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 ?

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.

"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)

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.