I know just enough to be dangerous, but am trying to help my mother who was given a 9-year-old Dell MCM Computer. Everything was erased from the hard drive. She tried to put Windows 2000 disk in and was told that there was no hard drive. I'm assuming that I need to create a bootable disk to get it up to load Windows. Where do I start and what steps do I take. Thanks!
Older Computer with Hard Drive Wiped Clean, Need Help Staring Over
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Welcome to TSF!
So is it booting to the Win2K CD, loading some files, but then saying there is no hard drive?
Or do you get that message right away?
You may have to go into the BIOS (aka System Setup) and set it to boot from the CD first. Press the DEL key while the Dell logo is displayed. This should be indicated on the screen.
You can go to Dell's support web site, click on Drivers and Downloads, then enter the service tag, which should be on a label someplace, and get to the support page for this model. This will have the User Guides and any drivers you may need.
First, open the case and make sure the cables haven't come loose from the hard drive.
If the CD isn't bootable, or this system can't boot from a CD, you can create the 4 Setup floppies from the CD to start the install. You'll need another PC with a floppy drive, or a DOS boot disk with CD-ROM support like a Win98 startup disk.
How To Create Setup Boot Disks for Windows 2000
HTH
Jerry
So is it booting to the Win2K CD, loading some files, but then saying there is no hard drive?
Or do you get that message right away?
You may have to go into the BIOS (aka System Setup) and set it to boot from the CD first. Press the DEL key while the Dell logo is displayed. This should be indicated on the screen.
You can go to Dell's support web site, click on Drivers and Downloads, then enter the service tag, which should be on a label someplace, and get to the support page for this model. This will have the User Guides and any drivers you may need.
First, open the case and make sure the cables haven't come loose from the hard drive.
If the CD isn't bootable, or this system can't boot from a CD, you can create the 4 Setup floppies from the CD to start the install. You'll need another PC with a floppy drive, or a DOS boot disk with CD-ROM support like a Win98 startup disk.
How To Create Setup Boot Disks for Windows 2000
HTH
Jerry
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