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Compaq Problems

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by ftuckerjr

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I recently installed a new hard drive on a friends computer because his hard drive crashed and burned. On the compaq systems all of the information for bootup is on the crashed disk. I need to get to the c prompt. I have tried using a win98 boot disk but no luck. The system is a compaq presario 5445. Can any help me get pass the compaq screen into the c prompt?

7 replies

by kramw

If I am not mistaken it sounds like you haven't told the pc to boot from anything other than the hard drive. Since you have a new hard drive the computer won't boot from it until it has an operating system installed. When the computer is booting up go into the bios setup page by pressing F2 repeatedly until it displays. Then you need to change your boot options to include the cd drive. After you save your changes, reboot the computer and it should start the windows 98 installation from the cd.

by ftuckerjr

Thank you kramw. I am familiar with regular setup procedures. So you will know for future references. It's F10 to enter into the setup on a compaq, and all of the setup for a compaq is on the hard drive. It will not start up like a regular computer when you install a new hard hrive because the compaq bios communicates with the information on a compaq hard drive in order to start up. After all it is a proprietary computer. I just want to get to the c prompt so I can flah the bios.

by ftuckerjr

I would like to have an answer from someone who has dealt with installing a foreign hard drive to a proprietary system.

by fred07

Hi

IN bios is the HD recognised??

You may need to use the HD mfg boot disk to set and format the HD so it may be recognised

You will not get to "C prompt" untill the new HD is formated

Sounds like you know your way around the bios so you must already have it set for "seek floppy on boot"

A non formated or formated in a different pc will not be recognised by compaq. A formated on another pc will contain the wrong MBR if done with a win boot disk, therefor use the mfg boot disk

Also please check compaq's site and FAQ's on your machine as I did and see if you find the same info I did.

fred

by tech_wiz03

Compaq is very proprietary! You must install the operating system in full if a drive crashes. This means put the blank drive into the pc and using the compaq issued install cd (recovery disk) into the cd drive and it will create 2 partitions c: and d: (d: is usually hidden and contains special software used by compaq) this d: drive is used during system boot-up.

To restore the system you have to wade through the whole restore process. Hope you friend hasn't lost the recovery disk cause it's a b~~tch to get a replacement.

regards
rick

by wlbowers

Proprietary, Good Grief.

If you boot to the Win98 disk you must use fdisk to create a partition.

Then you use the format command to format the partition.

If you want to boot to the c: prompt you must sys the drive either during the format process or with the sys command.

Do you have the restore cd's that came with the computer.

If you do. Here is the support site page that covers restoring your machine with the cd's that came with the computer. This will put the machine back like it was when it was bought.

http://tinyurl.com/3hfqn

There should be no spaces after you copy and paste this url.

You will have to use the Factory Restore Option.

If you do not have the cd's then you can order them from compaq. (800) 227-8164

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