# Win 98 Setup probs



## stu37 (Jun 10, 2002)

hi, i got an old sony PVC-90 that i'm trying to install win98 and when i put in the startup disk, it states no drives found, aborting setup. It says Device Driver not found. No valid CDROM device drivers selected. Also says Win 98 has detected that drive C does notcontain a validFAT or FAT32 partition and there are several possible causes etc. Is there a way to get it When i type in FDISK it says no fixed disks present. Anything i can do? Thanks in advance. Trying to learn.
Bob


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## mobo (Feb 23, 2003)

you should try a boot disk from herehttp://www.freepctech.com go to downloads then scrolldown to boot disks and select the proper one .Download to your desktop and once complete double click on the icon.Then it will ask to insert a floppy.

Besure to have the cd in yhe cdrom and the floppy in its drive before you reboot.


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## stu37 (Jun 10, 2002)

no luck. after loading stops, A:/> shows up and anything i try it states bad command. Only one that does anything is the FDISK, which i explained in beginning


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## mobo (Feb 23, 2003)

It's probably your startup floppy. I had the identical problem which was cured simply by formatting a floppy from an operational win 98 comp. start,settings,control panel,add/remove programs,startup disk tab.


Make this type of floppy disk and power down comp ,insert and reboot.Since you have already done the partitions you must now format .From the a:/> type "format c:" minus the quot marks and let that run.post back with results.


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## stu37 (Jun 10, 2002)

hi Firefighter, i have not partitioned as of yet because i can't get anything to work. Also another thing, i can't make a startup disk for win 98 from the add-remove programs startup tab because i have win xp on both the other machines. any more ideas? thanks
Bob


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## mobo (Feb 23, 2003)

Did you get a boot disk from http://www.freepctech.com ?

Once you get this floppy then you should be able to start working.Remember to get this boot disk to work properly you save it to desktop and after download is complete you double click the icon. At this point you will be asked to, insert one floppy.

Insert the cd and boot floppy in the pc then power up.Ypu should get tp the a:> prompt.You then type fdisk.You should be taken to a screen with four options, select option four to view present partitions.take note of any that are present and which is active.Press esc to go back to previous page.At this point if there were any partitions you should delete them and make new ones .Y ou statr deleting with the lowest one which is probably extended or logistical and up to the primary.

Next you will have to make new partitions.


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## stu37 (Jun 10, 2002)

i done it all up to typing fdisk and that's as far as i can get and then it says no fixed disks present. So i don't know what is the deal. Any other ideas?


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## mobo (Feb 23, 2003)

You're going to need a startup floppy disk.The boot floppy brings the system up and the startup floppy is needed to start the remaining processes.In your situation THe"no fixed disk present"tells me that you need the drivers for the drives .These drivers are in the startup floppy disk.

You have some options of either calling friends or calling a tech shop in your area to see if they will make you one.It only takes a couple of minutes with little effort but the disk is invaluable at this point.

If you ould like you can email myself when the time comes.


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## stu37 (Jun 10, 2002)

i have a startup floppy so at the A prompt on the boot disk then what do i type in?


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## mobo (Feb 23, 2003)

o.k try booting the system with the cd in the rom and the startup floppy in the drive.Does this take you to the a:> prompt ? If so type fdisk . Does that work ? If so then its time to partition the drive.


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## stu37 (Jun 10, 2002)

keeps saying no fixed disks present


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## mobo (Feb 23, 2003)

Something doesn't seem right. At the power up does it at anytime say windows starting ? you stated earlier that it said no device found ; Does it now say that with the startup floppy in after reboot ?


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## mobo (Feb 23, 2003)

http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm 
I would also if you have an available floppy to try one the win98SE oem boot disks.

something also to check on.When booting up press the del key to bring up the bios.click on bios setup and see what the order of booting is.It would be best if it were a c .If not just use the page up & page down buttons to change.also remember to save the changes. Then reboot with thestartup floppy as well as the cdin the drive.


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## stu37 (Jun 10, 2002)

Yes it does and also says device driver not found: 'MSCD001' no valid cdrom device drivers selected, further above it says win98 has detected that drive C does not contain a valid FAT or FAT32 partition. but in the DOS prompts i cannot get any results. now in the bios boot sequence is 1. floppy, 2. HDD and 3> network? Really stumped on this. Most of everything else in bios is set to auto. on reboot it says starting , os load in progress, then the 1, 2, 3 enter a choice startup menu, so 1 is selected and it goes through the the startup and states what i entered above


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## mobo (Feb 23, 2003)

you said 1,2,3, what are they and what did you click.


