I have a Compaq 5340. When I boot up the machine I receive the following message: Operating System found on any device. When I attempt to boot with a boot disk created by 98boot.exe, I get the message Invalid System Disk, replace the disk, and then press any key. (I never made one of my own when I got the PC.) I've also tried to reboot with the Quick Restore CD (it used to be my E drive) I received with the PC. In this case I get an abort, retry, fail error for drive A. The only way I can get to an A prompt is by using a McAfee boot disk I created back in 1999. When I try to get to the C or D or E drive from here, they aren't recognized. The Quick Restore CD, after failing on the read attempt of the A drive, can produce a C prompt. When I do a directory here it looks like the only files are those created by the CD. I can't get to an A prompt from here. I'm thinking all my files are now lost, but I'd really like to be able to at least use the PC for my kids if nothing else. I'm at a loss as to what to try next. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Tek-Tips is the largest IT community on the Internet today!
Members share and learn making Tek-Tips Forums the best source of peer-reviewed technical information on the Internet!
-
Congratulations derfloh on being selected by the Tek-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!
Win98 2nd ed Boot Errors 1
- Thread starter Gompps
- Start date
-
1
- #3
The C: that you get to with the boot CD is the boot CD because that is the first device it recognizes.
This is a symptom of hard drive failure, CMOS corruption, or battery failure.
First step in diagnosis is to get into the BIOS and check the CMOS for the correct hard drive settings.
Then an attempt to see if it can be recognized by the system.
Then possibly fdisk /mbr with a floppy disk
Worst case with a hard drive is replacing it, rebuilding the OS, and reloading programs.
Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.
This is a symptom of hard drive failure, CMOS corruption, or battery failure.
First step in diagnosis is to get into the BIOS and check the CMOS for the correct hard drive settings.
Then an attempt to see if it can be recognized by the system.
Then possibly fdisk /mbr with a floppy disk
Worst case with a hard drive is replacing it, rebuilding the OS, and reloading programs.
Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.
- Thread starter
- #4
Wow, you guys sure are fast with your responses! I really appreciate the help. The 98boot.exe was something I had downloaded from a website to create a Win 98 boot disk. I have since located several boot98se.exe versions. I'll try those tonight. As far as 'getting into the BIOS and checking the CMOS for the correct hard drive settings', I'm afraid I don't have a clue as to what you are saying. I'm pretty PC illiterate. If you are referring to getting into the Compaq Setup after hitting f10 while booting up, I can do that. However, I'm not sure which area I should be looking at and what settings should be changed.
Getting into the Compaq setup is getting into the BIOS. Setting to look for is hard drive type for the master drive on the primary channel. Or if there is a auto detect of IDE drives, you could use that.
You may have a hard drive failute or a boot sector corrupt, or a partition table problem. You could try a boot disk from , for a SE type since I know it has what is needed, boot from it and run fdisk and see if it can find a valid partition on the boot disk (assuming that the hard drive is recognized in the BIOS).
The last option is to find out what kind of hard drive is installed, in total failure you have to physically look at the drive, and download and run the manufacturer's diagnostics.
Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.
You may have a hard drive failute or a boot sector corrupt, or a partition table problem. You could try a boot disk from , for a SE type since I know it has what is needed, boot from it and run fdisk and see if it can find a valid partition on the boot disk (assuming that the hard drive is recognized in the BIOS).
The last option is to find out what kind of hard drive is installed, in total failure you have to physically look at the drive, and download and run the manufacturer's diagnostics.
Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.
- Thread starter
- #7
I created a boot disk from the first version of the Win 98 2nd ed selections off of This boot disk actually seems to be working. I now can get to the a:\ prompt, c:\ prompt, and d:\ prompt. My CD-ROM drive used to be my e:\ drive, but I'm thinking I could change the config.sys and autoexec.bat files to point to e:\ instead of d:\. In any case, I receive an error message when attempting to boot from this bootdisk. The message is 'Widnows 98 has detected that drive C does not contain a valid FAT or FAT32 partition'. When I do the fdisk /status command at the a:\ prompt I get the error 'No fixed disks present'. I couldn't find anything in the Readme files on how to format the fdisk command to create the partition so I guess I'll have to look that up somewhere before I attempt it. When I check the Setup Diskette Drives it gives the dimensions for the A drive and indicates that the B drive is not installed. Under the IDE Devices, all lines show 'Enable'. I'm not sure where I was supposed to find the "hard drive type for the master drive on the primary channel"?
