CD ROM will not work?

[shadow_man]

Here's the deal.. A buddy used maxblast to partition his HD and some how has his MBR altered or erased. I can read what he has in his data files in this way.

When the computer is done whit it's POST and windows is about to load, I hold down the Ctrl button and I get an option screen to boot from A: or C:. C: will not boot because the MBR can not be read, so I boot from A: using a W98 boot disk. I use the boot with CD support and it load the generic CD drivers and the files from A:. His HD has four partitions, C, D, E, and F. A: loads it's files on G: and the CD ROM drive is H:.

Now I put a CD in H drive and type dir H:\ at the prompt and get a 'drive not ready' error..

Could the CD ROM not be good or the generic drivers do not run the CD ROM. When the CD is inserted in the drive, the operation light comes on and you can hear it spin.

Any ideas out there???

If we need more info let me know.

shadow_man

[Floppyman]

Hi,

These links might help you out:

http://www.maxtor.com/products/Diamo...res/24019.html
http://www.maxtor.com/products/Diamo...res/24003.html

Let me know if these links were of any help and hope this helps.

[shadow_man]

Thanx Floppyman... Here's the latest .... The MBR must of been either deleated or a virus might have infected it as when you run DR MBR you get a 'no operating system' and when you run EZDRIVE/MBR you get the following error 'CDR101 not ready readind drive D'. It goes back to the question of is the CD ROM drive good??

The trick here is to reinstall W98 on drive C:/ without losing any of the data on any of the drives, but without access to the CD ROM this can not be done. A copy of the W98 install folder is on drive C:. If it were in on of the other drives, I assume it would be possible to access that folder and reinstall the operating system..

shadow_man

[glc]

Have you tried booting with a floppy and doing a FDISK/MBR ?

If EZ-Bios is installed this can be tricky - you have to wait for the boot choice screen before inserting the floppy - and it's possible the overlay itself is corrupted.

[shadow_man]

I haven't tried that glc. The EZ-Bios is installed and I have an option of hitting the Ctrl button during the boot and if I do that I get a option screen with the option of booting using A: or C:. By doing this, I can see what is on the other drives as explained in the first post of this thread.

Question? What exactly happens by doing a FDISK/MBR?

I'm more than sure the overlay is corrupted and thats more likely the reason we have this problem.

I still wonder about the CD ROM and why the 'not ready reading drive x"?

shadow_man

[glc]

fdisk/mbr simply rewrites the master boot record. It's a standard way to get rid of boot sector viruses. You need to run Maxblast again to reset the overlay.

Try cleaning the CD drive, the lens might be dusty.

[mike breck]

I remember reading that many errors can be caused by trying to boot directly from a Startup Disk when EZ-BIOS is installed. I'm not saying you're doing that - but here are the notes I took when playing around with MaxBlast.

This is the correct procedure for using a Startup disk when EZ-BIOS is installed.

"Boot from the HD and press CTRL when you see the initial BIOS message. Keep holding until next message appears.
When done correctly, the boot code is loaded and a status screen is displayed.
At this point type A: and insert a Bootdisk.
Press Enter.
It then then boot from the Floppy with Boot Code loader in memory."
You may then use the utilities on the Startup Disk."

Here is how to repair EZ-BIOS:

"Restoring the Boot Track using MaxBlast if Partition Table damaged OR GETTING READ ERRORS FROM COMPONENTS and/or EZ-BIOS

Boot using MaxBlast Floppy
Enter "Advanced Options" and select "BACKUP/RESTORE TRACK 0"

So it may be worthwhile trying to repair the EZ-BIOS.

[shadow_man]

We pretty well have written the MBR off as being corrupted and can not be read. The solutions as suggested by all have been done to no avail, execpt FDISK/MBR. The BACKUP/RESTORE TRACK 0 has beendone and when one boots the computer we get a 'NO OPERATING SYSTEM' read after the BIOS boot and 'loading W98'.

The problem is that the CD ROM returns 'NOT READY READING DRIVE X'. I will get a lens cleaning kit and try that as suggested by glc. Without the CD ROM one can not reinstall the OS..

Thanx all for the suggestions so far.

shadow_man

[mike breck]

I don't know if you need this, but I'll go thro it anyway.

Follow the correct procedure above to get to the A: using a Startup Disk.

Type FDISK /MBR and press enter.

Might also be a good idea to type SYS C: and press enter. This will tranfer the system files from the floppy to the HD. Just in case they are hosed.

Then you can uninstall EZ-BIOS using the Maxblast Floppy and reinstall it again.

BTW if by any chance the Windows folder had been copied from the Windows CD to the HD, then Windows can be reinstalled without the Windows CD. However, you need to be able to access the HD first.

HTH

[shadow_man]

Thanx mike breck..

I will try that a later when I have access to the computer.

The W98 install folder is on C: drive and if we can access that drive and as you say I will not need the CD.

The goal all along was to reinstall the OS via the CD ROM, but we ran into the non read from the CD ROM, then we worked on accessing C: drive so to reinstall the OS.

It's been some time since I worked with FDISK and the Maxblast software that it takes rethinking on my part.

Will let all know the out come.

shadow_man

[mike breck]

No problem.

I'm thinking it might be a good idea to try another IDE cable for the CD-Rom and another CD-Rom if the lens cleaning doesn't work. Also you could test the CD-Rom with it's IDE cable in another PC and make sure they are working. Might save you a lot of time and effort.

Also try switching the power leads to the CD-Rom and HD around - just in case one or more are faulty.

The HD and CD-Rom problems may or may not be related.

Murphy's Law and PCs?

[shadow_man]

Thanx again mike..

Will keep in touch..

shadow_man

[shadow_man]

Just a quick update.. When the W98 boot disk loads and asks for cd support and you say yes, It finds the CD and loads the the drivers and returns...MSCD001 NO. of devices = 1 and then it goes on and completes it boot process and returns that ther is no FAT system, or one my be using 3rd party software, or the disk my be unformatted , or ths ther my be a virus infectingthe disk.. and the it case of just booting just with the W98 boot disk, returns Drive D = driver MSCD001 unit = 0. Same thing when holding the ctrl for the EZ-BIOS and loading from A:. Just a diferent drive letter for the HD as EZ-BIOS recognizes all the drives but C: and G: is where the trouble shooting files are.

As far as the last suggestions from mike, they did not work and the only thing that I did not do is change out the CD.

The MB is a PCChips M571 v 3.2 and this bios does not see a HD over 8.4 gig and the installed HD is 13 gig hence the EZ-BIOS. I am told that the bios is flashable and I have the flash program and the upgrade data file.

By the way the FDISK/MBR did nothing???

shadow_man

[mike breck]

Sorry to hear that.

Are you able to access the BIOS? If so, you could check the HD and CD-Rom are being detected properly. Reset to Failsafe defaults if necessary and try clearing the BIOS via the jumper on the mobo.

Another option is to slave the HD on another PC and see if it is working and you can access it.

Try running the HD manufacturers diagnostic utility on the HD.

You may have end up having to format C: and making a clean install of Windows. If your friend has backed up all his important data to the other partitions, then that wouldn't be such a bad step.

[shadow_man]

Here's the setup of the HD and CD ROM. Both are masters on seperate IDE channels. The BIOS is set to auto for the HD detection and the CD ROM is detected as master on the second IDE channel.

I have a 2.1 gig HD that has W98 on it and could use that as the master and slave the problem HD on the first IDE.

shadow_man