Hard Drive: FAT16 1

[Hpunch]

After the detection of floppy a: on bootup, the pc does not bootup further.&nbsp;&nbsp;I do not get a DOS prompt or any errors.&nbsp;&nbsp;I booted up with a boot disk, but when I get into the C: drive and try changing directories, I get an error &quot;file allocation table bad, drive c:&quot;.&nbsp;&nbsp;I can access other drive letters via command line. I am thinking its either a bad hard drive or a virus.<br><br>Machine Specs:<br>Dell XPS Dimension 133<br>Win95A<br>FAT16 1.6gb hard drive<br><br>Any suggestions?

 

[Karl Blessing]

um, means FAT is bad, I guess if you have any repair tools like Norton, or something, might help, or Partition Magic, But some more details on what you know that might have caused it to do this, or what you were doing before this happened. <p>Karl<br><a href=mailto:kb244@kb244.8m.com>kb244@kb244.8m.com</a><br><a href=

http://kb244.8m.com>

</a><br>Experienced in , or have messed with : VC++, Borland C++ Builder, VJ++6(starting),VB-Dos, VB1 thru VB6, Delphi 3 pro, Borland C++ 3(DOS), Borland C++ 4.5, HTML, ASP(somewhat), QBasic(least i didnt start with COBOL)

 

[Hpunch]

Thanks for the info kb244.<br><br>I'll try to get more info.&nbsp;&nbsp;Do you think typing in fdisk /mbr would help?<br><br>Thanks

 

[Karl Blessing]

/mbr erases the the (M)aster (B)oot (R)ecord, if you use something like EZ-Drive to help your computer read the full 1.6 gigs (like if your computer has the type of BIOS that cant read past 512M Harddrives) this could be a very bad problem. which would probally mean you'd have to reclear the drive <p>Karl<br><a href=mailto:kb244@kb244.8m.com>kb244@kb244.8m.com</a><br><a href=

http://kb244.8m.com>

</a><br>Experienced in , or have messed with : VC++, Borland C++ Builder, VJ++6(starting),VB-Dos, VB1 thru VB6, Delphi 3 pro, Borland C++ 3(DOS), Borland C++ 4.5, HTML, ASP(somewhat), QBasic(least i didnt start with COBOL)

 

[kreep]

Was the computer FAT32 before? If so then you might need to get a higher version of DOS like what comes with windows. But I need more info if I can be of any help

 

[Karl Blessing]

He uses Win95A, if i am correct, FAT32 wasnt supported til at least Win95B or C <p>Karl<br><a href=mailto:kb244@kb244.8m.com>kb244@kb244.8m.com</a><br><a href=

http://kb244.8m.com>

</a><br>Experienced in , or have messed with : VC++, Borland C++ Builder, VJ++6(starting),VB-Dos, VB1 thru VB6, Delphi 3 pro, Borland C++ 3(DOS), Borland C++ 4.5, HTML, ASP(somewhat), QBasic(least i didnt start with COBOL)

 

[Alt255]

This is just a guess: if you don't have EZ-Drive installed, boot from a floppy with Scandisk and run it. Never, <i>never</i> mess with FDISK /MBR unless you are sure of the outcome. It can bite you in many ways. <p> <br><a href=mailto: > </a><br><a href=

http://vorpalcom.netfirms.com>another

temporary Vorpalcom home page</a><br>Send me suggestions or comments on my current software project.

 

[Hpunch]

Thanks for the info everyone<br><br>I tried booting up with a DOS boot disk and I ran scandisk, but scandisk could not read drive c:, but it could read other drives.<br><br>I am able to get into directories on the c: drive using a Dell Diagnostic diskette.&nbsp;&nbsp;Is there anything in Windows that I can run to fix this problem or is it primarily a hard drive (hardware) problem.

 

[Karl Blessing]

From what I am hearing it may be a bootloader problem, because a partition problem most of the time would not even let you read directories, and such. If possible make a Win95 startup Disk, then in the dos prompt see if you can sys A: C:&nbsp;&nbsp;(if C: is even detectable, but not bootable) <p>Karl<br><a href=mailto:kb244@kb244.8m.com>kb244@kb244.8m.com</a><br><a href=

http://kb244.8m.com>

</a><br>Experienced in , or have messed with : VC++, Borland C++ Builder, VJ++6(starting),VB-Dos, VB1 thru VB6, Delphi 3 pro, Borland C++ 3(DOS), Borland C++ 4.5, HTML, ASP(somewhat), QBasic(least i didnt start with COBOL)