win98se retail boot disk failure

[carpeliam]

I'm just putting together a new system, and I decided to load Windows 98 first on it (I'll be installing 2000 on a seperate partition soon, so don't worry- I've gotten some strange looks after telling people this). As I didn't own a copy of windows 98, I bought one (local staples store). I spend a few hours putting the system together, and get into BIOS. Great, it works! Then I pop in the boot disk that comes with win98se (reminder- this isn't a boot disk created from win98, this is the one that comes with the package), and I get a message saying "I/O Failure". My first thought is, the floppy drive is the only thing that isn't brand new on the system. Then I tried an IBM boot disk that I had made prior to installing (from downloading off their site), and that seemed to work, which kind of ruled out the drive failure question.

So it seems that I have a bad win98 disk. Unfortunately, I can't get by with the ibm disk, because it starts up some processes that the setup program doesn't like. I've also tried booting from CD-ROM, but that's not working either.

Anyone know where I could get a fresh disk? Thanks... Liam Morley
lmorley@wpi.edu
"light the deep, and bring silence to the world.
light the world, and bring depth to the silence."

 

[reghakr]

Liam,

Doesn't sound like a boot disk issue, it sounds like a hardware issue. I'd go directly to IBM's site fo help.

You can try a bootdisk from

http://www.bootdisk.com

reghakr

 

[carpeliam]

Thanks for the response. Here's all I can make of it, though.. IBM made the HD, which seems fine. It's the FD that's having the issue, so I'm not sure what to ask IBM. And if some disks work ok and some others, it's not a consistent drive failure, so it's hard to see how it would be the drive rather than the disk itself. Maybe it's because I'm still waking up.. ) <p>Liam Morley<br><A HREF="mailto:"></A><br>&quot;light the deep, and bring silence to the world.<br>light the world, and bring depth to the silence.&quot;

 

[carpeliam]

akk, that was unreadable. &quot;if some disks work ok and others [don't], it's not a consistent drive failure..&quot; forgot a key word. Basically, though... IBM has nothing to do with the problem in my mind, as it could be their files or any other company's files that are on the floppy. So it would have to be the disk itself... that was the thought for that. <p>Liam Morley<br><A HREF="mailto:"></A><br>&quot;light the deep, and bring silence to the world.<br>light the world, and bring depth to the silence.&quot;

 

[edfair]

Supposedly there is an image on the cd under a /fat32 subdirectory. This info from bootdisk.com. And it is assuming that you can get access to the cd from the IBM software or another computer.
Or download one from the same place.
You lucked out. I haven't seen anything but upgrades available in retail locally.
Ed Fair
efair@atlnet.com

Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply.

Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[carpeliam]

I called Staples, they'll exchange it for me, hopefully that'll fix everything ) wish me luck... <p>Liam Morley<br><A HREF="mailto:"></A><br>&quot;light the deep, and bring silence to the world.<br>light the world, and bring depth to the silence.&quot;