Primarry Boot Disk error

[cuog]

Thats the error i get when i try to use either a WD 10 gb HD or one of the 4gig units outof my compaqs the comp is an AOPEN:

AX59PRO mobo
AMD K6-400
64Megs of RAM

I can use a boot disk to boot to DOS(it wount boot to any of my bootable CDs for some reason: 95, 2000, mandrake linux)

when i try and access the C: drive i get the CD drive and when i run the win95 installer it says that it cannot access the drive partition


the 10 gig has been formated to use FAT32 and the 4 gig has NTFS from when it had win2k in the compaq

Both drives can be set as a slave in the compaq and be accessed through windows


Now what else can i do?

Thanx for the help,
Cuog

[glc]

Are the drives seen in the bios? Remember that you cannot jumper a WD drive to master if it's the only drive on the cable. That motherboard may have an 8 gig bios limit if it's an original bios.

Older motherboards like that had problems booting with CD's.

Win 95 and 95a can't understand FAT32, much less NTFS. FAT32 didnt happen till 95B.

Stick the drives back in the Compaq and remove the partitions using disk management - start with a totally blank drive.

[cuog]

OK i will try that and post back hopefully it works, the BIOS will always recognise the 4 gig but the 10 gig is the one that came in the computer, i will try reformating both of them to FAT16 and try again thanx.

[glc]

What exact OS do you want to install?

[cuog]

win2k is what i am trying to get on there but the installer doesnt run from dos and the mobo wont boot from the CD

[glc]

The AX59 Pro should boot with a CD. You may want to upgrade your bios and make sure the CD drive you have is capable of booting, older drives are generally not - if it's a 24x or better it should.

[PommieB]

You need to do some research on your motherboard and current bios, updating to win 2000 can be problematic, especially where comports are concerned, it's common for the comports to throw up question marks after the install, my advise would be to flash the with the latest bios, this may also solve your booting problems as the new bios will probably boot from cd, you can also try using win 98 or win mill boot floppy which as options on booting from cd on it, what that will do is download a generic cd driver allowing the win2000 disk to work, doesn't always work though.

[PommieB]

I will also add, that downloading a generic cd driver will probably not allow you to boot from the win2000 cd, or anyother boot cd, you will have to put the win2000 cd rom in another computer and explore the files and folders, to check the name of the win 2000 fdisk program, and note its exact file name and path on the CD.

You will then have to boot from floppy, load the win 2000 cd into cd drive or dvd drive, download the generic CD driver, then navigate using dos commands to the E: drive, which will now be accessable, then navigate to that particular file, so that you can format you drive with ntfs, if you simply navigate to setup and run it, it probably won't work until the disk as been partitioned and formatted.

The setup seems to bypass the partitioning and formatting and goes straight into the windows setup and then fails because the disk as not been formatted. This is all from memory, but I do have a old atx mid tower computer sitting in the shed, its an old intel BX Motherboard and it only boots from A,C drives, it has a 4g hardrive and a 4 mb S3 trio agp card.

I reformatted it to win millenium around 2001 using the above technique and it worked fine, I did partition with fdisk and formatted it with format .exe on the mill start up disk, mill refused to format the drive, when I started the setup file in dos.

I didn't explore the disk as it was fat32, which format.exe will handle. I hope this post helps.

[glc]

There are only 2 ways to install Win2000 without a bootable CD.

1. Make the 4 boot floppies.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;197063

2. Make a Win98 startup disk and copy smartdrv.exe to it. Boot with it with CD support, when you get to the A prompt type SMARTDRV. Put the CD in the drive. Then change to the CD drive letter, change to the \i386 directory, and type WINNT.

[PommieB]

My appologies the info on win2000 was not correct, but you can create a four disk set of floppy disks using the MAKEBOOT32.EXE in the BOOTDISK folder, but glc's SMARTDRIVE seems a much easier way of doing it.

[glc]

As per the Microsoft article, its makebt32.exe if you are doing it with Windows or makeboot.exe if you are doing it with Dos. Makeboot32.exe does not exist.

