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#1
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Maybe over my head?
:x
A friend brought me over her computer last week--told me it just "stopped"--appears to be an old Gateway 2000--when I turned it on, got a message stating invalid system disk, remove--of course, there's no disk inside, so I'm assuming perhaps a hard drive situation--unplugged the drive so that a Win98 startup floppy would take over the booting, which it did, but when I tried to run fdisk, I get a message stating no fixed disks present--rebooted the system with the same error message, tried running delpart and got "no hard drive found"--does it sound like she's screwed and needs a new hard drive to anyone else? Thanks, Mike |
#2
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mjm4u wrote: :x A friend brought me over her computer last week--told me it just "stopped"--appears to be an old Gateway 2000--when I turned it on, got a message stating invalid system disk, remove--of course, there's no disk inside, so I'm assuming perhaps a hard drive situation--unplugged the drive so that a Win98 startup floppy would take over the booting, which it did, but when I tried to run fdisk, I get a message stating no fixed disks present--rebooted the system with the same error message, tried running delpart and got "no hard drive found"--does it sound like she's screwed and needs a new hard drive to anyone else? It sounds like it, but before you do replace it check the hard disk connectors. Make sure the leads are pushed in properly and haven't worked loose. You need to make sure you are earthed (touch the case and have the PSU plugged in, but not switched on) when you do it to avoid any anti-static discharge problems. |
#3
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mjm4u wrote: x A friend brought me over her computer last week--told me it just "stopped"--appears to be an old Gateway 2000--when I turned it on, got a message stating invalid system disk, remove--of course, there's no disk inside, so I'm assuming perhaps a hard drive situation--unplugged the drive so that a Win98 startup floppy would take over the booting Did you plug the drive back in again when you were running Fdisk? , which it did, but when I tried to run fdisk, I get a message stating no fixed disks present--rebooted the system with the same error message, tried running delpart and got "no hard drive found"--does it sound like she's screwed and needs a new hard drive to anyone else? Thanks, Mike |
#4
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"mjm4u" wrote in message
... :x A friend brought me over her computer last week--told me it just "stopped"--appears to be an old Gateway 2000--when I turned it on, got a message stating invalid system disk, remove--of course, there's no disk inside, so I'm assuming perhaps a hard drive situation--unplugged the drive so that a Win98 startup floppy would take over the booting, which it did, but when I tried to run fdisk, I get a message stating no fixed disks present--rebooted the system with the same error message, tried running delpart and got "no hard drive found"--does it sound like she's screwed and needs a new hard drive to anyone else? Thanks, Mike Hard drive controller turned off in BIOS? SteveH |
#5
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hen I turned it on,
got a message stating invalid system disk, remove--of course, there's no disk inside, so I'm assuming perhaps a hard drive situation-- huh? no disk inside.. that would be a hard drive problem alright. there is none? "mjm4u" wrote in message ... :x A friend brought me over her computer last week--told me it just "stopped"--appears to be an old Gateway 2000--when I turned it on, got a message stating invalid system disk, remove--of course, there's no disk inside, so I'm assuming perhaps a hard drive situation--unplugged the drive so that a Win98 startup floppy would take over the booting, which it did, but when I tried to run fdisk, I get a message stating no fixed disks present--rebooted the system with the same error message, tried running delpart and got "no hard drive found"--does it sound like she's screwed and needs a new hard drive to anyone else? Thanks, Mike |
#6
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"mjm4u" wrote in message ... :x A friend brought me over her computer last week--told me it just "stopped"--appears to be an old Gateway 2000--when I turned it on, got a message stating invalid system disk, remove--of course, there's no disk inside, so I'm assuming perhaps a hard drive situation--unplugged the drive so that a Win98 startup floppy would take over the booting, which it did, but when I tried to run fdisk, I get a message stating no fixed disks present--rebooted the system with the same error message, tried running delpart and got "no hard drive found"--does it sound like she's screwed and needs a new hard drive to anyone else? Thanks, Mike That's a classic symptom of a dead CMOS battery. When the battery dies, the CMOS loses the hard drive settings (among other things). Replace CMOS battery, auto-detect hard drive (hopefully you won't have to manually program it), save settings, exit, done. -Dave |
#7
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let me see if I can answer all responses--JAD, I meant no floppy disks
in the computer, there is a hard drive in there---Cowboyz---the hard drive was plugged in when I tried fdisk---Steve--the hard drive controller is turned on in BIOS, and Guest---all connectors have been unplugged and reseated Thanks for the responses--still looking for more Mike |
#8
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Check the HDD Jumper.......
"mjm4u" wrote in message ... let me see if I can answer all responses--JAD, I meant no floppy disks in the computer, there is a hard drive in there---Cowboyz---the hard drive was plugged in when I tried fdisk---Steve--the hard drive controller is turned on in BIOS, and Guest---all connectors have been unplugged and reseated Thanks for the responses--still looking for more Mike |
#9
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Dave--wouldn't it lose the time in the BIOS if the battery was dead?
Mike |
#10
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"mjm4u" wrote in message ... Dave--wouldn't it lose the time in the BIOS if the battery was dead? Mike Possibly. Some mainboards have CMOS and real time clock in the same chip, and the RTC runs off battery. So, a slow clock can be a symptom of a weak battery. But a clock keeping time doesn't necessarily mean that the CMOS battery is OK. -Dave |
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