Unsolved
This post is more than 5 years old
9 Posts
0
4053
August 2nd, 2004 15:00
Premature OS Installation Exit / 'No fixed disks present' error
Hello,
I was finally able to use fdisk and format to revive a lone hard drive on an OptiPlex GX400 that had been having problems. I began the Windows 98 installation and got to the point where we had to enter a product key, but we could not find one and my boss instructed me to install Windows 95 first and use a Windows 98 Upgrade instead.
Well, I had to prematurely exit the Win98 installation by restarting the computer. Incidentally, soon after we found the Win98 product key.
Now the machine is in some kind of OS purgatory. I am able to access the floppy drive, cd-rom drive, and MS-RAMDRIVE (c:). However, I am unable to run fdisk or format again. fdisk gives the error: 'No fixed disks present,' and format says it is unable to format the drive.
While loading, a message claims the c:'s file system is not FAT or FAT32 and therefore Windows 98 cannot be loaded.
Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Brian Glass
Washington University
0 events found
DELL-Jesse L
Moderator
•
17.9K Posts
•
69K Points
0
August 2nd, 2004 16:00
eprg_wustl,
Thank you for using the Dell Community Forum.
Boot to a system floppy disk and then format the drive.
eprg_wustl
9 Posts
0
August 2nd, 2004 17:00
I am unable to format the hard drive. When I try and use format, it says:
Format not supported on C:
Format terminated.
One time I was lucky enough to have the computer recognize the hard drive, and I tried to start Windows normally (as opposed to in Safe Mode).
It went to the Windows 98 loading graphic for a while but eventually gave me the errors:
The following file is missing or currupted: C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
The following file is missing or currupted: C:\WINDOWS\DBLUFF.SYS
The following file is missing or currupted: C:\WINDOWS\IFSHLP.SYS
I kept rebooting but I was unable to get it to recognize the hard drives.
Eventually, it gave me this message:
Setup cannot install Windows 98 on your computer.
Your computer does not have a hard disk, your hard disk is not functioning correctly, or your hard disk requires a special device driver. Contact your computer vendor for assistance.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Brian Glass
Washington University
peterfelgate_ce40d3
1.3K Posts
0
August 7th, 2004 21:00