Computer won't boot

Yesterday, one of our computers had difficulty saving information locally, then re-booted on it's own. Since then, I cannot run any fdisk utilities, format or do anything else. When I type c: it says there is no fixed drive and that it is unable to format or run fdisk. I have tried changing out the hard drives on this computer as well, and the same issues come up. Can anyone help? Thanks!

Originally, the computer had:
512 mb ram
6.4gb hard drive
windows 98
cd rom/disk drive
network card

 

Have you tried installing that HDD into another machine to see if the drive died?

 

Yeah, and it spins at first, then doesn't sound like it makes any more noise. Could the battery on the mother board have died?

 

I'm not sure the battery would have much to do with it. All that does is provide power for the BIOS for when the machine isn't plugged into a power source.

I'd try pulling some info off that drive while it's connected to another computer, if you can do that, then I'd give it a scan for virus, spyware and trojans. If that doesn't go, see if you can fdisk and format it from that computer.

 

When I re-boot and use the boot disk, I get a meassage that says "windows 98 has detected that drive c does not contain a valid FAT or FAT32 partition. There are several possible reasons....

1. The drive may need to be partitioned. To create a partition on the drive run FDISK from the ms-dos command prompt

2. you may be using third-party disk partitioning software. If you are using this type of software, remove the emergency boot disk and restart your computer. Then, follow the on-screen instructions to start your computer from a flopy disk. (I am not using a third party disk partitioning software)

3. Some viruses also cause your drive c not to register. You can use a virus scanning program to check your computer for viruses."

Any help will be greatly appreciated!!!

 

when you get that error, it means
1. the drive is not formatted
2. the drive is formatted using a different File System like NTFS

You'll need a 98 bootdisk to fdisk the drive , create a primary partition and format the drive to FAT32 before continuing. Did this drive have data on it that you want to keep?

 

No, The drive can be formatted. I have loaded the boot disk and it has the fdisk program on it, I just can't get it to work.

 

you have to try making a new boot disk
www.bootdisk.com

I don't know your level of expertise.. do you know how to fdisk a drive?

 

It's been a while since I have done anything in dos, so I am a little rusty. I have formatted and reloaded a computer, but it was a while ago. I made a new fdisk and am trying again...