d3play

Where do I start.. here is the problem. A friend of mine type in ms-dos C:\ format. She formatted the C drive. I got it from her and attempted to restore and repair the HHD. no bad sectors seem to be physically fine. I place the Win xp installation disk into CDROM rebooted press DEL to get to setup screen. Selected Bios then selected to boot from to CDROM. I got a message Verifying DMI Pool Data....Invalid sytem disk
Replace the disk, and then press any key

Bear in mind she has no installation disk or windows bootdisk for Win ME.

Please tell me what can I do at this point. any help would be greatly appreciated.

blah789

What is important to you? The data, or getting the system back up and running again?
If you don't care about the data, then your idea was good (reinstalling from scratch). If you're trying to get the data back, that was the worst thing to attempt, because you're overwriting what's under there.
If you want the data back, you'll probably want to use file recovery software. Ask in the hard drive board for a good list. Basically you'll attach the hard drive as a slave drive and boot from the OS on another drive, then run the recovery software and copy what can be salvaged to the running drive. You can also try this by putting the old drive into a USB enclosure.

As for trying to boot from the CD I'm not sure what would prevent it from booting. If the setting in BIOS has been set, then the CD drive should be bootable. Are you sure the disc itself is bootable? Insert it into another computer and try booting from it.

d3play

She is not concern about the data at this point. She just wants the system up and running with anything from Win 3.0 to Vista. Its her son and school work basically. So reinstalling from scratch was what I had in mind. the win xp installation disk I have used to install on another computer before with no problems. This one i am getting frustrated. the Ver seems to be Win Millennium {Version 4.90.3000} Dir C: is empty
I had to make an MSDOS bootable disk using the a: just to get this far. My knowledge is quite limited as you can see. What would be my next step?

blah789

I don't know what version of the DOS bootable floppy you're using, but here's something you can try (kind of lengthy)
type dir /p when you boot from the DOS floppy. Do you see the following files
fdisk.exe
sys.com
himem.sys
oakcdrom.sys
mscdex.exe
smartdrv.exe
yes/no for each and maybe list more.

type fdisk and just check how the hard drive is partitioned and report back. (Just want to know how it's partitioned, and what drive letters are in use - I expect it to be one primary partition, C:, FAT32, and full size of hard drive)

If all the above checks out, re-boot from the DOS floppy. Then type
sys c:
That will transfer the files needed to boot from the C: drive (io.sys msdos.sys and command.com). Then type
copy himem.sys c:
that will copy himem.sys to c:. Then type
copy oakcdrom.sys c:
that will copy oakcdrom.sys to c: (that's an ATAPI CD-ROM driver). Then type
copy mscdex.exe c:
that copies mscdex.exe to c:. Then type
copy smartdrv.exe c:

Next is the difficult part. The copy con command requires you type each line correctly (once you hit enter you can't go back and correct the previous line - however you can backspace on the current line). Type
c:
(that will switch you over to the C: drive). Then type
copy con config.sys [enter]
device=himem.sys [enter]
device=oakcdrom.sys /D:mscd001 [enter]
[F6] [enter]
([enter] just means press enter [F6] means press F6 - do not type F, then type 6!)
That should have created config.sys correctly. To check type
type config.sys
and it should print out the contents. If you mistyped, you can type
del config.sys
to delete it, and recreate it again using copy con as mentioned above.

Then type
copy con autoexec.bat [enter]
mscdex.exe /d:mscd001 /l:d [enter]
[F6] [enter]
That should create autoexec.bat. You can verify as before by typing
type autoexec.bat

Explanation:
himem.sys allows DOS to use memory beyond the 1MB barrier. device=oakcdrom.sys loads the ATAPI CD-ROM driver. the /D:mscd001 just gives it a name. instead of mscd001 you could have used anything. mscdex.exe is the program to assign a drive letter to the CD-ROM drive. /d:mscd001 just says which driver from memory (in this case mscd001, but if you'd typed a diff name in config.sys, you have to make sure it matches). then /l:d assigns it the drive letter D: Note: if you have more than one partition (say you have C: D: and E: as partitions for your hard drive), you may want to use a different letter for the CD-ROM drive (in this example F:). I used D: because I assume you only one hard disk partition (C:).

Now take out the floppy disk and reboot. You should be booting from the C: drive without any glitches (it should tell you himem is loading, and the cd-rom drive letter should be assigned).
First thing to do is type
smartdrv
it will tremendously speed things up (smartdrv is a disk caching utility).
Then insert your Windows XP CD and type
D:
that will switch you over to the D: drive. Just to check, type
dir
and you should see a listing of files on the CD-ROM. type
cd i386
then type
cd
just to make sure you're in the D:\I386 directory. I've found in some cases it returns me to D:\! Never knew why. If that's the case, type cd i386 again and it should work. Finally, type
winnt
and the text setup should start. It may take a minute or so before it starts copying files so be patient.

Any glitches, just get back to this thread.

