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Windoze Won't Boot

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9 replies

by arichart

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I am running and older compaq presario (4712). When I try to boot up, it asks how I want to boot (normal, safe, command, etc.), but once a choice is made, it proceeds to tell me that there are corruptions in the config.sys setup and it will not boot up. As far as I am concerned, I could care less to keep the original setup, but it will not boot to the A drive or the CD-ROM either and I cannot seem to get to the bios to make the A drive the primary boot device. Any ideas out there that might help me either get the system back the way it was or to boot the thing up to the command prompt in order to start over again?

9 replies

by fred07

Hi

In bios make sure "Floppy seek on boot" is enabled

If that is not an option

Set boot to cd with your OS install disk in it

fred

by arichart

That was my first try, but as it was stated, I cannot get into the bios to change those particular settings. Thanks anyway.

by fred07

Hi

Compaq is strange

The f10 key on start of boot I THINK
There is a key you must hit to enter boot and I am not sure if it is f10 or f2, etc

My old memory is not working tonight.

fred

by arichart

I finally made it to the setup after a combo of F3 and then F10. I have no idea why they set it that way, but it was...Thanks!

by tazdevil34

I think if you will repeatedly tap the F2 key while it is running the POST it will let you into CMOS to make changes to boot from the floppy to run diagnostics on the system. If that doesn't work try the DEL key.

by heinrichs

Try booting into command promt where you should have access to the cd rom drive. If you're installing win98/5, copy the files to the drive and run setup from there.

by arichart

It was a combination of a bad floppy drive and a bad boot disk. Once the right combination was made, I was able to reformat, install, and all that good stuff. Thanks for the ideas!

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