Windows 98 & ME - "no OS found

Eject any floppy or CD left in a drive. Does it still happen? Then...

I guess do go into BIOS first, to see settings weren't mussed that may
upset the "geometry" of it. I don't know what you might look for, but I
have two guesses...

(1) I guess "Reset to defaults & exit" is a viable choice.
(2) I suppose that means it will use LBA if available over CHS.

Here is what I know of the MBR and partition boot sectors.

"Fdisk /mbr" will restore Microsoft "boot code" to the Master Boot
Record of the boot HDD, usually the Primary Master. (This perhaps should
not be done, if you have a drive overlay in the MBR or if you suspect a
boot sector virus. The drive overlay would have to be restored in the
first case.) Boot code in the MBR, as I understand, searches the
partition table, also in the MBR, for the one that is Active. The boot
sector of the Active partition is hard-coded with the name of the
OPERATING SYSTEM that the boot code must load. For Win98, that OS is
IO.sys (DOS), which eventually leads to Windows. The other portion of
the MBR, the partition table, normally is not disturbed by "Fdisk /MBR".
The partition table contains the dimensions of the partitions and is
updated only when the partitions are created or resized. However, /MBR
may combine multiple partitions into a single one. It will do so, if it
discovers a missing End-Of-Sector marker (55AA) in the MBR sector. This
may result in a "mess of goo", says Blanton, if you had multiple
partitions, per
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=149877
Boot Record Signature AA55 Not Found

(1)
(a) Hold Ctrl as you boot for the Startup Menu, if it hasn't already
been activated at "START, Run, MSConfig, Advanced button". Select to
boot to the "Command Prompt Only" (DOS).

.......Start...Quote from Windows 98 Secrets (Livingston/Straub).....
Ctrl or F8: Starts the Windows 98 Startup Menu. You need to hold down
the Ctrl key before the DOS bootup process begins. If you have quick
fingers you can press the F8 key in between the end of the power-on self
test & the beginning of the DOS bootup phase.
.......End........

(b) Alternatively, get a Startup Diskette from
http://www.bootdisk.com/ , if you don't already have one from "Control
Panel, Add/Remove Programs, Startup Disk tab". Put the diskette in &
turn on the computer.

(2) Enter "DIR C:". Did you get a listing or an error message?

If a listing, then... things to consider....

(1) Perhaps enter "SYS C:".

This will copy certain system files (IO.sys, Command.com & perhaps
MSDOS.sys) from the Startup Diskette to C:\. (It also sets the BPB drive
number to HD0, so that it is now in the bootstrap. It does so, no matter
whether it is HD0. To boot it, one must still move it to be HD0,
however.) You may now be able to boot to Windows, if all folders are
intact. If not, some further adjustment need be done to "MSDOS.sys",
that was copied to C:\. The floppy has just a shell of it. Well, remove
the floppy & boot.

Oh gosh! Here are some warnings from Jeff Richards, MS MVP W95/W98,
about "SYS C:". DON'T DO IT, he says, if:

(a) "Major errors were reported in Scandisk."
(b) "A drive is moved from one machine to another", because of the next
two, maybe.
(c) "The BIOS setting for a drive is changed (eg, LBA to LARGE)."
(d) "A drive that uses overlay software is operated without the overlay
loaded."

(2) Enter "FDISK /MBR"
This will rewrite the code portion of the Master Boot Record,
leaving the Partition Table untouched, except it may muss the partition
table, if there is a missing End-Of-Sector marker (55AA), per
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=149877
Boot Record Signature AA55 Not Found

Here are the warnings against it...

(a) If you have a boot sector virus, you may lose access to all
partitions. Then
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/utilities.html MBRWork "might" help to
recover them.

(b) If you have "overlay" code in the MBR, e.g., EZ-BIOS, Maxblast, a
boot manager, then that will need to be reestablished afterwards.
http://www.aefdisk.com/ FDISK & Boot Manager
http://support.microsoft.com/support.../Q245/1/62.ASP Overlay
Utility & FDISK

(c) FDISK may be buggy. So? Use MBRWork to do it, or
http://support.microsoft.com/default...;en-us;Q263044
Latest FDISK, hoping this one doesn't have any bugs. (But it doesn't
solve the 55AA thing.)

(d) If for some reason the "geometry" setting in BIOS does not match the
hard drive, then any write to the drive may be destructive. So, go into
BIOS and have it "automatically detect" the proper setting. (If you can
DIR the drive in DOS, then you have proven the geometry is right.)

(3)
(a) Boot to DOS. (Hold CTRL as you boot for the Startup Menu, & select
"Command Prompt Only".)

(b) Scandisk /Checkonly
Might be wise to know beforehand what it intends to fix. Will
display on screen & get written to "C:\Scandisk.log".

(c) Scandisk
Let it fix, if it didn't sound horrible. Otherwise, post what it
said.

In Dos, you may see "C:\Scandisk.log" this way...

EDIT C:\Scandisk.log
Alt-F-X (pressed separately) to exit EDIT. (TAB to traverse buttons.)

........Start......of quote of Glee..........
Download the diagnostics for your brand hard drive.

If you do not know the brand, download Seagate SeaTools. After it is
downloaded, double-click it, and it will create a bootable floppy disk
with the diagnostic program on it. Then boot your problem computer
using the bootable floppy, and choose the Generic long test. It will
create a report that you can read from within the program when the tests
are complete, and it is also saved as a text file on the floppy disk.

Alternately, you can use the evaluation version of Ontrack Data Advisor,
which is the same program in its original version. They both are
created the same way.

Seagate SeaTools:
http://download.microshopper.com/har...e/seatoold.exe
or
http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/B7a.html

Error codes:
http://www.seagate.com/support/npf/s...ror_index.html

Data Advisor:
http://www.ontrack.com/freesoftware/#dataadvisor
The download link has not been working recently...if it does not
connect, use Seagate SeaTools instead.

Installation instructions for both:
http://www.ontrack.com/dataadvisor/downloadinfo.asp

If you DO know the brand, find the diagnostics he

Fujitsu
http://www.fcpa.fujitsu.com/download...es/#diagnostic

IBM and Hitachi
http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#DFT

Maxtor
http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/products/index.htm

Seagate
http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/index.html

Western Digital
http://support.wdc.com/download/
or
www.westerndigital.com
--
Glen Ventura, MS MVP W95/98 Systems
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm

....glen
--
Glen Ventura, MS MVP
............End......of quote.........

--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
should things get worse after this,
PCR

"john" wrote in message
...
| My computer comes up with a message "no OS found" after
| starting it up, is there anything i can do?