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No boot to floppy after FDISK

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by nobby57 2 views

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Older machine, PPro 200 w/160MB & single 6.4GB HDD. Disk had 4 partitions OS & data from Linux box, wanted to use it in the PPro with Win98SE. Booted to floppy, started FDISK, deleted all partitions. Established new partition same size as disk and made it active. Rebooted to floppy as instructed in order to format drive and this is where trouble started. Computer would go through POST OK, then copy some stuff from floppy but eventually freeze or hang with floppy drive light on and curser blinking on screen but no shell prompt. Nothing does any good from then on out. Same behavior with 98SE CD, except it asks if you want to boot from hard disk or CD, then starts to copy data from CD and hangs in the same manner with the CD spinning. According to HD diagnostic software, drive is in splendid shape. HD parameters from diag software agree with what BIOS reports. The only floppy which will boot computer now is HDD diagnostic disk (DR DOS); I have a number of other boot disks including the Partition Magic one but they all hang. The drive is a lightly used Maxtor 90680U2 which worked fine in the past.

12 replies

by nobby57

Found that after low level format will boot again but as soon as you set a partition whether from FDISK or let 98SE CD setup do it, it will not reboot as before. At this point am out of my depth and the water wings are leakin'.

by cg it

try the fdisk/mbr switch. Sounds like your master boot record on the hdd might have gotten corrupted and the fdisk/mbr will rewrite the master boot record.

let us know what happens

by cg it

note: the master boot record provides the O/S with certain hdd information that it needs. If during the BIOS to O/S handshake/handoff there's something amiss on the mbr, the computer might not boot to the hdd. rewriting the mbr solves this problem.

by csmith

I think the problem lies with an error in the partition table.
Since you have the Manufacturers Floppy for the Hard Drive, "Zero Fill" the hard drive.
Different manufacturers call this procedure by different names, but it is the same procedure. It writes all zeros to the drive. This is the way you got the drive from the manufacturer.
Then partition, format, load OS.
Regards, Chris

by nobby57

Chris910, yeah, I have heard of the disk
overlay software but since I hadn't (knowingly)
installed any I thought that I could use the
drive like any other -- I have the impression
that overlay software can be a problem with
Linux. Also, because of troubles with my
laptop I cannot currently download anything.
D.R., I think I tried that -- but will do it again
and let you know! CSmith, yeah, I did that twice
the Maxtor disk diagnostic calls it a low level
format but also mentions that it has been
written all zeros -- that is when it allows the
boot to partition but hangs again on the reboot
to format. Thanks all, will keep you posted!

by borris

Are you sure your computer's BIOS can handle a HD of this size?
I had experienced the same problem on an old P2 computer with a HD of the same size.
Why? Because the computers BIOS used a overlay-program to help the computer to to handle the HD. When I was deleting all partitions this overlay program was gone too.
I took a another HD (2.3 GB) and used it as a primary unit, while the bigger HD was used as a slave.
If you want to boot on your 6.4 HD, you should install some new overlay software wich should start when you boot.

I hope this would help you out.

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