PC asks for A:\ drive on starting?!

StressedDad · 02-01-2006, 06:58 AM

Hi ev 1.
Long story short - Kids crashed their old pc ( win98se ).
D:\, ( their cdrom drive ) had dissapeared and display settings gone weird.
After checking it all over ( in bits..lol ) i formatted it, as i've done on a few pc's.I've got my win 98 disk,and the startup floppy. Anyway,all seemed ok,looked in fdisk,all ok, one system,fat32 etc BUT i couldn't access E:\ to re install 98. After messing with another cdrom(jumper settings) and all the IDE cables etc,it 'found' the cdrom.Installed.Great.
But...now on startup ( with no disks in ) it gives me the menu for start with cdrom support etc?? Press ok and it flashes on win 98,then hangs on black screen saying 'not ready reading drive a:\,please insert disk, abort,retry,fail.'
So i press 'a' and off she goes and loads as normal, with the floppy wizzing round,empty.

More annoying than a problem, just wondered if anyone could shed any light on it?

Cheers, Dave.

Tumbleweed36 · 02-01-2006, 09:30 AM

HI,

Two things you need to look at. First of all, make sure the red stripe on the cable connecting this device is facing toward the power connector. Otherwise, flip the cable over and try it. Then, make sure your boot order is set to:

CDRom - 1st (you can also have the floppy first if you prefer, I don't)
Floppy - 2nd
Hard Drive l- 3rd

Duckster1 · 02-01-2006, 09:34 AM

Why not fdisk and delete the partition, get a new partion and reformat and install a fresh W98. It seems the MBR is probaly corrupted and a fresh install is probaly the best way to go! Check the bios and see what the boot sequence is! Change the boot sequence to Hard drive, cd, floppy.
What mobo do you have?

Chevy · 02-01-2006, 09:42 AM

Sounds like you copied the config.sys and/or the autoexec.bat from the floppy to the hard drive (thus the same menu as when booting to floppy).

Boot to the floppy, and at the a: prompt run these two commands

ren c:\autoexec.bat autoexec.bak

(press ENTER)

ren c:\config.sys config.bak

(press ENTER)

Take out the floppy and reboot.

StressedDad · 02-02-2006, 05:37 AM

"Sounds like you copied the config.sys and/or the autoexec.bat from the floppy to the hard drive (thus the same menu as when booting to floppy)."

oops......i did copy the files from the startup floppy to either c: or d: while in dos mode

, while trying to install the cdrom drivers.
Now, in 'my computer', it shows a 2mb ram drive as D:\ and the cdrom drive is now E:\ !!
Lol, i feel like a shmuck! So how do i delete these files.Do the ren thing? or will a fresh format/install be better?
Cheers guys, Top forum

02-01-2006, 06:58 AM	#1 (permalink)
StressedDad Registered User Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Bradford,Yorkshire - UK Posts: 26 OS: XP Home 40gb	PC asks for A:\ drive on starting?! Hi ev 1. Long story short - Kids crashed their old pc ( win98se ). D:\, ( their cdrom drive ) had dissapeared and display settings gone weird. After checking it all over ( in bits..lol ) i formatted it, as i've done on a few pc's.I've got my win 98 disk,and the startup floppy. Anyway,all seemed ok,looked in fdisk,all ok, one system,fat32 etc BUT i couldn't access E:\ to re install 98. After messing with another cdrom(jumper settings) and all the IDE cables etc,it 'found' the cdrom.Installed.Great. But...now on startup ( with no disks in ) it gives me the menu for start with cdrom support etc?? Press ok and it flashes on win 98,then hangs on black screen saying 'not ready reading drive a:\,please insert disk, abort,retry,fail.' So i press 'a' and off she goes and loads as normal, with the floppy wizzing round,empty. More annoying than a problem, just wondered if anyone could shed any light on it? Cheers, Dave. __________________ No point crying over spilt milk

02-01-2006, 09:30 AM	#2 (permalink)
Tumbleweed36 Asst Manager Hardware Join Date: May 2005 Location: USA Posts: 19,662 OS: XP Professional	HI, Two things you need to look at. First of all, make sure the red stripe on the cable connecting this device is facing toward the power connector. Otherwise, flip the cable over and try it. Then, make sure your boot order is set to: CDRom - 1st (you can also have the floppy first if you prefer, I don't) Floppy - 2nd Hard Drive l- 3rd __________________ ---------- I don't receive email notifications of replies to subscribed threads. (Internet provider policy) Therefore, if I don't respond to your post within 24 hours, please send me a reminder PM and include the link to your thread.

02-01-2006, 09:34 AM	#3 (permalink)
Duckster1 Registered User Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Swink Colorado Posts: 172 OS: WXP Pro	Why not fdisk and delete the partition, get a new partion and reformat and install a fresh W98. It seems the MBR is probaly corrupted and a fresh install is probaly the best way to go! Check the bios and see what the boot sequence is! Change the boot sequence to Hard drive, cd, floppy. What mobo do you have? __________________ Duck

02-02-2006, 05:37 AM	#5 (permalink)
StressedDad Registered User Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Bradford,Yorkshire - UK Posts: 26 OS: XP Home 40gb	"Sounds like you copied the config.sys and/or the autoexec.bat from the floppy to the hard drive (thus the same menu as when booting to floppy)." oops......i did copy the files from the startup floppy to either c: or d: while in dos mode , while trying to install the cdrom drivers. Now, in 'my computer', it shows a 2mb ram drive as D:\ and the cdrom drive is now E:\ !! Lol, i feel like a shmuck! So how do i delete these files.Do the ren thing? or will a fresh format/install be better? Cheers guys, Top forum __________________ No point crying over spilt milk

02-01-2006, 09:42 AM	#4 (permalink)
Chevy Retired Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Notlob Posts: 5,452 OS: Vista Ultimate My System	Sounds like you copied the config.sys and/or the autoexec.bat from the floppy to the hard drive (thus the same menu as when booting to floppy). Boot to the floppy, and at the a: prompt run these two commands ren c:\autoexec.bat autoexec.bak (press ENTER) ren c:\config.sys config.bak (press ENTER) Take out the floppy and reboot.