[aimlee1975]

This is my mothers computer, she has win 98. She deleted her outlook express and when she restarted the computer it said.

"Error loading operating system. Setup cannot continue"

This computer does not have any restore disks, I have a copy of win 98 v.1 disk on hand though.
I use the boot disk to start the computer without cdrom support and it says:
Windows 98 has detected that drive C does not contain a valid fat or fat32 partition.
So I tried fdisk, I get all the way to" Press 1 to select the Create Primary DOS Partition menu option, and then press ENTER,
then it says: NO SPACE TO CREATE A DOS PARTITION press esc to continue?
Now I am lost.... Any clues on what to do?

 

[Guest]

Welcome to the forums aimlee1975..................

Try this! Boot to your W98 boot floppy and choose no CD-Rom Support.

At the A:> Prompt type "fdisk /mbr" without the quotes and then press enter. It will be real quick so don't fret. Remove the floppy and hit Control, Alt, Delete to reboot.

 

[aimlee1975]

Thanks for the welcome, and the reply! :winkgrin:

Well i did what you said and when I ctrl alt del to reboot it comes back on saying "Invalid partition table."
and no prompt just a blinking cursor

 

[x5dr]

you can go to www.blackviper.com for pictured instructions on fdisking. If you are trying to do a clean install you need to delete all partitions first and then create a new one. ..then format...and install 98.

(links seem to take you back to this site so you will have to type blackviper in a new window)

 

[Guest]

Boot to the floppy again.

At the A:> prompt type cd c:\ then enter.

It should change to a C:>

If it does type cd windows then enter.

It should change to windows

Then type dir/p and hit enter.

If Windows is on this hard drive it should list the directory, if all of these commands are correct. It's been a while.............

 

[aimlee1975]

Okay i did that,
it says volume in drive c is ms-ramdrive
directory of c:\
attrib exe
chkdsk exe
command com
debug exe
edit com
ext exe
extract
format com
help bat
mscdex exe
readme txt
restart com
scandisk exe
scandisk ini
sys com
15 files 594, 217
0 dir 1, 487, 872 bytes free
-----------------------
i appreciate all the help u r giving me

 

[Volt-Schwibe]

oh no

if it shows c: as Ramdrive, then your machine isnt detecting your hard disk at all....

you just might not be able to fix this without running fdisk...

i would try booting it from the boot floppy, and run fdisk, and tell it to display partition information. if you dont make changes, then it cant do any damage to use fdisk to look.

you should get a warning if there isnt a c drive showing up, and that will tell you if there is even a hard disk connected. if it says there isnt a hard disk detected, then check to see if any cables have come loose.

but if you get into fdisk's menu and choose display partition information and dont see any partitions, then something odd is up.

i dont see why deleting outlook express could have caused all this havoc though.

i delete that crap from every machine i come close to, and ive never had it do anything like this.

was someone inside it? (physically)

~BoB~

 

[Guest]

OK aimlee1975 lets try this..................

I am going to assume that you have one hard drive and one CD burner or reader in your machine!

Put your Windows 98 CD into the CD player.

Boot to your Win98 boot disk and this time choose boot with CD-Rom support.

After it is done booting type e: then enter and it should give you an E prompt this should now be your CD Player.

Type setup then enter and follow the prompts as if doing a new install entering your CD key number when prompted.

Let us know if it loads Windows or gives you any errors.

 

[aimlee1975]

Thank you

i just wanted to say thanks, I finally got it all right !
I just have to find my product key, i put windows xp on it instead, because for some reason i couldn't get my win 98 to autorun.
but i cant find my key, so once that is done, I am set!
THANK YOU THANK YOU:winkgrin: :winkgrin: