[Shanks]

Please Help!

I'm a complete computer novice on operating systems and hardware etc. the technical side.

I've got a REALLY old laptop that i use for word processing my university work on and there's something wrong with it! Thats where you miracle workers come in...

When i start the laptop it says:

"SystemSoft BIOS for OPTI Viper 557/558N 1.01 (2450-62)(Version 05.50)
SystemSoft Plug-n-Play BIOS
Copyright 1983 - 1996 SystemSoft Corp. All Rights Reserved
_______________________________________________________________

32768

<F10> to enter Computer Setup"

Thats all it has on the first screen then says:

"Copyright © 1996 Compaq Computer Corporation. All rights reserved.

120 Mhz Pentium Processor
External Cache: 256K Enabled
Hard disk boot sector invalid
Press 'H' to retry Hard Disk, any other key for floppy"

If i press 'H' it just repeats:
"Hard disk boot sector invalid
Press 'H' to retry Hard Disk, any other key for floppy"

Can anybody help me? Is it a serious problem? Luckily there is nothing on the hard drive i need to keep so please give me ANY suggestions that could help.

Thanks for your time people

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Hi
Welcome to geekstogo
what windows was on your laptop ? it sound like you boot sector got messed up
do you have a floppy drive in you laptop ? if you do do you have a boot disk ? that way we can see if its windows or something esle stopping it from booting up to your desktop.

[tazz1964]

Hi
Welcome to geekstogo
what windows was on your laptop ? it sound like you boot sector got messed up
do you have a floppy drive in you laptop ? if you do do you have a boot disk ? that way we can see if its windows or something esle stopping it from booting up to your desktop.

[Shanks]

Thanks for replying

My laptop has windows 95, it has a floppy drive (but no CD-ROM drive) and no i don't have a boot disk.

Do you know anywhere that i could download a boot disk from?

Many thanks again

[tazz1964]

Hi
you can download a bootdisk here CLICK HERE or you can make a bootdisk off a other pc If you type in windows help startup disk it will tell you how to do it.

[Shanks]

Hi

I've downloaded a boot disk for windows 95, started the laptop and the screen now says:

"CD-ROM Device Driver for IDE (Four Channels Supported)
©Copyright Oak Technology Inc. 1993-1996
Driver Version : V340
Device Name : BANANA
No drives found, aborting installation


Device driver not found: 'BANANA'.
No valid CDROM device drivers selected
A:\> "


I've no idea what to do next! Any suggestions?

Thanks

[Shanks]

Hi

I've downloaded a boot disk for windows 95, started the laptop and the screen now says:

"CD-ROM Device Driver for IDE (Four Channels Supported)
©Copyright Oak Technology Inc. 1993-1996
Driver Version : V340
Device Name : BANANA
No drives found, aborting installation


Device driver not found: 'BANANA'.
No valid CDROM device drivers selected
A:\> "


I've no idea what to do next! Any suggestions?

Thanks

[tazz1964]

Hi
so you did get a A:/ when you boot so that tells me that the bootup on the hard drive got messed up I'm going to look to see if there is a fix that you can download to repair it Try this to see if you can get into windows boot with the boot disk then when the a:/ comes up type cd c:/ then hit enter at the c:/ if it comes up type win and hit enter let us know what it does?

[Shanks]

Hi

I typed in " cd c:/ " exactly as i just have and it now says:

" Invalid drive specification "

and goes back to " A:\> "


Thanks

[tazz1964]

HI
do you have the laptop there if so sign into live chat and we can work on this

[Shanks]

Hi

I've made a big mistake! It runs off Windows 98! My younger brother just told me! How embarassing?! anyway, i've just downloaded a windows 98 bootdisk and its now giving me three options:

1)Start WITH CD-ROM support
2)Start WITHOUT CD-ROM support
3)View help file

I chose option 2 to start without CD-ROM (coz i havnt got one!) and it now says:
"drive C does not contain a valid FAT or FAT32 partition. there are several possible causes"

It goes through 3 options in detail, which are basically
1) To create a partition run FDISK from MS-DOS command prompt
2) Something about third-party disk-partitioning software
3) Some viruses may cause your drive C not to register. Use a virus scanning program to check your computer.

It said: "preparing to start your computer. this may take a few minutes. please wait..."

then:

"the diagnostic tools were successfully loaded to drive C

To get help, type HELP and press ENTER.

A:\>"

i typed in help but its just a load of stuff i dont understand

Sorry for the confusion, can you still help?

Many thanks

Edited by Shanks, 10 May 2004 - 01:14 PM.

[tazz1964]

Hi
what this is telling me is one of two things you got a virus that stopping for booting from c or some how you harddrive got eased of all data lets try the 3rd one frist i'm going to look to see if I can find a virus scan you can run off a floppy unless you have a norton system works emergeny disks set ?

[tazz1964]

Hi
I talk to Admin on this in the live chat we both think it comes to you will need to fdisk format and restall the OS The thing is most OS are on cd unless you have one on floppys or a external cd-rom or to do a network install

[Shanks]

Hi

I've not got a virus scan on floppy or an external cd-rom drive. Thanks for helping me, you've been great, but it seems like its useless doesn't it?

There's not much chance of getting an OS on floppy is there?

Thanks alot, i will highly recommend your site should anyone i know ever require help.

Cheers

[tazz1964]

hi
if you look around you may find a copy of 95 on disk.

[Shanks]

Hi

Really?! I'll search around and try to find a copy on floppy disk then.

Thanks once again, you've been fantastic and no doubt i'll be looking for help installing Windows 95 in the near future!

Thanks once again