Can't read HD

[jayzad]

Have a old working 486 dx2 66mhz.
Win 3.1 16mb Ram
The computer and hard drive were working fine till I got to it.
I don't know who made the mb.
Reformatted the hd with dos 6.22 command given format c:/s
When I rebooted it said I was missing operating sys. So I rebooted from the floppy. Then I typed c: and I got c: So then I went back to a: and typed attrib c: and got all of the system files on the hard drive, IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS, AND COMMAND.COM. Hum ??
So I tried everything again and still the same answer. Then I FDISK the hard drive. And made a primary then set it active and then I rebooted to a: and formatted the hard drive. I've even tried different hard drives. And they boot up fine, once I
have them auto detect the new drives.
The dos is a complete full version. So why is it saying that it has no operating system but I can boot up to floppy and read c: with all of it's sys files.????
Have the bios settings if you need me to post.
Please help Thank you very much. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[a Bill]

I didn't quite grasp your post. You transfered the system files from the floppy to the HDD, but did you finish up with the installation of DOS? I haven't installed DOS in a (*cough*) few years, but I seem to recall the last time I did that floppy number one was a boot disk to get the show on the road. Then finished up with disks two through whatever.

If DOS is installed in its entirety and you can then boot from the boot disk but NOT the HDD, then make sure your BIOS is set to look for A:\ and then look to C:\ for loading instructions.

From your post I get the idea that you installed the basic system files but not the operating system itself. This would give you a "No OS" error because, well, there's no OS http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[jayzad]

Sorry for the confusion http://www.sysopt.com/forum/frown.gif.
The first time I did install all of the opt.sys. By boot up to the first disk of the opt. sys. program and loading the rest of it. After I did that the computer just stops when it's should start dos. I can even load win 3.1 to the hard drive. I formated the drive as (format c:/s ) It still should boot to c: when I do it this way because it has all the sys. files that the floppy does. The bios is set to read a: and then c:. Do you think the boot sector is bad and is there anything I can do about it. Thank you http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[Nathan]

I'm still not following you unless I guess at it. I usually don't guess. So let's try this. Can you get to a C prompt? If you can, run scandisk. Let us know if you have any bad sectors. If so, are they at the beginning of the hard drive?

http://www.helponthe.net/nathan/

[jayzad]

Guys I'm sorry for the confusion http://www.sysopt.com/forum/frown.gif. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/frown.gif. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/frown.gif.
I will regroup and make a new post.
Thank you very much. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/frown.gif

[800XL]

All you need to do to boot from a hard drive is boot from a bootable floppy, fdisk and create a primary partition that is active, then format c: /s and that's it. It will boot to a c: prompt and there will not be anything else on the drive, but it will work. It is possible that somehow or another the Master Boot Record or the Boot sector are not right somehow. Try booting from your floppy then type fdisk /mbr to rebuild the Master boot record. This can happen if you jump from OS to OS sometimes. That may or may not help you out, but it won't hurt anything.

It sounds like there may be something else going on though. Take a scan through the bios setup and make sure the drive type is set correctly. Use any IDE autodetection that you find there to make sure it is coming up alright. Then, look for a boot sequence setting, it should be a,c and you usually find that setting in Bios Feature Setup. Try c,a if you still can't get it to work, but remember to change it back if/when it doesn't work so you can boot off of your floppy.

If the drive is over 540MB, it is possible that you need some type of drive overlay software for the system to recognize the full size of the hard drive and boot from it properly. If the size that is shown in the bios is not within about 10% of what the drive is supposed to be, that may be what you've got going on. Check out the website for the maker of the drive and they will probably have some kind of "install disk" that should have this software on it. If all else fails, give it a shot.

Let us know how it goes and any more info you can get about the drive/situation. There may be some more of us here that can help.

[jayzad]

Bill, Nathan, and 800xl. Thanks
I'll try to explain my problems better the next time. Give me a break I'm a nebie. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/frown.gif
800xl idea of fdisk/mbr took care of it. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif I kind of felt it was the boot record. Now it boots to hard drive just fine. I have more ram,faster cpu, and a larger hard drive that I would like to put in it. Would you mind if I edit my orginal post so that you can reply and I can figure out how I messed up the boot record in the first place.
Thanks again http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[Nathan]

I really don't know if that's necessary. There are some programs that modify the boot sector along with viruses. Sometimes just doing an

Fdisk /mbr

from a boot floppy will do the trick. But if you want to ask anything else, be our guest.