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How to determine BIOS settings
I have a Windows 98 tower PC that has just had the BIOS battery replaced. Now it won't boot as it say's there is no disk with Windows. I do not know the geometry of the disk (although I could take it out and read the label) nor the partition structure. I suppose I could find a disk editor and look at the contents of the first block, but I wouldn't know what to look for. How can I find out the settings that need to be changed in the BIOS please ? |
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How to determine BIOS settings
On 7/21/2011 1:58 PM, eugeneg wrote:
I have a Windows 98 tower PC that has just had the BIOS battery replaced. Now it won't boot as it say's there is no disk with Windows. I do not know the geometry of the disk (although I could take it out and read the label) nor the partition structure. I suppose I could find a disk editor and look at the contents of the first block, but I wouldn't know what to look for. How can I find out the settings that need to be changed in the BIOS please ? I would try setting the BIOS to default values. From there, check what drives have been found and make sure the geometry is set to Auto. That will probably work, but you might have to pull the drive to get that info and manually enter it. |
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How to determine BIOS settings
"eugeneg" wrote in message
... I have a Windows 98 tower PC that has just had the BIOS battery replaced. Now it won't boot as it say's there is no disk with Windows. I do not know the geometry of the disk (although I could take it out and read the label) nor the partition structure. I suppose I could find a disk editor and look at the contents of the first block, but I wouldn't know what to look for. How can I find out the settings that need to be changed in the BIOS please ? Replacing a CMOS battery usually implies wiping previous BIOS settings (because no BIOS memory chip maintains custom settings without power.) We usually get to the BIOS menu by keying DELete during the reboot sequence. The first item to check is the location of OS booting code, usually set as: First: Floppy drive (if present) Second: CD drive (if present) Third: Hard drive (drive C.) This sets up the PC to boot every day from the HDD -- or from the FDD or CD drive (if disks are present there.) Booting Win98 from any drive requires that Win98 boot code be read from the boot sector of that drive. The regular COPY command will not copy boot code: Win98 provides for this the DOS utility SYS. The fastest way to write Win98 boot code to a hard drive is to read it from somewhere (usually a booting floppy) and instal it on another drive, e.g.: A SYS C: Official MS instructions for installation are at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/221829 Most of these instructions concern FDISK (to partition and format a new hard drive SYS is documented elsewhere -- Don Phillipson Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada) |
#4
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How to determine BIOS settings
Problem solved. I read the label on the HDD and got the cylinders, heads, sectors etc. based on the jumper position then put that in the BIOS. Booted up nicely. |
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