New hardware, same HDD, won't boot from floopy

[pirateike]

I had a POS system that eventually quit on me because it was so old. I was running a 60GB hd with 50GB XP partition, and a 10GB Linux partition. I bought all new hardware besides CDROM, hdd and floppy. I can't boot, which I expected with xp, but I can't even get into my Linux partition (Red Hat 8). I was going to try and format that partition and copy my docs over, then format 50GB partition, reinstall XP _again_ and copy docs back from 10GB partition to 50GB partition. With the OS configured to my hardware, you know, so it would run. I also have a windows 98 boot floppy, but I can't boot into dos with that either. Once I post, nothing happens except the floppy drive is accessed sort of randomly. I ordered another HDD, but I am wondering if there is another problem seeing as how I can't even boot off a floppy.

Help is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[victorv]

hi,
many computers have in bios, the possibility to diasble
boot from floopy, to avoid that if a user leaves a floppy inside, machine halts and he goes in problems.

See in your machine, when it starts, which keystrokes you have to press to go at bios setup (F1, Del, F2, ecc)

Then surfing in options, you'll find somewhat related.

bye

 

[hw45]

When you use NTFS for your WinXP you can't boot with a Win98 bootdisk.

 

[franklin97355]

Try taking out the hard drive reset bios to boot from a floppy and let us know what happens. If it won't boot from a floppy without a HD then something is broke. (either the motherboard or the floppy drive.)

 

[relaksuah]

[tt]hi pirateike, maybe you could change your boot sequence in BIOS before trying to boot from a floppy disk. But anyways, how did you do up your dual boot? Did you install Red Hat first or did you install XP first?
OK, you want to format the Linux partition. Do you have a bootable Win XP setup CD? Put it in your CD-ROM drive and ensure you have checked the boot sequence in BIOS. Make sure the boot sequence looks at your CD-ROM drive before your HDD. Use the setup disk to format the Linux partition.
Your Win98 boot disk will not be able to recognise your Win XP partition as it is NTFS (if I'm not wrong, anything that big a partition will be automatically formatted as NTFS by Win XP setup in the first place) so please dont try to transfer your documents in DOS by booting up using that disk. You wont see any documents.
Pls do update as to your actions taken. We can help along the way.

 

[pirateike]

Victor: FDD seek was enabled on startup, of course.

Hw45: I'm pretty sure I'm not using ntfs, but fat32 because I installed xp on top of 98.

Frank: I am not going to do that, because the bios is just fine, because the motherboard is brand new.

Rela: The boot order is fine, with the floppy first. I have the GRUB boot loader on my 1st HDD, if that's what you were getting at. I do not have a bootable XP cd.

Ok, now I have a new HDD, 120GB WD. I am trying to boot using a red hat disk and/or floppy and have as of yet been unsuccessful. When I attempt to boot using a floppy _or_ CD, the drive is accessed as if it it booting from the media, but nothing happens! I wait, and wait, and wait... but I get nothing but a black screen with an underscore blinking cursor.

I have an NBIT NF7-S motherboard.

 

[EchoseveN]

You should really try removing the HDD and attempting it without it. Just because the MB is new doesn't necessarily mean it isn't bad. Could be a defective board. Or your floppy may have given up the ghost on you during the transfer. It's happened to people before.

-----
It takes 43 muscles to frown and 17 to smile, but it doesn't take any to sit there with a dumb look on your face.
I have fun. Usualy at my own expense, but I have fun regardless

 

[pirateike]

So you are saying I should just try to boot from a floppy without the hdd in?

 

[EchoseveN]

To make sure the floppy works, at least that's what I'm suggesting. I'm fairly certain that's what Frank was suggesting, but I may be wrong. Either way it may be useful to know.

-----
It takes 43 muscles to frown and 17 to smile, but it doesn't take any to sit there with a dumb look on your face.
I have fun. Usualy at my own expense, but I have fun regardless

 

[pirateike]

By the way, anyone please feel free to AIM me at "tesko ike" if you want. It might be more efficient.

 

[franklin97355]

pirateike:
Not if you won't try our suggestions it won't.
If you can't boot from a floppy with no other media devices connected/installed then something is broken.

 

[pirateike]

The floppy drive works, so does CDROM, but they don't with this motherboard in the sense that I can't boot from any removable media. But the strange thing is that they show up as what they are supposed to be and everything. I am going to RMA it probably. =(