TheOutcaste

First, what are the specs for that PC? Will it even run XP is a usable manner?
While the minimum specs for XP are pretty low, it will run like a dog on some older systems.
Best to have at least a PIII 700MHz or faster processor.
256 MiB RAM (increasing to 384-512 will make a very noticeable difference) 1GiB is even better.
20 GiB hard drive. For example, XP, Office 2003, and Norton SystemWorks 2003 easily takes 10 GiB

The Invalid System disk error means either you didn't save the setting to boot from CD first, or the XP disk is not bootable, and it falls through to the HD, which doesn't have an OS any more. double check the BIOS settings, and try booting with the disk on another PC to verify the CD is bootable.

If you are going to install XP and the CD won't boot I'd recommend using the XP setup floppies rather than a DOS/Win9x floppy. This will let you format the partition as NTFS rather than FAT32 for one thing.
XP Floppy images can be downloaded from Microsoft
Be sure to get the version that matches the Service Pack on the CD.
To check the Service Pack included on a CD, check the root of the CD for these files:
WIN51
WIN51I P
WIN51I P.SP X
The P is XP Pro, if it's C it's XP Home
The X is the Service Pack Number. If that last file is not present, it has no Service Pack.

HTH

Jerry

d3play

AMD-K-6 2/500 AFX CPU probably built in 2000!

Its apparent that I hadn't even gotten on base. I am not sure of the vers. of MS Dos but the disk dir doesn't contain any of the files you mentioned. Only the following:
command.com
display.sys
ega.cpi
ega2.cpi
ega3.cpi
keb.com
keyboard.sys
keybrd2.sys
keybrd3.sys
keybrd4.sys
mode.com
autoexec.bat
config.sys

Riskyone101

Hello and Welcome to TSF,

Well you used the wrong command for doing a repair on the operating
system. Heres the correct one:

start
run
type
cmd
chkdsk /r (notice 1 space between k and /).

Now as for the formatting of the harddrive (which means erasing the drive)
but 3rd party programs can be used to retrieve data.


If ou dont need to retrieve data from the harddrive, then you will need
a operating system cd disc to reinstall windows onto the harddrive.

blah789

I used to have a K6-2 500 too. It was from Compaq and was able to boot from CD's and DVD's.

Anyways, back to the problem. The link posted by theoutcaste was good
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310994
it's for making the boot floppies (probably about 4 or 5). If you have another PC with floppy drives, create them (you have to scroll down a bit on that page to find the proper download).
His other advice is also good: make sure you pick save settings and exit when you exit the BIOS or it won't remember your selection (boot from CD first). Some people just press ctrl-alt-del to exit when they change their BIOS settings and expect them to be saved!

The easy way to find out the version of DOS/Windows on the floppy is to type
ver
after you boot from the floppy disk. Do you have any space left on the floppy? Type dir and it should list the files and tell you how much space is left. If you have room you could add some of the extra files needed so you can pass control to the CD-ROM.

d3play

Well I did manage to download the 6 disk on floppy. I proceeded to loading disk 1-6. Disk #6 seem to stall. It says please wait but does not display types of files it maybe adding like the previous files listed on the bottom bar. Disk is making a whole lot of noise for 10 min. When it finally stops the blue screen is still with no words or additional instructions given and no command prompt line. I hit the enter key and on the bottom bar has \register\machine\hardware\devicemap\scsi\scsi port 0 and it stops there. press enter again and iI suspect we still t just loops back same statement. Is disk # 6 a bad or corrupted floppy. Where are the files from disk 1-5 being located?
Well placed a win xp install disk and got the following: Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: <Windows root>\system32\hal.dll. Please re-install a copy of the above file. nothing on D: E: or C: drive at this point. What's next?

d3play

This is not cool but maybe have something here. This is the following partition info:

Current fixed disk drive: 1
Partition: 1
Status= A
Type = Non-DOS
Mbytes = 1078
System = 1
Usage = 100
Total disk space 8025 Mbytes

blah789

It's very possible the last floppy didn't write correctly. Floppy disk technology is fairly spotty these days. Half of the floppies I try in my drive don't even read. Not sure if it's the drive failing or the disks being manufactured too long ago. It's not just me though (been posted a lot on the forum).

Non-DOS probably means NTFS. Remember Windows 9x couldn't read NTFS partitions, only FAT. It's all good. Type ver and find out what version of Windows the floppy is. I'm thinking about getting you to copy the useful files onto the floppy.

d3play

I do have the floppy with MSDos 6.2 Basic
and the MSDOS 6.22 Full 30 file version which incudes all the files you mention previously. Got new floppy disks and will download Win XP Pro Startup again. Thinking may have been an old floppy (well used)for disk 6. So we don't need to partition at this point for C: and D: drives?

blah789

Oh gosh! MS-DOS 6.22 won't recognize partitions over 2GB so forget it! We'll use one of the boot floppies from bootdisk.com. Will walk you through it in a bit.

