computer hardware/BIOS error

[rcgreen]

Originally posted here by Morpheo
k, the virus detection is off, im booting up C: then A:, and i still get the error message when I boot up, so very strange...I even get the message when the drive isn't hooked up and the BIOS doesn't think there is a floppy....curioser and curioser.

You said at the beginning that you formatted the C drive,
so you must set the boot order to A first,
and boot from a floppy disk.

[dspeidel]

I would recommend reconnecting the flopy (don't think 486 will let you boot from CD)
boot with a win9x startup disk and then do a fdisk /mbr (master boot record) to the HD in question
then run format /u (unconditional) /r (recover I think not sure about that flag) and then begin the linux install (at this point there is no OS on HD and you will see the OS Not found Error if you boot without a disk).

If you want to make it a win9x you can do sys c: with a startup disk that will allow you to boot in to an empty fat 16 HD

Cheers,
-D

When I had an old 486 66 I ran red hat 4.2 without any problems

Cheers,
-D

[preep]

go into your drives (in bios) and choose 1.44 floppy 3.5", then save to CMOS and exit, now ur pc will restart and it should find the floppy drive.

preep

[Ratman2]

change the boot order to A: THEN C:

[Morpheo]

I can't get a DOS promt...i get a "non-system disk or disk error" message, and cannot proceed any further. this happens while the somputer is still running off the BIOS, not DOS or Win. I can get into the BIOS setup and i've turned off the vx stuff, still not working. Also, when i get the error, and i hit enter, it gives me the message again without checking the drive (the green diode doesn't light up)

[darkes]

ru sure that your PC is booting from the floppy?
Can you boot from this floppy on a different PC?
You can tell if you are booting from the floppy, as the diode on the front of the floopy drive will light up, and you will hear the floppy disk griding away as it boots from it. You can do this even if your HDD is not connected.
Do you have any options in the BIOS to say whether it should boot from the floppy first?
You would also get this error if your HDD has no OS/boot sector (which seems likely!), and your floppy is not connected correctly, as the BIOS would then try and boot from the HDD rather than the floopy.

[darkes]

ru sure that your PC is booting from the floppy?
Can you boot from this floppy on a different PC?
You can tell if you are booting from the floppy, as the diode on the front of the floopy drive will light up, and you will hear the floppy disk griding away as it boots from it. You can do this even if your HDD is not connected.
Do you have any options in the BIOS to say whether it should boot from the floppy first?
You would also get this error if your HDD has no OS/boot sector (which seems likely!), and your floppy is not connected correctly, as the BIOS would then try and boot from the HDD rather than the floopy.

[gizmofreak]

Get into bios switch 2 default,optimal or best performance values.Then also turn off virus detection from standard setup.This should help or else ur hard disk is damaged.Which bios do u use ami,award..tellme might help better
best of luck