[PommieB]

It does on my win 2000 disk, I used to today to create 4 boot disks, I checked it out to make sure the post was correct, I was able to fully install win 2000 on a spare hardrive, with absolutely no problems. Get your facts right mate.

[glc]

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;197063

NOTES
• You do not have to be running Windows 2000 to create the Setup Boot disks. A directory called \Bootdisk resides in the root of the Windows 2000 Setup CD. This directory contains two utilities capable of generating the 4 Setup Boot floppies. If you are booted into Windows 9x you will need to run the 32-bit version of this utility called makebt32.exe. If you are in DOS, or booted with a Windows 98 Startup Floppy that has access to the CDROM, you can use the 16-bit version called makeboot.exe.

Straight from Microsoft. Don't give ME a hard time.

http://forum.pcmech.com/rules.php

The PC Mechanic Tech Forums are a place for a person of any user level, to ask any technical question, and get a civil and straightforward answer

Flaming and Harassment
The moderator staff will not tolerate flaming, childish name-calling or other types of personal attacks on the forum. All members, as adults, are expected to be able to have civil discussions at all times, regardless of whether they agree or not.

[PommieB]

Actually I wasn,t giving you a hard time, it was actually you giving me an hard time, the machine I tested it on didn,t have a an operating system on it, it was an old eight year old machine, that has a bios that doesn't boot from cd, I decided to test it so I could give the person who originally posted, the correct answer.

I checked the files and folders of the win2000 disk, to get a correct path to a file that would create those 4 dos disks, you posted that the file makebt32.exe didn't exist, which wasn't correct, by doing that you virtually called me a liar, now suddenly the file does exist, the worst thing I asked you to do was check your facts, which you have done.

And as far as bottom two quotes are concerned, I haven't violated either of these rules, and I wouldn't consider that I have harassed or flamed you or anyone in any way and I have read the forum rules and I haven't broken any of these rules, mate by way means friend in australia, it's not an insult.

I would assume these rules are for moderators as well, but I'll move on, if that's what you want.

[glc]

You said: you can create a four disk set of floppy disks using the MAKEBOOT32.EXE in the BOOTDISK folder

I said:As per the Microsoft article, its makebt32.exe if you are doing it with Windows or makeboot.exe if you are doing it with Dos. Makeboot32.exe does not exist.

You said:you posted that the file makebt32.exe didn't exist, which wasn't correct, by doing that you virtually called me a liar

I said that MAKEBOOT32.EXE doesn't exist. I'm not calling you a liar, I'm just stressing accuracy.

Get your facts right mate.

THAT is what I was objecting to, and I'm not objecting to "mate" at ALL. My facts WERE right, and if you can ever prove me wrong, I welcome it as it's in the best interests of the whole forum.

Let's both move on now that the facts are straight and correct.

[PommieB]

Actually glc I would prefer move on, but I would like to add without upsetting anyone that the win 2000 disk which is a corporate disk which I have, as the file MAKEBOOT32.EXE and the other file that you referred to is MAKEBOOT.EXE, so obviously microsoft as varied the naming of these files over the existance of win2000 over the age of it's release, the release I have is a very early release without any sp packs, obviously microsoft changed this file on later releases.

[glc]

That's very unusual, because every Microsoft operating system distribution I have *ever* seen has followed 8.3 convention for backwards readability.

[cuog]

Hey thanx for all the info i finally have time and im making the boot disks now to try it, i think the misunderstanding here with the file names is that the microsoft article is for win200pro and server the names might be different for win2000 home edition, just a thought. ill let everyone know how it comes as soon as it does.

[glc]

There is no Win2000 Home - just Pro and various server editions. ME was the parallel home OS.

[cuog]

It WORKS!

I finally got it working yesterday it boots to windows and run Half life!

The only problem is that the USB controller is "unsuportted" can i get a driver for this or do i have to buy a pci usb controller?

[glc]

http://downloads.viaarena.com/drivers/4in1/VIA_4in1_443v.zip
http://downloads.viaarena.com/drivers/others/usbf_110.zip

[cuog]

im guessing i download the files and unzip-install them,

Thanx, a ton glc I'd still be stubbing my toes on this computer instead of using it if it werent for you.