Replacing Compaq factory hard drives

[theman134]

I replaced my compaq 5150 hard drive and it wont boot after the installation of the QR CD, or if you install A store bought WIN2000 OS. It's not jumpers or cables. it will install the programs but after you reboot all you see is a black screen with a blanking cursor. you can boot from a floppy then go to C; drive and the windows folder is there but you stll cant get windows to start.
I booted the computer with a floppy then ran FDISK, removed the existing pat, and set the primary dos patition and made it active, i then formatted the hard drive, i ran the QR cd and all is the same, it still wont boot
It works fine with the factory compaq HD.
The problem lies with whatever compaq does to make this a pain! they put somthing on there HD that will allow the computer to boot. If you replace there HD with a non compaq one then you have this problem.
I have the same issue with a Emachine i am working on.
Thanks

 

[edfair]

I've used other drives many times without problems.
One thing I do is the install from the hard drive, but that shouldn't affect it unless the reboot can't find the CD. 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.

 

[Stealer]

Ed Fair is correct. I have replaced dozens of Compaq hard drives and never had a problem. It has to be something else. The store bought WIN2000 OS I can see not working. You prety much have to use the restore cd.

Stealer

 

[theman134]

I have ran another fdisk and installed the QR restore CD again, its there but it still wont boot, some one told me to do the BIOMID utility on the QR CD but that did not help either, this hard drive was a good slave in this system for years. maybe thats what it was meant to be. i made sure the jumpers were right, i have installed 50 or so hard drives and never had this problem, but they were on different machines. whats the chances that a new out of the box hard drive will fix the problem? How will i ever pass the A+ exam if i cant even fix my own machine?

Thanks
D

 

[Stealer]

Have you tried setting the jumper on the hard drive to cable select?
Is it possible that the restore cd is scratched or faulty?

Stealer

 

[theman134]

a matter of fact I just did, still the same, I sure hate to pull the hard drive in this computer just to see if it will work.

 

[edfair]

A good A+ candidate should have a copy of DOS available. Try installing it , on a small partition , and see if it will boot. 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.

 

[theman134]

Thats funny, I do but its in arkansas an i am in alaska, i left all that old stuff behind, wouldn't ya know!
Dang.....I had 3.1 too

 

[theman134]

Hey i think i got it, when i installed the drive and ran fdisk and format, then the QR CD for some reason it was not making the drive bootable, i downloaded the maxtor software
MB plus two and let it do the job, it said my drive was not bootable and prompted me to insert my boot disk, it then copied my COMMAND.COM file to c:\ then i restarted the computer and installed the QR program all is working now. I think my next project will be to see if i can get win2000 on it just for kick's
Thanks for your help, check back and i will let you know how it goes.
D