TheOutcaste

Not sure if the #6 disk is bad or not. Sounds like it loaded, but then hung testing the hardware. So you have anySCSI devices? Or even just a controller with nothing connected?
If so, you may want to remove it (or disable in BIOS if onboard).

If it's a SCSI hard drive, you may need to supply drivers so it can talk to the hardware properly.

You haven't said how much RAM the system has, 64 MiB is the minimum, but it'll be painful to use with just that much.

blah789

I hadn't used the boot floppies from bootdisk.com in a while so I didn't really recall how they worked or what they included. Gladly they do include the ability to stay in the DOS prompt without automatically passing control to the CD-ROM drive (meaning you can actually do stuff on the command-line). However I found this one didn't have smartdrv on it so we'll tweak it a little.

OK go to bootdisk.com and click on "Excellent Bootdisks" (first entry).
On the next page, click on Windows 98 SE OEM (if it doesn't work, get the mirror). Once the download completes, run it and it will build your floppy.
Now download smartdrv.exe from here
http://soporific.dsleague.com/downloads/smartdrv.exe
and copy it to the floppy. (that's the windows 98 SE version - did a byte-by-byte comparison with the one from my windows 98 SE CD - scan it with antivirus anyway, not because I'd link you to one, but because it's good practice to scan executables (make it a habit - anyone could disguise bad things with a legit file name)).

Next boot from the floppy. Pick "start computer with CD-ROM support". At the end you'll see the MSCDEX driver loading. Take note of where it says "Drive X: = Driver MSCD001 unit 0". Whatever the letter where I put X is, will be the letter of your CD-ROM drive (at least for now).
Just to be safe, run fdisk (type fdisk). Make sure the disk is detected to its full capacity and there's no misaligned or inconsistent entry. Exit fdisk.
Then type
smartdrv
X: (where X is the letter of your CD-ROM drive)
cd i386
winnt
and you should be good to go.

d3play

typed smardrv which listed smartdrv utility listing and switches
type E:
cd i386

CDR101: Not ready reading drive E
abort, retry, fail?


CDROM not High Sierra or ISO-9660 format reading drive E
Abort, Retry, Fail?

d3play

Update: So I have the WindowsME boot disk and the MSDOS 6.22 which has 30 files containing everything except oakcdrom which is found on the WinMe bootdisk. The only thing we can count on that works is a: command prompt. I really think the CDROM itself is the problem.(Reading disks) Is there anyway around installing Win XP Pro without access via CDROM? I also notice once i boot up with WinME boot disk and complete installation. type fdisk then enter choice 4 it would display
partition= C: 1
Status= A
Type PRI Dos
Vol Label blank
Mbytes= 76317
System= FAT32
Usage=100%

but when i reboot it goes back to:
Current fixed disk drive: 1
Partition: 1
Status= A
Type = Non-DOS
Mbytes = 1078
System = 1
Usage = 100
Total disk space 8025 Mbytes
Just wondered why is that?

PS: High Sierra or ISO-9660 format reading drive E came up when I was using the WinME Bootdisk under the selecting of CDROM Supported boot up.

So close to solving this one my friend. Really appreciate your help thus far.

blah789

Before you type E: then cd i386, make sure the XP CD is in the drive! Just double-checking before trying anything else.
After you type E:, type dir. Do you see any files being listed? If not, keep reading:

The High Sierra message suggests something wrong in the CD-ROM department. It could be a damaged CD, a loose cable, or a bad drive. The latter two would explain why you can't boot. Insert a different data CD (any will work) and type
E:
dir
to see if it can read and access the drive. If yes, then the XP CD is likely damaged. If no, then it's something with the drive or cabling. One last test to check if the XP CD is damaged would be to insert it into another computer and try to boot from it (when it's done loading all the drivers, press F3 to exit), and also to open it in explorer and copy all the files and folders to a folder you created (see that it copies without any read errors - takes about 5 minutes).
Next check if the CD-ROM cable is loose, or try using another cable. If all else fails and it really seems to be the drive, replace it. They're so cheap these days (get a DVD-ROM or CD-ROM drive off ebay).

When you're getting different readings for fdisk, are you running the same version of fdisk (like win 98 se or me or whichever it is) each time? If so there's a good chance the cable is loose or simply bad (inconsistent readings). I would lean more towards the idea the first reading is from windows 98se or me fdisk, and the second reading is from the DOS 6.22 fdisk (remember DOS can't read large hard drives, nor FAT32 partitions). Then there's the microscopic chance the drive is fried, but I really doubt it.

Remember to use the Windows 98 SE boot disk for all this! Don't use the DOS 6.22 disk!

Riskyone101

Are you using a full install windows cd?
Because an upgrade cd will not work for reinstalling windows.

blah789

Actually the upgrade CD does work. During text setup, if it doesn't find an old version of Windows it'll ask you to insert the CD for an older version of Windows.
As a matter of fact the screen looks just like this:
http://www.theeldergeek.com/images/X...Graphic/EE.gif