Floppy Diskette Seek Failure

[marloa]

I'm having similar problems, of not being able to boot up the computer from a floppy disk. What I'm seeing is that there isn't a Boot Devise that says just floppy drive it says just about everything else, but that. I hear something going on in the hard drive, I also don't know what else to do after that I hit F2 and check to make sure it looks o.k. unfortunately, I don't really know what I'm looking for. Help. I bought this CPU from a surplus store that says they were tested to make sure they were good, but have no operating system. I bought the Windows System 7 from a vendor. Any ideas what I can do next.

 

[casper1973]

Are you just trying to install Windows 7? If so you don't need a floppy disk. You can install it from either DVD or USB stick.

 

[marloa]

Are you just trying to install Windows 7? If so you don't need a floppy disk. You can install it from either DVD or USB stick.

 

[marloa]

Sorry about that. I have a DVD that I purchased from a third party dealer. It doesn't come with instructions or anything. It's actually a DELL Windows 7 System DVD. One of the problems I think is that when I go to set up and I see the boot drive sequence, I don't really see anyone of the five listed that look like the DVD drive. One that is in #1 place says USB -CM Rom I think. It was last night so I can't remember and now I'm no a different computer. Thanks for the clarification.

 

[hedwar2011]

Sorry about that. I have a DVD that I purchased from a third party dealer. It doesn't come with instructions or anything. It's actually a DELL Windows 7 System DVD. One of the problems I think is that when I go to set up and I see the boot drive sequence, I don't really see anyone of the five listed that look like the DVD drive. One that is in #1 place says USB -CM Rom I think. It was last night so I can't remember and now I'm no a different computer. Thanks for the clarification.

Is it a custom built computer that you purchased (I know you bought it from s surplus store)? A lot of older computers tend to have the option for a IDE Floppy Drive in the System Bios and it can tend to cause problems. Is this a pre-built unit from one of the major box companies (HP, DELL, etc.).?

If so, get us that information and we might be able to dig around.

 

[marloa]

Yes, it is a standard Dell computer. Originally, purchased for a school of higher education. When they buy new computers (usually every couple of years) they wipe the operating system clean and sell them cheap through there surplus store. They say that they are tested and should be in working order. I don't think they come with any guarantees. So nothing custom about it. I will perform a couple of more tests tonight to see if the hard drive is dead. I was told hit the F2 and find the manufactures boot or something like that, but when I go to that menu I don't see anything like that. There is one thing that has boot in the name and I can bring that up, to the active window, but don't know how to launch or make it do something or anything. Sorry, I'm so naive in this area.

 

[kenrivers]

Could you list the options you have when you press F2? We might be able to help you decipher what the options are.

 

[hang-the-9]

Get one of your friends/relatives that knows about computers to help you to boot from the disk. If the system is older, it may not even have a DVD drive, a standard CD drive will not read the Windows 7 DVD. Anything that has USB in the boot menu is an external USB device, not your optical drive. Plus, once you get Windows 7 installed on it, you need to get the drivers installed for the hardware, which from the sound of things you will also have issues doing, so best to have someone there to watch and see what you do and help.

 

[marloa]

Thanks everyone for your help. Systems7 loaded. It was an operator error. Me. This is a great site. I may be back if I have other issues.