean filters on a recovery disc to nail you if you change hardware, although I do have to wonder if that's borderline illegal - or crossing the line altogether. I'd bet you could nail a company for that here in Canada, but anywhere else you'd probably be SOL. What I'd do, Pauliez, is find another W98 CD. If you know what drivers your machine uses, you're good to go; you really don't need a recovery disc. This computer is f---ed...

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