My computer reads A: when on startup of win 98

[randyrr17]

Hello,
It doesnt find a boot record from the cdrom floppy or IDE-0. then it says boot failure insert BOOT diskette in A: press any key. i dont have any floppys but when i put the COMputers emachine BOOT disc in it it says, takes me to a WIN 98 startup menu with three options #1 restore win98 will format HDD #2 restore win98 not format #3 Boot to DOS prompt from cd rom. what do i do???? plz help me

 

[HEXiT]

enter the dos prompt and type either dir to see the directory.
or win to start windows. (the latter may or may not work it depends what the bat file to start windows is named.)
but it sounds like your HDD is dead or at the least corrupted.

 

[randyrr17]

Well the directory popped up and there are 34 files and its again asking A:\>?

 

[henydiah]

Agree like hexit said, corrupt command.exe and you need check hdd detect or not ? If your hdd detected this way to install it ,
- if you have recovery use it
- if your master cd don't have bootdisk use below
prepare free disk for win98 start up, you can download at :
www.putergeek.com/downloads/
It's automatically read disk A wait --- sellet dos + cd drive -- enter --- wait -- your screen will show promt C://. Insert your cdwin98 in cd drive --- C:// D: -- D://setup -- wait to finish , please sitback and relax :
And this from microsoft how install it : www.support.microsoft.com/kb/221829

 

[ghnader hsmithot]

wow!
How old is your pc?

 

[randyrr17]

its a 2000 it was my moms old computer and when she put xp on it worked great for some time then bamb it crashed and nothing ever since.

 

[henydiah]

Pc need to clean total, and swapped psu (old pc ussualy use psu from stock case )

 

[randyrr17]

what if iwas to put a new hard drive how would i install it?

 

[das_stig]

If its booting off CD then chances are your hdd is faulty or boot sector is corrupt.

On a Win98 boot CD, it uses floppy emulation, hence this is why it reports back A:

Go into dos and type SYS<space>C:<enter> and it will try and repair the hdd boot sector. Now reboot and see if it starts off hdd, if not choose option 1 and try installing a fresh copy off the CD.