Hello all, this is my first post here, I have a Compaq 2286 running windows 98, its got 2 hard drives with a combined total of 3.6gb, its quite old <made in late 1998>, recently i had a problem with PS Guard, i thought i had fixed it but then my comp began to free everytime it started up, so i decided to use the compaq quick restore disc that came with the computer, i had been successful using it 5 times previously so i thought it would work well, halfway into the reformatting program i was notified that my hard drive only had 7mb of free space and it required 650mb to finish re-loading the factory image onto the computer, it gave me two options, 1) Quit 2) Skip i've tried both options but to no avail i cant get windows reinstalled because of the lack of space on my computer, now i dont even have windows to use to try and clean it up, and everytime i turn the computer on after the compaq logo flashes on it tells me to insert the system disk in the A:\ drive, i made a windows 98 boot disk but it keeps telling me that the disk is invalid, so my question is..is there any possible way i can save my computer myself? do i need to take it to a specialist? would i be better off buying a new HD for it? or would i be best off buying a new tower for it? i'm really frustrated with this problem and any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks!

Hi NissanSkylineGTR98...Welcome to G2G!

The best way to approach this would be to repartition, format, and reinstall. You WILL need a good startup (system) disk, though. You can download one HERE. save it to your desktop, put a floppy in the drive, and double click the downloaded file to create your bootdisk.

Once you have your bootdisk, post back and I'll get you pointed in the right direction to get your machine back up and running.

wannabe1

Ok, i just finished making the boot disk

NissanSkylineGTR98...

Ok...let's make sure it works. Put it in the floppy of the "bad" machine and boot it up. Eventually, you should get an options screen with three options you can select...press F5 instead.

Before we repartition and format, try one more effort at the current install.

You will be presented with an "A" prompt, type C: and press "Enter". At the C: prompt, type windows\command\scanreg /restore (Note the space between scanreg and /) and press "Enter". If there is a viable operating system on the machine, you will be presented with 5 files (snapshots) of your system you can restore to. Use the arrow keys to select one...go back two or three...and press "Enter".

If this fails, post back and we'll partition and format the drive so you can do a clean install of Windows.

wannabe1

This post has been edited by wannabe1: Sep 25 2005, 12:28 AM

i just tried typing that passage and it told me that it was a bad command/file name

The command line should be C:\windows\command\scanreg /restore...make sure the backslahes (above "Enter" key) and foreward slashes are correct.

tried it again but still no luck

Ok NissanSkylineGTR98....

Not being able to run the scanreg command is a pretty good indication that there is not a viable operating system present...

Here we go.....reboot with the startup disk in the floppy. At the options screen, press F5. At the "A" prompt, type fdisk and press "Enter". On the next screen, type Y and press Enter. On the next screen, choose option 3 "Delete partition or logical disk drive" and press "Enter".

From this point, please refer to this GUIDE which will walk you through the whole process complete with screenshots. If you run into a problem, post back and I'll try to help you. You'll be starting at Step 5 (screenshot 2)

wannabe1

This post has been edited by wannabe1: Sep 25 2005, 01:21 AM

i went along with the guide on step 5 until the 4th screenshot, but it told me that a primary dos partition already exists

Ok...go to the options screen and choose option 4 "Show partition information" and press "Enter".

Is there just one partition listed and is it set as active?

wannabe1

there are two partitions, the first one is active but the second one is not active

I should have had you check that first...sorry. We'll need to delete the inactive partition first, THEN the Primary DOS partition. Same procedure as before only this time choose to delete the logical disk instead of primary. Then delete the Primary.

Let me know how you do..

wannabe1

ok, thats taken care of, where to from there?

Let's double check it this time.....back to the options and choose option 4...press "Enter"

I'm looking for a blank slate...no partitions.

wannabe1

it says theres 1 partition, its not active and has no volume label