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## stu37 (Jun 10, 2002)

Ok 1 2 and 3 was startup options and i entered 1 which is setup with cd rom support and booting sequence i chose, 1 for floppy, 2 for harddrive and 3 for network and 4 nothing. Call it a day and thanks alot for helping and get back with you tomorrow.
Bob


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## IMM (Feb 1, 2002)

It's quite possible that you will need cd device drivers for dos which are specific to the cd. Having said that, is there an option to boot from CD first in your bios?
Is there a specific boot disk available for our machine?
I'll admit to not reading all of the post 

Admittedly, it sounds like a bios recognition issue. Do you think a virus has messed with the cmos?
Are the HD positions set auto within the bios?


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## mobo (Feb 23, 2003)

I'll agree there does seem to be some issue with the hard drive and its reading the task.


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## stu37 (Jun 10, 2002)

I'm wondering about the hard drive too, The bios does not have a setting for cdrom first, and yes it could have been a virus, because when it went out it happened like right now with no warning, do you think a hard drive would be the only solution, or could it be a bios setting of some kind?


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## mobo (Feb 23, 2003)

Do you mean that the system just crashed and this is the state of it as the result ? If so were there any other problems with the system prior to the crash ?


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## stu37 (Jun 10, 2002)

not that i know of. i set it up for my daughter, who had at her home and we were going to go on internet after i got there, and i had set it up before so it had been working for a short time and when we tried it wouldn't boot up. Just happened, no crash or anything, so that's where i stand


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## mobo (Feb 23, 2003)

well i'm not sure exactly what it is but I have a couple of things you could try:

(1) At the a prompt type dir a:
If the a drive is working properly it should give a list of the files that are in the floppy that is in the drive.

(2) Again at the a prompt type dir c: and so on up to z.This will show if the hard drive is at all reading from the cd in the drive.


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## stu37 (Jun 10, 2002)

that seems to be working. after i typed dir c: it states :
Volume in drive C isMS-RAMDRIVE

then it shows 15 files 595,051 bytes
0 dir(s) 1,486,848 bytes free


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## mobo (Feb 23, 2003)

please restart the system with the startup floppy not the boot floppy.When prompted select "start computer without cdrom support"The your next step is to type fdisk and enter.Lets see what that does.


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## stu37 (Jun 10, 2002)

it still say no fixed disks prwsent. when i enter fdisk it makes a noise like it was trying to engage like a clunk or something trying go but stuck. also cd rom is running but that's extent of it


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## mobo (Feb 23, 2003)

do you know if the previous files were deleted ?If not let's check. Remove the cd and at tha a prompt type dir c: and dir d:

If anything shows up then windows in still in the system. I also have a couple tricks to retrieve any files that are possibly on the system. post back were not giving up just yet.


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## stu37 (Jun 10, 2002)

ok, in dir c: it shows:
15 files 595,051 bytes
0 dir(s) 1,486,848 bytes free

dir d: invalid drive specification

dir e:
Volume in drive A has no label
Volume serial number is 2AA6-A3E1
Directory of A:\

File not found 

249,344 bytes free


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## mobo (Feb 23, 2003)

what we see here is your files are still in the hard drive.At the a prompt type fdisk /mbr to restore the master boot records.Now i'm not sure whether there is a space between the k and the back slash or not so you may have to try both.


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## stu37 (Jun 10, 2002)

both entries say no fixed disks present and 'mbr does not contain a valid fat or FAT32 partition and then possible causes, 
might need partitioning, third party software possible or virus.


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## mobo (Feb 23, 2003)

Here is one more command to try:type sys c:


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## stu37 (Jun 10, 2002)

ok, it says 'required parameter missing'


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## mobo (Feb 23, 2003)

This could possibly mean you need to install the drivers for the hard drive. Do you know the make and model of the hard drive?If not you'll have to open the case and look at the unit itself.Then do a search for the drivers and put them to a floppy.


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## kilowatt1 (Oct 27, 2001)

Greets stu and firefighter,

It sounds like the hard drive is not being recognized in the BIOS. There's a couple of possible reasons for this.

1) The hard drive is SCSI not IDE ant the options in the BIOS is set to auto. (If it is indeed an SCSI drive then it should be set to "Not Installed").

2) If it is an IDE drive then the "auto" feature in the BIOS is not detecting the parameters. If this the case then you will need to manually set the parameters for the hard drive (Type, Cyls, Heads, etc.)

