windows 98boot prob

[sameer5]

hey der

i am new bie..joined here because hoping others would help...

my friend office comp is havin prob... wen we start the win98...it shows win98 screen loadin but then straight away returns to a: prompt..

wat should i do...to help her...wat steps should i do to help her to start windows normally...?

i can't afford to format ..because all the important files n programs r not backedup....nn if formatted would loose all the data..

plz help..

thanxs

[markwolfe Veteran]

What prompt is shown? This is important information to figure out where to look next.

It could be the drive is failing and is not readable, but we can't tell until we know what it says.

[sameer5]

A:\ prompt is shown..

When i restart my frnd pc it shows win98 screen loading but immediately returns to A: prompt.

[hotdog666al]

You could remove the hard disk, insert it into another computer- and back up the files?

Then you are at least safe to format, reinstall, etc.

[markwolfe Veteran]

To A:?

Is there a floppy in the drive?

Windows would boot off of C: (the hard drive), so any weird failure of Windows should return you to a C: prompt - at least if it was able to show ANY prompt, it ought to be C:

The fact you have an A: prompt almost certainly means she has a floppy in her drive. Should be an easy fix! (Y)

You could remove the hard disk, insert it into another computer- and back up the files?

Then you are at least safe to format, reinstall, etc.

:blink:

I would check into the booting a floppy into DOS A: prompt before pulling hard drives. ;)

[master2k27]

your pc must be way old , it could of just died

[sameer5]

she has floppy in the drive.. .. wat steps should i consider to take so that..my frnd's windows could start normally..??

error:

<quote>When i restart my frnd pc it shows win98 screen loading but immediately returns to A: prompt.</quote>

[gnuman]

Mark is right on that one. No way would it boot to A unless you have a floppy in the drive.

In fact, I'm quite surprised Mark even used a Windows PC and thought he's say there is a disk in the drive because it booted to /dev/sda :)

[Knife Party]

lol wut, wut is da OP'z sayn' ? 98 boat probz? oh noez, u'z kan tri 2 boat from a live cd, then bakup (Y)

[markwolfe Veteran]

I can think of no way that ANY piece of hardware could fail on a PC that would give it an "A:\" prompt. It almost certainly is booting off of a floppy.

she has floppy in the drive.. .. wat steps should i consider to take so that..my frnd's windows could start normally..??

error:

<quote>When i restart my frnd pc it shows win98 screen loading but immediately returns to A: prompt.</quote>

You can boot the PC into BIOS and find a way to change boot order to start with the hard drive, not the floppy. That will eliminate this problem in the future. (Y)

Mark is right on that one. No way would it boot to A unless you have a floppy in the drive.

In fact, I'm quite surprised Mark even used a Windows PC and thought he's say there is a disk in the drive because it booted to /dev/sda :)

:p :rofl:

[sameer5]

hey mark..the first priority we hav set is hard disk..

so do we remove the floppy wen we boot or... wat do u suggest?

plz reply...

thanxs

[markwolfe Veteran]

yes there is a floppy in the drive... wen my frnd boots the pc it shows win98 screen loading but immediately returns to A: prompt.

so wat steps should i consider to follow inorder to start windows 98 normally?

any suggestion or help plz....

thanxs

hey mark..the first priority we hav set is hard disk..

Remove the floppy. See what happens.

If you already have it to boot hard drive first, then floppy, it might mean your drive has failed. The backup boot items would be tried in order, leaving floppy next.

Verify this by booting without the floppy. Let us know what error(s) come up at that point.

[Alex_is_Axel]

Remove the floppy, hopefully it will then boot into windows

[hotdog666al]

:blink:

I would check into the booting a floppy into DOS A: prompt before pulling hard drives. ;)

:D

Whenever I'm in doubt, I rip out the disk and back it up just in case! :p

If the data is important of course, as it is in this case.

[markwolfe Veteran]

:D

Whenever I'm in doubt, I rip out the disk and back it up just in case! :p

Oh, with the settings he says she has, we may very well get to the "rip it out" stage. Or do a quick boot with a LiveCD or such. ;)

[sameer5]

thanxs for the help...i would do as u say...n inform if i find any problems...

also n inform u if windows started normally or not...

[sammy2]

Good luck, I don't think any random member will remember how to fix WIN98 problems... Good luck tho.

[markwolfe Veteran]

Good luck, I don't think any random member will remember how to fix WIN98 problems... Good luck tho.

Not any "random" member. But some of us are in their 40's and have been using computers since before there even was a thing called "MS-DOS". :ninja:

[sameer5]

hey bro my first priority is hard drive , second one is floppy.

wen i removed the floppy disk... and tried to boot without floppy.. i got a message operating system is missing..

wat should i do next....plz help me out...

thanxs...bro...

[08993]

OK, by the sounds of it that floppy is a Windows 98 boot disk which explains why it would say Windows 98 is booting and also why it drops to the A: Prompt.

Windows 98 might not even be installed!

[markwolfe Veteran]

Ok, and OS missing fault might mean the drive is readable, but the Windows part is damaged.

Not sure if Windows 98 has a non-destructive install that will overwrite the "Windows" part, and leave the user data part intact.

I believe it does.

Other options would be to pull the drive and put it in another legacy ATA (parallel ATA) capable computer. That's the 40-pin ribbon cable.

Or boot a LiveCD that will let you browse and recover your data for backup purposes before we go much further.

[Eric Veteran]

When you boot from the A: drive, try typing "dir C:" and see if the HD is working. If the boot files got corrupted you can probably just "sys C:" to replace them.

[sameer5]

fyn... i will try...

[sameer5]

hey guys...she can not remove her hard disk to insert it in other computer ..since she is not allowed..

as well as its POS Machine.

She says..wen she gets the error..operating system not found... can any one help me out..y do she get this error...

how can we solve this error and bring back windows to load normally?

thanxs

[sameer5]

my frnd,gave her machine to the company technician.. to repair.... hope everything works out..

thanxs a lot for the help u gave me concerning the problem wich i faced...

wen i tried to search the web ..y am i getting the message operating system not found i got ppl saying i should

first fix my masterboot record... by typing fdisk /mbr and then use sys c: (where c is the drive letter where the win98 is installed).