[bamakodaker]

Compaq 5150, Windows 98. Computer was bought as factory refurb. No original software CD's to restore with. Original hard drive replaced with much bigger hard drive over a year ago, NOT partitioned. No hardware added since.

Don't exactly remember any original problem. Computer will show the Compaq screen then it goes to blinking cursor in upper left, nothing more. Unable to get to Safe Mode. (Would love to access GoBack!)
Using Norton's Rescue Disk's - Rescue Disk > Rescue Recovery > it checks Boot Records > I select Restore Rescue and when it tries to restore info I get an ERROR window saying Error resotring to hard disk.

In some of the other efforts with disks I've seen something like it couldn't find the main disk. While analyzing partition table on hard disk 1 - "Norton Disk Doctor doesn't recognize the drive type on hard disk 1. CMOS drive type may be incorrect or you may be using partition software that "fools" your system into thinking it is a different type of drive". NDD cannot analyze your system corredctly ~ and may cause loss of data.

Unable to advance with NDD disks. Cannot find Windows startup disk.

Any help GREATLY appreciated.

bamakodaker

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My kids' ancient HP occasionally does the same thing (black screen with blinking cursor top left) and if I clear CMOS, it works again. I hope this works for you, too.

Unplug computer, pop case, disconnect power supply from motherboard, locate jumper pins, move from 1-2 to 2-3 for a minute, put pin back to 1-2, reconnect PS, plug back in, reboot.

Best of luck!
Johanna

[Johanna]

My kids' ancient HP occasionally does the same thing (black screen with blinking cursor top left) and if I clear CMOS, it works again. I hope this works for you, too.

Unplug computer, pop case, disconnect power supply from motherboard, locate jumper pins, move from 1-2 to 2-3 for a minute, put pin back to 1-2, reconnect PS, plug back in, reboot.

Best of luck!
Johanna

[bamakodaker]

I have the computer tower opened. I've taken the large board out. I see NO jumper cable on it. The only time I remember seeing any was on my hard drive when I installed a larger one over a year ago. Any suggestions?

bamakodaker

[Johanna]

You are looking for three little tiny pins with a plastic cover, not a cable. It will be somewhere near the circular mobo battery, and nothing will be attached to it. Do not lose the plastic piece, and take note of how it is on there (in the one-two position).

Johanna

[bamakodaker]

Well, my wife got tired of me "playing" with the computer and asked a friend over. We moved the pins and got nothing different.

He did bring another hard drive. We played with location on the ribbon cable and settings for master and slave. No matter what was done, whenever the slave (old hard drive) was powered up the master could not be read. Alone, the master worked fine. Put the slave online and the computer acted just like it was only reading the slave. His conclusion is the hard drive is bad.

I started here by making a newbie mistake. I also put it in the Win98 section. Someone there has said GoBack may have hold of the master boot record and I will need a data recovery program. I wonder if it's time to start a new thread there!

Of course, installing a 120 GB HD into an older computer than came with 4 GB and runs Win98 might also be another thread. Seems I might need to upgrade to WIN XP as it's more stable and handles larger HD's. Like I said though, that's another thread!

I appreciate the help and suggestions. Life is a learning experience~ Keep smiling!

bamakodaker

[bamakodaker]

We did also move the jumper as suggested and it made no difference for us. Thanks for the try though!
bamakodaker