I believe you posted that the computer was working at one point but would not boot up after moving it. Probably what has happened is that the CMOS battery is weak or dead and the correct setup parameters in the BIOS have been lost

If you could tell us what your options are in the BIOS setup, particularly concerning the hard drive, maybe we can figure out why the hard drive is not being detected. Also, while you're in setup, check to see if the date/time is correct.

Kilowatt


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## mobo (Feb 23, 2003)

Thanks for jumpin in kilowatt.I am running out of ideas.


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## kilowatt1 (Oct 27, 2001)

No problem firefighter,

I obtain and work on old (and I mean OLD!! ) systems quite often and have tried every trick known to man on these old boys.

By the way, I retired after 20 years in the fire service.

Kilowatt


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## stu37 (Jun 10, 2002)

it says primary and secondary IDE's not installed and then i press enter and IDE Device cinfigurations : [Auto Configured] so cylinders, heads,sectors and maximum capacity 0 MB

IDE Translation mode [Auto Detected]
Multiple Sector Setting [Auto Detected]
Fast Programmed I/0 Modes [Auto Detected]

Time is correct, and everything is original equipment i believe, and no this happened while being stationary. Here is a site i looked at for ideas, which would make more sense to you

http://www.ita.sel.sony.com/support/pc/pcv7090/softupdates/


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## kilowatt1 (Oct 27, 2001)

Are there any values listed next to or under cylinders, heads, sectors ? If not, then you need to enter them yourself. You'll have to look at the hard drive and write down the info. There should be an option for user define or something similar.

I have to leave for a bit but I'll check back a little later.

Kilowatt


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## stu37 (Jun 10, 2002)

it's a Western Digital Caviar 32500
Drive parameters: 4960cyl, 16 heads, 63spt, 2559.8mb

MDL:WDAC32500-12H
P / N:99-004200-011
CCC:F3 14 SEP 96
DCM:BNBCEBH


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## blakhawk (Mar 24, 2003)

I think kilowatt forgot about you.


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## stu37 (Jun 10, 2002)

lol on that. anyways i want to thank Firefighter for all his time and trying to help. Guess i'll have to keep trying
Bob


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## kilowatt1 (Oct 27, 2001)

Nope, haven't forgot you, just been busy away from the computer.

Have you tried manually entering the parameters for the hard drive?


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## stu37 (Jun 10, 2002)

i have but doesn't seem to make any difference. I think the main problem is as it states is no drives so it aborts. and seems no way to get things started to do anything


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## kilowatt1 (Oct 27, 2001)

That's not good.

Does the hard drive even spin up? You may have to take the cover off the case to see if you can hear it spinning. While you're in there disconnect then reconnect the ribbon and power cables to the hard drive or swap the ribbon cable on the hard drive and CDRom if they are on seperate cables. By the way, does the hard drive connect to a riser card or does it connect directly to the mobo?


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## mobo (Feb 23, 2003)

Doesn't look promising for that hard drive.Is it possible the old dog laid to rest ?


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## stu37 (Jun 10, 2002)

i believe it is connected to the mobo and yes i do hear it spin up, and i also hear cdrom. i will swap and see what happens, if anything.


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## kilowatt1 (Oct 27, 2001)

If you haven't already, try this:

Make sure the computer is off.

Turn on the computer. At the SONY screen, press the F3 key then the F1 key. (Do this quickly). In the BIOS Setup window, press the Right Arrow key until the exit menu is selected. On the Exit menu press the down arrow key until Load Setup Default is selected. Press the enter key.

In the Setup Confirmation dialog box, press the Enter key.
In the BIOS setup window, on the exit menu, press the Up Arrow key until Saving Changes is selected.
Press the Enter key.
In the Setup Confirmation dialog box, press the enter key.

Press CTRL ALT DELETE to restart the computer.


I don't suppose you have the recovery CD do you?


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## stu37 (Jun 10, 2002)

still the same no change. It states no fat or fat32, might need partitioning and then i typed in FDISK on A:\> prompt it still says no fixed disks present
i did try changing connectipons and all and no change there either. I do have a recovery cd but how would i get it to engage? 
what i tried did not work.


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## kilowatt1 (Oct 27, 2001)

Try putting the recovery disk in the CDRom then restart the computer. Do not insert any floppy disks. What happens?


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## stu37 (Jun 10, 2002)

it says lnsert bootable media in the appropiate drive. the boot sequence is set to cdrom 1st. is that ok?


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## kilowatt1 (Oct 27, 2001)

Is there a DOS prompt after the message or a "cancel" button?


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## stu37 (Jun 10, 2002)

just a fast blinking cursor under it is all


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