"No operating system found" Windows 98 SE

I have an old Gateway Select CPU with an AMD 800 MHZ, 30 gig Hardrive and I believe 256 RAM. This was a refurbished unit that I got from Ubid. It came with recovery disks that I have used successfully about 3 years ago. My son downloaded so much crap o his computer that it finally crashed again. When trying to use the Restore software this time, it froze. So I put in the Start-up floppy and when start-up got to the point of asking if I wanted to create a partition, I did. I have used Fdisk to make sure that the partition is active and it is. However, without the start-up floppy I recieve the "No operating system found" message and using the floppy after it runs thru the checks it eventually gets around to the A:/ promt. During the checks, it does not locate any of the drivers which is probably why I can't even do "setup" using the floppy and the Windows 98 se CD. I would like to get the computer to recognize the CD Rom so that I can put in Disk 1 of the Restore software and continue to "Write zeroes" to the hardrive and start over again with tis machine. Or at least be able to run "set-up" successfully. Any help is greatly appreciated, but keep in mind I am not very bright when it comes to technology.

 

Wow win 98.....
err well get into the bios and get it to look for the operating system on the windows disk first and boot up that way.... or when you get the a: promt type d:setup or e:setup

 

Thanks foot loose. I know how to get into BIOS, but how do I go about looking for the OS there?

 

when you get to the a: prompt type format c:.. that will format your h drive and the you should be able to boot up with a or win 98 cd

 

Right...basically you partitioned the drive, but Win98 setup doesn't recognize it because it hasn't been formatted yet.

 

OK, I have formatted C: and even run a Scandisk on it finding no bad sectors. Still can't find the OS, I believe (but not sure) that before the Restore software froze, it may have already wiped out the OS, and for some reason the system is recognizing the CD Rom, while starting from the floppy it states that there are no drivers for the CD Rom. I believe if I could only get the CD Rom to function, I could put the Restore CD in and continue to write zeros to the HD and then re-install Windows 98. What say you?

 

Download the Win98SE or WinME boot disk from here:

www.bootdisk.com

Either one should give you the option of booting with or without CD-ROM support.

 

Is there a difference between the diskett that I made when I originally installed Win 98 se and this diskett?

 

There shouldn't be, but if you're not getting the choice of booting with or without CD-ROM support, then it would appear so. Are you sure you don't have just "Win98" as opposed to "Win98SE"? The CD-ROM choice came with the SE version, I believe.

 

I do get a choice to Boot with CD support or without and also to view HELP files, so there are 3 choices in all using my startup diskett... I have tried all 3... But when I try to boot-up with the help of a CD I get nowhere, I believe it is because the drivers aren't there.

 

If you choose the "boot with CD-ROm support" option, then it loads the drivers.

Let's simplify things a little bit. After booting & choosing the CD-ROM support option, you arrive at the "A" prompt. Are you able to then switch to the "C" drive ? From the "A" prompt, type in C: then enter. Does it then go to the "C" prompt, or does it tell you "drive not found"?

Also, assuming your CD-ROM drive is "D", try switching to that (with the Win98SE CD in the drive) by typing D: then enter. Are you able to get to the "D" prompt & view the contents of the CD?

 

Yes, I can get to C: I have even run ScanDisk in C which took about 45min. to 1 hour to run and ScanDisk found no errors. I also typed in D: and got a Bad Command sort of thing... Whan trying to boot from the startup disk with the help of a CD Rom somewhere before it gets to the A: prompt, I see something that names the CD Rom as MSC D001: after a moment or so it says :No drivers found, abort (installation, I think)... After some more checks it will read: Device Driver Not Found: MSCD001. No Valid CD Rom device drivers selected... Then it goes on to the A: prompt after suggesting that I type in "HELP"... Good Lord I need it, but the HELP File I got didn't seem to help much... By the way, thanks for the help you are giving.

 

Ah, I see. It appears the CD-ROM isn't being detected. If you go into the BIOS, does it show the CD-ROM? Not in the boot order...it'll show as an option regardless...but in the screen where it shows your drives & other hardware. It should show the make & model of it if it sees it. Hopefully you have another drive to try if it's indeed bad.

Oh, and the reason you get "no operating system found" when you try to boot without the floppy is because you formatted the hard drive, but didn't make it bootable. Next time you format, type:

format c: /s

That will copy the needed system files from the floppy to the hard drive & it'll then boot to the "C" prompt. Still doesn't help you if your CD-ROM is bad though...