HardwareBanter - View Single Post - Deskpro: can't boot from hd, or run setup from floppy; not newbie, have rtfm

**Bill Marcum**

["Followup-To:" header set to comp.os.linux.hardware.]
On 27 Nov 2006 10:59:04 -0800,
wrote:

The floppy drive is OK, because I was able using the "other" machine to
create two different bootable floppies (FreeDos and SmartBootManager)
which successfully boot on the Problem Machine.

Have you tried a memtest86 floppy?

I found an apparently similar case on the net where someone claimed
that the problem could be solved (and the setup utilities could be run)
by moving the floppy drive to "the other connector on the ribbon cable,
the one without the twist". On the Problem Machine, there is no such
other connector, and never has been, and if there were, it is not clear

how it would help, because it would presumably move the floppy drive
to the B: role (/dev/fd1), which is not supposed(?) to be bootable at
all,
whereas I can currently at least boot SmartBootManager or FreeDos
from A: (/dev/fd0).

On some machines it was possible to swap the A: and B: drives in the BIOS,
so you could boot from either 3.5 or 5.25 inch floppies. If your machine
never had a second floppy, it's unlikely that the drives would be swapped.

--
We seldom repent talking too little, but very often talking too much.
-- Jean de la Bruyere