PLESE HELP FDISK PROBLEM

[matt15]

If anyone would like to take a shot at helping me fix my laptop and reach my goal before school starts, i would deeply appreciate it. I was being an idiot when i decided to wipe my hard drive clean by using fdisk in dos. Now, my computer won't read the hard drive unless i have a win98 startup disk in my diskette drive. I can't even load an os to the hard drive because dos won't read or when it does, because of the win98 se diskette it reads "wrong dos version" or something along those lines. If anyone knows of a startup disk i can get or any way to fix my computer, PLEASE let me know. Thank You.

 

[Comtech]

Get a startup disk from

http://www.startdisk.com

Make sure you get the one for the version of windows you are installing. Re-fdisk the drive with that disk, then install windows. Cheers,
Jim

http://members.cnx.net/reboot/

 

[K1W169]

If that doesn't work let me know what brand and model of your computer.

 

[matt15]

Well, K1w169, my computer is a laptop, but the hard drives are similar in aspects of partitioning and formatiing, as well as loading software and Operating systems. THe hard drive is a 2067 MB toshiba MK2109MAT in a Thinkpad 755CD laptop. The

http://www.startdisk.com

idea did not work because i do not even have dos on the system, so naturally i don't have any drivers loaded for my cd-rom. If anyone can help i would deeply appreciate it.

 

[Comtech]

Startdisk will get you a disk that DOES have CD-ROM drivers on it. Cheers,
Jim

http://members.cnx.net/reboot/

 

[matt15]

there is also a problem with that, i don't even have dos, and I keep running into the same problem with it, after i fdisk my hard drive like instructed to, it says please reboot your computer and restart windows. I don't have windows, when i do reboot it hasn't made the new partition to my hard drive and my hard drive is a unspecified device. I have already checked my bios settings and it reads the hard drive, so does smartdisk. And my windows 98se startup diskettes. I am clueless. I am sorry for taking up your time. Thank you, though, for helping.

 

[Comtech]

OK, grab the 98 startup diskette, and boot to that.
At the A:\ prompt, type: fdisk /mbr
See if that helps.
If not, boot to the disk again, and at the prompt, type: sys c: Cheers,
Jim

http://members.cnx.net/reboot/

 

[Comtech]

Another thought. If none of that works, boot to the startdisk, run fdisk, and make the partition active.
Those 3 in combination will make ANY hd bootable. Cheers,
Jim

http://members.cnx.net/reboot/

 

[matt15]

Thanks Jim i'll try those. Have you ever heard of the OS- Gem?

 

[matt15]

Here is an update of my laptop hard drive. The fdisk through startdisk.com is still not working, but using a combination of that disk and my win98se startup disk i have been able to format it. But it still won't boot up to it. I know that there wasn't a virus or anything to harmful because it just worked the other day and i haven't loaded or signed on to the internet with it in months. So, i am still looking for answers and am very grateful to those people who have given me answers.

 

[Kjonnnn]

When you did FDISK did you make that partition active...

1. FDISK
2. Delete old partition
3. Creat new parition active
4. Boot with 98 start up disk
5. Format C:
6. Boot with 98 start up disk, and choose ADD CD DRIVERS
7. Place OS in CD and do the setup

 

[matt15]

I'll try that, do win98se startup diskettes come with cd-rom drivers?

 

[butchrecon]

Yes. The startup disk comes with drivers (Kinda generic) theat work with most cdroms. James Collins
Systems Support Engineer
A+, MCP

email: butchrecon@skyenet.net

Please let us (Tek-tips members) know if the solutions we provide are helpful to you. Not only do they help you but they may help others.

 

[K1W169]

Ok When I first wiped my laptop I had to re-install mcsdex so I could get my cr-rom drive to work. Reason I was asking is If needed I can send you a restore disk for your Ibm thinkpad.

Ok so now you formatted your hard-drive but does your cdrom drive read? If not you need to copr mcsdex which is the cdrom driver so you can put in win 95,98, or whatever OS. Let me know if this works or if you need me to send you recovery or mcsdex.