The C: is a ramdrive created by the boot disk.
The D: is the CDROM and it will move back to E: when you get the hard drive issue resolved.
Your hard drive is dead. It is not being recognized by the BIOS durning POST.
You could open the machine and look at the drive, then download and run the diagnostics that match the drive.
When you get a drive that is recognized during POST you boot off the 98 floppy and run fdisk, create partition, or even better would be to get the CDROM as first boot device and let the OS automatically install.
Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.
The D: is the CDROM and it will move back to E: when you get the hard drive issue resolved.
Your hard drive is dead. It is not being recognized by the BIOS durning POST.
You could open the machine and look at the drive, then download and run the diagnostics that match the drive.
When you get a drive that is recognized during POST you boot off the 98 floppy and run fdisk, create partition, or even better would be to get the CDROM as first boot device and let the OS automatically install.
Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.
- Thread starter
- #9
When you say it's dead, does that mean there's no hope for it? It needs to be replaced? Or does this diagnostics thing have a chance of reviving it? Do I really need to open it up and look at it? According to a spec page from Compaq it has a 4.3 GB UltraDMA hard drive. When I checked the IDE Devices in Setup there was something about Ultra 33. Would this possibly give enough information to determine which diagnostics to download? And if so, where does one go to get the download?
The BIOS can't find the drive. There are mixed messages between the CMOS and fdisk so the diagnostics would be the ultimate authority.
You would need to open the case to look for a manufacturer's label to know what web site to go to for the diagnostics. They are manufacturer specific, mostly. You usually go to and get to the support page, then support downloads. Or do a google search for "drivemaker support".
The generic description doesn't tell us enough to know what you have.
Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.
You would need to open the case to look for a manufacturer's label to know what web site to go to for the diagnostics. They are manufacturer specific, mostly. You usually go to and get to the support page, then support downloads. Or do a google search for "drivemaker support".
The generic description doesn't tell us enough to know what you have.
Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.
- Thread starter
- #11
I took the box apart, identified the hard drive and downloaded the diagnostics. I couldn't find the website but was able to follow the links in to Seagate's site and download from there. I ran the diagnostics (2x just to be sure) and was not able to recognize the hard drive. My next step is to obtain a replacement and install it. I appreciate all the valuable help. Thank you!
- Thread starter
- #12
Well now this seems really strange. I installed a different hard drive in the computer and ran diagnostics against it. The diagnostics correctly identified the hard drive. When I checked the BIOS it listed the C drive under the boot order. I then booted with the 1st of 2 QuickRestore CDs that were provided with my computer. It partitioned the hard drive and then formatted it. It then started to copy the files to the hard drive. The first CD completed and I inserted the 2nd CD. It started copying additional files. I then ended up with an error that read: 352275 ZIP 14176kB CRC ERROR READING DRIVE D: ABORT, RETRY, IGNORE. I tried Retry, same error. I tried Ignore, same error. Then I tried Abort. Then I just got ERROR READING DRIVE D: ABORT RETRY FAIL. I tried Retry, no luck. Then Fail, no luck, Then Abort. No change. At this point I tried rebooting with the 1st CD again. I kept getting ERROR ACCESSING HARD DRIVE. At this point I tried running the diagnostics again. It didn't identify the hard drive. It seems like I'm back in the same position I was before I tried installing a different hard drive. Can there possibly be something inside the box that is just frying the hard drives? I don't want to put any more money into it if it's just going to keep ruining the hard drives.
- Status
Similar threads
- Locked
- Question
- Locked
- Question
