Omega Owners Forum
Chat Area => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: jereboam on 08 October 2008, 10:17:07
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My elderly laptop, which I haven't attempted to use for ages - possibly more than a year - won't work any more. It goes through the usual start up stuff, then does nothing for a minute and then says "operating system not found". It won't boot from the CD either, although it doesn't give a message. It can see both the HDD and CD, so I don't think it's simply just disc failure, but it is just sitting there doing nothing.
Any suggestions?
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My elderly laptop, which I haven't attempted to use for ages - possibly more than a year - won't work any more. It goes through the usual start up stuff, then does nothing for a minute and then says "operating system not found". It won't boot from the CD either, although it doesn't give a message. It can see both the HDD and CD, so I don't think it's simply just disc failure, but it is just sitting there doing nothing.
Any suggestions?
Has it got a floppy drive? - disk left in?
Whats operating system?
Could be issue with Master Boot Record.
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My elderly laptop, which I haven't attempted to use for ages - possibly more than a year - won't work any more. It goes through the usual start up stuff, then does nothing for a minute and then says "operating system not found". It won't boot from the CD either, although it doesn't give a message. It can see both the HDD and CD, so I don't think it's simply just disc failure, but it is just sitting there doing nothing.
Any suggestions?
Has it got a floppy drive? - disk left in?
Whats operating system?
Could be issue with Master Boot Record.
Swappable FDD/CD - don't know where the FDD is - haven't used it for years.
It's W2K
Where does the Master Boot Record live? If it's on disk, why won't it boot from the CD?
Thanks for the suggestions :)
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if its the master boot record only real fix is a reinstall or try a boot up floppy disk
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My elderly laptop, which I haven't attempted to use for ages - possibly more than a year - won't work any more. It goes through the usual start up stuff, then does nothing for a minute and then says "operating system not found". It won't boot from the CD either, although it doesn't give a message. It can see both the HDD and CD, so I don't think it's simply just disc failure, but it is just sitting there doing nothing.
Any suggestions?
Has it got a floppy drive? - disk left in?
Whats operating system?
Could be issue with Master Boot Record.
Swappable FDD/CD - don't know where the FDD is - haven't used it for years.
It's W2K
Where does the Master Boot Record live? If it's on disk, why won't it boot from the CD?
Thanks for the suggestions :)
Have you changed the BIOS setting to make it look at the CD for booting? If not then it will keep going to the Hard Disc and the CD may not be on the boot list at all.
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As above change the bios to boot from cd/dvd ( i know on my lappy i press F2 during boot to get into bios settings ) or failing that maybe the hard disk is fubar :-/
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if its the master boot record only real fix is a reinstall or try a boot up floppy disk
Shouldn't think I've got a floppy to boot from, even if I knew where the drive was. And I can't re-install as it won't boot from the CD
Have you changed the BIOS setting to make it look at the CD for booting? If not then it will keep going to the Hard Disc and the CD may not be on the boot list at all.
The F12 key gives a boot menu, so I chose CD from that. But thinking about it, I've got a feeling it may actually have tried the HDD first. I'll try changing it in the BIOS.
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As above change the bios to boot from cd/dvd ( i know on my lappy i press F2 during boot to get into bios settings ) or failing that maybe the hard disk is fubar :-/
That would be be my guess, but I don't understand the behaviour at the moment - why won't it boot from CD?
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Is the cd clean and scratch free .... i know my cd drive hates a disk with even a finger print on it .... if its set to boot from cd/dvd maybe the windows disk is fubar too :-/
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Just been reading back the post ..... does W2K not need to install drivers for the cd .... i know XP and later do this themselves i think :-/... or am i barking tottally up the wrong tree .... wish i could help more :-[
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Right, I've changed the BIOS boot settings and it makes no difference - still won't go.
I'm fairly sure W2K should boot directly from the CD - if the BIOS gives you the option, there shouldn't be a problem. On W98 you needed to install MSDOS drivers to read the CD if you booted from floppy.
And I just tried another W2K distribution disk and it gives the same (lack of) result.
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As far as I can remember, W2K CD is not bootable. You need another bootable media to boot to first.
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Could simply be both the hdd and cd drive are fubar. Try an xp boot disk or a nero bootable disk just to see if they load. It should be able to boot without the aid of drivers for the cd drive.
You could also try a lens cleaner or take out the drive and blow the dust off. Clutching at straws really but it doesn't sound like a problem with the laptop/motherboard itself or you'd be likely to have problems loading the bios.
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or bin it :y
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As far as I can remember, W2K CD is not bootable. You need another bootable media to boot to first.
You could be right - can't remember. Don't think the laptop will run XP - it's not a very high spec. But I suppose I can put the CD in see if it boots - I'll have a go later - got to go and make a vegetarian Bolognese sauce now :)
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just occasionally a duff hard drive will prevent a machine form booting. Some older Tosh's have just one hardrive/CD channel and use master/slave switching, so if the HD is stuffed it will stop the CD form working properly. Try pulling the HD and trying to boot from CD.
Ken
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Original W2K Cd's were bootable..
may be this will give some idea..
http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=297
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Stoopid question maybe - but does the BIOS have a valid entry for the HDD type? There should be cylinders and heads mentioned with real looking numbers...
BIOSses of that sort of age needed a 'manual detect' if they lost that info.
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Stoopid question maybe - but does the BIOS have a valid entry for the HDD type? There should be cylinders and heads mentioned with real looking numbers...
BIOSses of that sort of age needed a 'manual detect' if they lost that info.
Not a stupid question, but I've just checked and it's all there -12073MB in 23579236 sectors. Not a huge disk - the biggest the machine will support is 20GB. I've got one of those ready to install, just not got round to it for the last 18 months.
just occasionally a duff hard drive will prevent a machine form booting. Some older Tosh's have just one hardrive/CD channel and use master/slave switching, so if the HD is stuffed it will stop the CD form working properly. Try pulling the HD and trying to boot from CD.
Ken
That's what I think is happening. But the HD isn't accessible without opening the case, and I've never done that before, so it's a last resort for me - I'm not all that good at that sort of thing these days.
Original W2K Cd's were bootable..
That's what I thought - but my memory isn't so good these days. :)
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Have you tried a Linux cd.
http://partedmagic.com/wiki/PartedMagic.php
eddie
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Have you tried a Linux cd.
http://partedmagic.com/wiki/PartedMagic.php
eddie
Go wash your mouth out :(
Haven't I got enough problems? :( :( :(
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What is it ?, make and model?. Tomorrow, I'll see if Dave and I can work out the easy way to get the HD out.
Cheers Ken
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As above change the bios to boot from cd/dvd ( i know on my lappy i press F2 during boot to get into bios settings ) or failing that maybe the hard disk is fubar :-/
think the term is corrupted :P
usually things like that just require the hard-drive reformatting with the operating system software then works fine... till the next time you have to do it :P
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Actually we use Linux a lot to check out machines with booting problems. It generally works without any problems and is so much faster and reliable than "the other OS company's products". I tend to use Knoppix, and Dave uses a variety of Tiny Linux's.
Ken
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Go wash your mouth out Sad
Haven't I got enough problems? Sad Sad Sad
::)
Using PCLinuxos and Mint (Gnome). No ms stuff in this house! :y
eddie