Hard drive problems

I am recently fixing up an old computer , with odds and ends from other
computers.
My kids have an old Comax computer that has a 2 gig hard drive . 64mb of ram
and a Petimum processor . They are running a 98se program. I am trying to
install a used Seagate (st340810a) 40 gig hard drive that used to be in a xp
home system. The hard drive was supposed to be formated. I installed the hard
drive. Installed disk manager from Seagate and used the 98 emergency boot
disk.
My problem is I can not get beyond the dos command prompt. When I put the 98
disk in the cd, nothing happens . Any ideas of how I can install Window 98 on
this hard drive.The only thing that the computer tells me the NTLDR is
missing.
Any ideas
Thank you
Larry F

Larry F wrote:
> I am recently fixing up an old computer , with odds and ends from
> other computers.
> My kids have an old Comax computer that has a 2 gig hard drive . 64mb
> of ram and a Petimum processor . They are running a 98se program. I
> am trying to install a used Seagate (st340810a) 40 gig hard drive
> that used to be in a xp home system. The hard drive was supposed to
> be formated. I installed the hard drive. Installed disk manager from
> Seagate and used the 98 emergency boot disk.
> My problem is I can not get beyond the dos command prompt. When I put
> the 98 disk in the cd, nothing happens . Any ideas of how I can
> install Window 98 on this hard drive.The only thing that the computer
> tells me the NTLDR is missing.

98 doesn't boot fromt he CD.
Download an installation Diskette.

http://www.bootdisk.com/

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--

To start off with, you CAN boot Windows 98 from a CD, although it is a pain
to make a boot CD for it, it is much easier to boot to floppy. NTLDR is a
file used by the NT based operating systems (Windows NT, 2000, XP) to load
the operating system. I don't think the hard drive was formatted if it is
still looking for NTLDR. You might have a partial installation on the drive.
If you still have the Windows 98 setup disc, you should be able to boot to
that and format the hard drive in the setup and from there your OS. To boot
to the CD, go into you BIOS when at the computer's startup, usually by
hitting F2 or Delete. Sometimes it will say Press 'X' to go to Setup, where
'X' is the key you need to press and Setup goes to your BIOS config. There
is a great variety in BIOS interfaces, so just look for a tab or section that
has Boot Devices or Boot Priorities, along those lines. Make sure you have
the CD-ROM drive at the top of the list. If the CD-ROM is not selectable,
then the machine cannot boot to the CD and you will have to boot to a floppy
and run the CD from there. If you don't have a Win98 boot floppy, just do a
quick search for it on the internet and you can find instructions on how to
make one. Once in setup, just as a reminder, if the drive does have a
partial install of XP on it, odds are the drive has a file system of NTFS,
and Windows 98 cannot read NTFS (normally, but you can find some tools on the
internet to let you read it), so you should make sure it is fully formatted.
You want your drives formatted using one of the versions of FAT,you want
FAT32 is you can get it. I don't remember, since it has been a while since I
have used Windows 98, but for anyone else who posts here, can Windows 98SE
even read all 40 gigs of the drive on a single partition? Hope this helps.

"Larry F" wrote:

> I am recently fixing up an old computer , with odds and ends from other
> computers.
> My kids have an old Comax computer that has a 2 gig hard drive . 64mb of ram
> and a Petimum processor . They are running a 98se program. I am trying to
> install a used Seagate (st340810a) 40 gig hard drive that used to be in a xp
> home system. The hard drive was supposed to be formated. I installed the hard
> drive. Installed disk manager from Seagate and used the 98 emergency boot
> disk.
> My problem is I can not get beyond the dos command prompt. When I put the 98
> disk in the cd, nothing happens . Any ideas of how I can install Window 98 on
> this hard drive.The only thing that the computer tells me the NTLDR is
> missing.
> Any ideas
> Thank you
> Larry F

t You can use BOOTITNG download it by seraching the web..this works miracle
in partitioning the HDD, then use your Win98SE startup disk to boot up using
option (1) if you have a CDROM installed, then load up the WINDOWS SW 98SE it
runs smoothly..NTLDR is perhaps associated with the XP (?) from your other
computer that you have.

I HAD A SIMILAR ISSUE YESTERDAY. I HAD TO RESTORE THE WHOLE SYSTEM, LOST ALL
OF MY CONFIGURATIONS


"Larry F" wrote:

> I am recently fixing up an old computer , with odds and ends from other
> computers.
> My kids have an old Comax computer that has a 2 gig hard drive . 64mb of ram
> and a Petimum processor . They are running a 98se program. I am trying to
> install a used Seagate (st340810a) 40 gig hard drive that used to be in a xp
> home system. The hard drive was supposed to be formated. I installed the hard
> drive. Installed disk manager from Seagate and used the 98 emergency boot
> disk.
> My problem is I can not get beyond the dos command prompt. When I put the 98
> disk in the cd, nothing happens . Any ideas of how I can install Window 98 on
> this hard drive.The only thing that the computer tells me the NTLDR is
> missing.
> Any ideas
> Thank you
> Larry F

Unknown wrote:
> I HAD A SIMILAR ISSUE YESTERDAY. I HAD TO RESTORE THE WHOLE SYSTEM,
> LOST ALL OF MY CONFIGURATIONS

1) Not similar to OP.
2) Buy a new keyboard - yours seems to be broken.
3) Do you have a question?

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html