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Change BIOS to Change OSs?
I recently bought a used Compaq Deskpro EN. It came with Win 2000
loaded and a recovery disk (not a full operating system.) I bought the computer with the intent to partition the drive and load Mandrake Linux 10. I'm not familiar with Win 2000 and I have a full install of Win 98 SE so I took the original HD out of the Deskpro, replaced it with a different drive (thinking this would make the reformat easier AND preserve my ability to play around with win 2k at a later time), stuck the Win98 CD in the reader and rebooted. The Compaq BIOS recognized that the HD did not have a NTFS partition (I'm guessing on this) and refused to proceed further. So here are my questions: If I clear the CMOS and flash the BIOS with one from whoever made the motherboard, will it accomplish my purpose (allow me to load the OS of my choice?) Is this the best way to solve my problem, or is there a simpler solution? System info: Compaq Deskpro EN PC 866 Midtower case with 200W power supply HD Seagate Barracuda ATA, model ST320414A, 20 GB CPU Pentium III 866 Mhz Audio integrated Display Adapter Nvidia OS Windows 2000 Thanks in advance glenn |
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First, reflashing the BIOS will not overcome any issues with the hard drive.
The Deskpro EN BIOSes are operating system neutral. Second, press the F10 key to enter the BIOS setup and then examine the info the BIOS shows about the hard drive you installed. Check the hard drive jumpers for proper master-slave setup. Third, the only BIOS available for a Compaq motherboard is from Compaq. There may be a later BIOS on the HPaq web site. Fourth, to install Windows 98 on the computer, you need drivers for the motherboard chipset, the nVidia graphics, audio, and the built-in network adapter. Trust me. They are not on the Windows 98 CD. Download all the drivers, and, hopefully, burn them onto a CD and copy the CD contents onto the hard drive after formatiing it and before installing the OS. Once Windows 98 has done the best job it can, install the motherboard drivers, followed by the other drivers. You may not be able to find the drivers on the HPaq web site for Windows 98. For the motherboard drivers, use the Intel web site and download the motherboard drivers for ANY Intel 815 chipset board. Download the nVidia TNT2 drivers from the nVidia web site. Download the network drivers from the Intel web site after identifying the on-board Ethernet chip, either Intel 82557 or maybe 82559. The audio is an ADI chip, and ADI may have Windows 98 reference drivers for the chip... Ben Myers On 27 Dec 2004 15:06:10 -0800, wrote: I recently bought a used Compaq Deskpro EN. It came with Win 2000 loaded and a recovery disk (not a full operating system.) I bought the computer with the intent to partition the drive and load Mandrake Linux 10. I'm not familiar with Win 2000 and I have a full install of Win 98 SE so I took the original HD out of the Deskpro, replaced it with a different drive (thinking this would make the reformat easier AND preserve my ability to play around with win 2k at a later time), stuck the Win98 CD in the reader and rebooted. The Compaq BIOS recognized that the HD did not have a NTFS partition (I'm guessing on this) and refused to proceed further. So here are my questions: If I clear the CMOS and flash the BIOS with one from whoever made the motherboard, will it accomplish my purpose (allow me to load the OS of my choice?) Is this the best way to solve my problem, or is there a simpler solution? System info: Compaq Deskpro EN PC 866 Midtower case with 200W power supply HD Seagate Barracuda ATA, model ST320414A, 20 GB CPU Pentium III 866 Mhz Audio integrated Display Adapter Nvidia OS Windows 2000 Thanks in advance glenn |
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