A couple of months ago I removed my C drive to try to use it on another computer. I never did succeed. I probably screwed it up with msconfig because now it won’t work on the original. I can boot in Safe mode but it hangs in regular mode. So what do I need to have running in the msconfig tabs to get it running?
Also, I removed the cabling from the C drive and attached them to a formatted larger drive, and stuck in a boot floppy, but it won’t let me install Win98 on it - it (presumably the Compaq startup sequence) says "not a system disk install a different disk and press any key. Any ideas?
What exactly did you do to your C: drive, as best you can recall? If you can boot to it in safe mode, that’s an indication that your PC is at least reading it, which is a good first step.
For the other, larger drive… if you don’t need the data on it, you can try to format it for an install from scratch. With a machine that old, you’ll probably need to get the Fdisk utility on a floppy to make that happen.
Turn on your computer, and hit **F8 ** repeatedly until your see the boot menu. Select Safe Mode Command Prompt Only, and hit Enter. At the *C:* prompt, type cd\windows\command, and then hit Enter. Then, type scanreg /restore , and hit Enter. If you have any saved registry entries left, you should see five save points listed by date. Choose one that looks like a date that the system last work well on, and hit Enter. When you get a message that your registry has been restored, hit **Enter ** to reboot. Your computer should restart with a saved version of your registry, and hopefully it will boot into normal mode with no problems.
Thanks for the ideas, even though they didn’t actually help. After two and a half days, I finally got things going. A reinstall of Win 98 on the original boot disk fixed it, and I kept most of my settings.
Part of the problem was that the M$ installation process was leaving bits of the operating system uninstalled. Grrr.
My plan is to use the original drive (with all of my idiosyncrasies) as the boot disk, and the larger one as a data storer. Give a holler back if you think that’s a bad idea.
Oslo, the only thing I’ll holler back on is that I have a TON of equipment here that you may be able to build another computer out of…whilst still using your hard drive. I’m sure that there are others. I’m not saying you don’t have the means to get your own, I’m saying that I have the stuff here lying around! I’ll send it if you let me know where.
I’ll send it if you let me know where.