No boot device available

Will it boot to an A: Prompt in DOS with a W98 Boot Disk? If it will, type Fdisk at the A: prompt and enter. If it says No Fixed Disks Present, you have most likely blown the Harddrive. If it does anything else, the drive is still there, but not bootable for some reason. Answer the Large Disk Support question Y and in FDisk Options, select Set Active Partition and set Primary Partition as Active. If it says it is already set active, then go back to the A: prompt, and type and enter
     sys C:     when it reports System Files Transferred,  restart and see if it will boot to the harddrive.

The computer has windows 2000 professional installed on it, I do not have a windows 2000 boot disk, the only one I have is a windows 98 universal boot disk, and when I put that in the floppy drive the computer reads "Disk I/O error, replace the disk, and then push any key"

Do I need to get a windows 2000 boot disk or is something else wrong?

just want to add the computer is now letting me press the f2 button and it goes into the setup screen for the computer.

Ok I was able to make a windows 2000 startup disk, upon finishing with the 4th startup disk it was about to install windows 2000 but says "Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in your computer" also there is a scratching type of noise coming from the hard drive now, can I safely assume the hard drive is trashed?

I'm just gonna buy another hard drive off ebay, the hard drive in the computer is a 18.41GB drive, I'm thinking of buying this 30GB drive, my question is... this new drive is supposed to fit DELL Latitude a366 type laptops is this gonna work? my laptop is a DELL Latitude a366st so will this work?also Can i use the same hard drive caddy for this hard drive? Is this hard drive a direct fit upgrade or do I have to change things?

Check and see if your Floppy is set first in the Boot Order. The Disk I/O error sounds like it is coming from the Harddrive. Your W98 Boot Disk should boot to an A: Prompt if it is first in the Boot Order, and the W2K install does not matter, as your Boot Disk is more properly a DOS Boot Disk,  and just happens to be the version included with W98. I use that one because I find it easier to use., and since it works before any Windows OS even loads, it will work with any Windows OS installed.

If you want to try repairing your W2K installation, there is a file on the W2k CD available by browsing called Bootdisk; It contains an executable called Makeboot. That executable when opened makes a set of diskettes(4) to boot your computer and start the repair process; it will ask for the W2k CD to assist in this process at some point.

Message Edited by leduke30 on 06-25-2004 10:23 PM

The 30gb will work fine, the caddy will accept it and I used a 60gb in a CPiA for a while with no problem. I bought a 30gb 5400rpm Hitachi about 2 weeks ago from Newegg.com at a  very favorable price. I agree with your diagnosis now that the harddrive is definitely toast. FYI, the IDE plug on the inner end of the Harddrive is not part of the drive; pull it off and install on the new drive's standard 44 pin interface.

that website has really good prices, I'm looking at these hard drives.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=manufactory&catalog=14&manufactory=1984&DEPA=1&sortby=14&order=1

interested in the hard drive at the top of the page, the 40gb hard drive sounds like a good deal to me, but I'm also not sure if this is for a laptop and will fit my computer? are hard drives universal fit? will this also fit in the caddy and match up to the connector with no problems?

the broken hard drive in my laptop now is a 18.14GB and spins at 4,200rpms

this drive on that page is 40gb and spins at 7,200rpms, question is...will this make the computer function a lot faster than before?I know it's going to have more space now too.

sorry for all the questions i'm still learning whats good and whats not with hard drives and such. thanks for all your help

Sorry, all the drives on that page are for PCs and will not fit in any laptop internally. I'll check for the right product number and post that, but links to specific products are a violation of Dell's rules for the Forum. I'll send info by Private Messages at the page top.