[Area 51]

The pc is a Compaq Deskpro EN with 98SE, 64 memory, 10 GB Maxtor, Celeron processor, floppy drive only. When you turn it on it displays "Non-System disk or disk error replace and strike any key when ready". What does this mean?

[Advertisements]

It means the hard drive can't be accessed. Put in a boot floppy and see if it boots OK and migrate to the hard drive and try to see it with fdisk. Some of those old Maxtor drives weren't very reliable, about half of the ones I see are dead. And if you can, try to get more memory for it, you need at least twice that to prevent the use of swap which wears out the hard drive.

[Tyger]

It means the hard drive can't be accessed. Put in a boot floppy and see if it boots OK and migrate to the hard drive and try to see it with fdisk. Some of those old Maxtor drives weren't very reliable, about half of the ones I see are dead. And if you can, try to get more memory for it, you need at least twice that to prevent the use of swap which wears out the hard drive.

[pip22]

You may want to test the maxtor disk with their own diagnostic tool which runs from a bootable floppy.
I agree wholeheartedly with Tyger's remarks about their reliability (before Seagate bought the company).
I've had two of them fail very early in their life so I avoid them now. Problem is they are often considerably
cheaper than other brands which is why system builders fitted them to maximise their profits.

You can download the maxtor diagnostic tool Seatools for DOS from here:
http://www.seagate.c...000dd04090aRCRD

[Murray S.]

Howdy:

In addition to the above, it can also simply mean you left a floppy in your a: drive. Make sure there is nothing in your floppy drive when you boot up.

Murray

[Area 51]

Boot disk didn't do anything for it. I have a 80 GB Seagate, could I put it in there and what else will I have to do?

[Tyger]

Sure you can put it in, the BIOS may not be able to see it but the software on the Seagate CD should be able to. You may need to temporarily set the jumper to the 32gb position and use the Seagate software to format it. If you don't have the software you can download it from the Seagate site and burn it to a CD. Once you've formatted it Windows won't have any problems with it and if you have to you can put overlay software on the boot partition to overcome any BIOS limitations. It sounds complicated but it really isn't, just a couple of extra steps to take.

[Area 51]

I don't have an 98SE install disk, only a boot one.

[Murray S.]

I don't have an 98SE install disk, only a boot one.

Where is your 98SE cd?

Murray

[Area 51]

I don't have one for it.

[Murray S.]

I don't have one for it.

Didn't answer my question. Where is it? How did you install Win98 on the system?

Murray

[Area 51]

I didn't install it, I don't have a install disk for it.

[Murray S.]

Then where did you get the computer from.

They were legally required to provide you with the cd or a means of making a Restore/Recovery cd.

Murray

[Area 51]

My brother bought it a few months ago at a yard sale somewhere, there was no disks with it.

[Murray S.]

Okay. Without it, you are going to have a very difficult time repairing your install.

Did you use the Seagate hdd diagnostics disk as mentioned earlier - NOT the Win98SE bootdisk.

Murray

[Area 51]

No, I tried the harddrive that was in it and I ran the Fdisk. So now I don't have an OS it says.