OS load problems

[edutech]

I have an Asus P4B266 motherboard and am attempting to load Win98SE from a valid CD. I have BIOS anti-virus settings disabled. I have run fdisk to create a valid FAT32 partition, and partitioned the (Western Digital 40GB) drive, and both went smoothly. Upon attempting to load the OS, Scan disk will not run and I am presented with partial lines of text at the DOS level. My thought is that I may have:

1. a motherboard problem (although I've loaded 9 like this before, all identical,
2. a hard drisve problem, or
3. a CMOS battery problem

Any ideas - help, please, appreciated.

Edutech

 

[Win98User]

If you are having no joy try this;
Reformat your disk - Do not format it to a Fat32 partition, then install windows 98SE. When Windows is installed you will have the option to convert your partition to Fat32.

Regards.

 

[Accessdabbler]

Uh, formatting to a FAT16 partition will create a 2Gig drive. Don't do that.

You can try re-partitioning and re-formatting your drive if you want to FAT32.

Are you booting from the Win98SE CD or a floppy drive? Try booting from a floppy start disk and run the scandisk program from it to test your drive. That would eliminate the mobo or the drive from being the problem if scandisk runs properly.

As for the CMOS battery, why does everyone blame it? The CMOS battery in modern systems DOES NOT EXIST! The battery is there to keep the system time only. The CMOS (unlike in the old days) resides on the BIOS chip which uses Flash ROM to keep the settings even without power.

 

[Cindy1]

If you try loading an os on that hard drive from another computer that will tell you if it is your hard drive. The cd that you're loading it from is that a known good cd, have you loaded this os before with this cd? Another easier suggestion would be to reseat the memory.
Keep us posted,
Cindy

 

[SESaskDFC]

Dabbler:

You should get your definitions right.. A "flash Bios" is a special type of EEPROM that can be erased and reprogrammed in blocks instead of one byte at a time. Many modern PCs have their BIOS stored on a flash memory chip so that it can easily be updated if necessary. Such a BIOS is sometimes called a flash BIOS. Flash memory is also popular in modems because it enables the modem manufacturer to support new protocols as they become standardized.

It STILL requires power to keep everything in memory. The only thing different is that you don't have to change the chip to upgrade the BIOS. Makes life so much easier for the home-tech.

You are dear right though about the formatting to FAT16 rather than FAT32.

Edutech: Have you tried going to the hdd manufacturers website and downloading their own utility disk and use it to fdisk and format the hdd??

Murray

 

[ceh4702]

Just go to the file config.sys and enter a line for the device driver.

device=c:\?\himem.sys

This loads the memory device driver needed in dos at bootup to run scandisk.exe. If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[rockerfellerz]

I have had trouble before with installing 98se from the disk, file corrupt or not found etc. What worked for me was to copy all the install files into a folder on the newly formated drive. Just copy all the files in the win98 folder on the install disk to your hard drive and then remove the cd, go to that folder and run setup. This just seems to work better for me than running off the disk, plus when windows needs to access the win98 disk it will find the cab files on the hard drive, you'll never need to insert the disk again. (unless of course you need to re-install).
hope this helps a bit.