I shut down and unplugged my computer due to lightning/storms. When I plugged back in and tried to boot up, machine asks for bootable media in appropriate drive. It will not boot otherwise. Is it the battery? Won't I lose everything on my hard drive if I use the bootup disk? How can I boot up without losing any data? Thanks for your help! (windows 98)
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Have I lost all hard drive data?
- Thread starter profound
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Using a boot disk is perfectly safe, it will not cause you to lose any data. I'd suggest boot up with a boot disk and when you get to an A:\ prompt run fdisk and check to make sure your partitions are there.
Can you provide the exact message your PC gives you when you turn it on? Did you have your PC off and unplugged BEFORE the storm? Or is it possible it took a zap before you had a chance to get it off?
Can you provide the exact message your PC gives you when you turn it on? Did you have your PC off and unplugged BEFORE the storm? Or is it possible it took a zap before you had a chance to get it off?
Probably because of the battery being bad and your configuration being lost.
You can boot from floppy without losing anything. But depending on what you are booting with you might not see your hard drive. But the data will still be there (well , almost guaranteed to be there).
You could go into setup at power up and reset the configuration which would hold you until the next power off situation. But you probably need to get the battery. Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.
You can boot from floppy without losing anything. But depending on what you are booting with you might not see your hard drive. But the data will still be there (well , almost guaranteed to be there).
You could go into setup at power up and reset the configuration which would hold you until the next power off situation. But you probably need to get the battery. Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.
When you shut down the computer or the power goes out on you sometimes a file will become corrupt or you will lose your settings on the BIOS/CMOS. Get into the BIOS and check the boot order to see what drives it looks for first. My guess is that most of your data is intact, whith the exception of whatever you were working on at the time.
Use the Emergency Boot Disk you should have when you installed windows or received with your computer. An Emergency recover disk will probably start the computer. Just don't use an option that reformats the computer and reinstalls everything; this could cause the loss of data!!! If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.
Use the Emergency Boot Disk you should have when you installed windows or received with your computer. An Emergency recover disk will probably start the computer. Just don't use an option that reformats the computer and reinstalls everything; this could cause the loss of data!!! If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.
JasonHamari
Technical User
One point I'd like to add... if you are concerned about your hard drive data, make sure you aren't booting with a manufacturer's "system restore disk" as this WILL typically wipe out everything. This will likely be a CD, though, as a floppy wouldn't have enough space to restore the system.
I've seen people lament the loss of data because they put in their Gateway System Restore CD. And I'm sure other companies send these things out with systems.
But an ordinary floppy boot disk will do just fine. If you don't have one, find a friend to make one. Not sure exactly where to go in other operating systems, but in Windows 98 you can make a boot disk in the Add/Remove Programs area, under the Startup Disk tab.
Also, if your CMOS battery is dead, and you happen to have one of those motherboards that it is not removable on, you may be able to pick up a small lithium battery pack, and your motherboard will likely have a 4-pin connector for it. I've seen some old Compaqs that are like this.
Hope this helps,
Jason H.
I've seen people lament the loss of data because they put in their Gateway System Restore CD. And I'm sure other companies send these things out with systems.
But an ordinary floppy boot disk will do just fine. If you don't have one, find a friend to make one. Not sure exactly where to go in other operating systems, but in Windows 98 you can make a boot disk in the Add/Remove Programs area, under the Startup Disk tab.
Also, if your CMOS battery is dead, and you happen to have one of those motherboards that it is not removable on, you may be able to pick up a small lithium battery pack, and your motherboard will likely have a 4-pin connector for it. I've seen some old Compaqs that are like this.
Hope this helps,
Jason H.
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