missing operating system

Question

I won a Dell Latitdue C600 from work. They wiped the hard drive so that I could remove it from the building. I tryed loading win 98 using a floppy boot disk and a win 98 cd. I had to run Fdisk and it looked like it was loading for a few seconds. Then it canceled the load. Now all that happens with or with out the floppy or CD inserted, is

Missing operating system

Any ideas on how to get this lap top working

ps

I can get to the boot menu and the setup menu

dbramlet · Answer

Go into bios and make sure the floppy drive is first in the boot oder if you want to fdsik the drive and wipe out any partitions. If there are none then go to bios and change the boot order to have the cd first in the boot order. Then put the windows 98 cd in the drive and boot from it and allow it to partition the drive, format it and install windows.

kener40 · Answer

I got and ran a new boot disk from bootdisk.com . Still nothing, all that comes up is missing operating system..

In the BIOS setup it does not seem to matter whater order the diskette drive - cd drive - or the hdd are in it still just comes up missing operating system

dbramlet · Answer

I assume when you change the boot order you are saving changes befor exiting? In bios is the floppy drive and cd-rom show up under drives and both are enabled? Is the floopy seek at bootup enabled? Just trying to see if these drives are working. Are you using windows 98 or Windows 98SE?

dbramlet · Answer

Well, Sounds to me like your startup disk is missing needed boot files and some of those win98 ones were like that. You need a good disk that will load the necessary drivers. I have one here and might could try to email all the files to you if you have high speed and you can then copy them to s formatted disk. Now, do you have a copy of windows 98 se or the actual windows 98 second addition CD that came legally with a computer? Just asking because it sounds like you are using a copy maybe you made as a backup or something. If you have a good windows 98 se startup floppy disk it should take you to the A prompt also where you can run fdisk and delete all partitions if any.

kener40 · Answer

Yes both drives are active. I can get the floppy to load the MS-dos sart up disk and it will bring up the A prompt (Idont know what to do from there) If I put the win 98 SE start up disk in(floppy) it just brings up Missing operating system. The the win 98SE cd will spin in its tray for about 30seconds and then stop..

kener40 · Answer

FYI:  When I first started loading the win 98 software it started. It asked me to run fdisk and I did. It asked me a few questions. I just selected option #1 ( because i didn't know what i was doing). Now it just comes up with missing operating system. Just giving you a better history of how I got to were i am.

dbramlet · Answer

Ok, well once you get this disk copied just select go to the A prompt if it don't automatically. Then run fdisk. There are 22 files on this so I will send 6 first and see how long it takes you to d/l them. You can d'l them directly to the formatted floppy disk if you selct that but might take longer. Your option. I will try sending some now.

You might check and be sure the 98 drivers for that system is still on the dell site as you will need them

Just to let you know, for some reason if I copy and paste your email address into the To box of outlook express then there are a lot of other address not shown the email is going to. Not good I don't think and now am worried about my email address being there also.

Message Edited by dbramlet on 12-17-2007 04:21 PM

dbramlet · Answer

Ok, I can do that tonight. But first and quickly, edit your post and remove your email address. I have it but don't post your email address on this forum for obvious reasons. I will send ths files like 3 or 4 at a time and copy them to the hd in a folder. Then when you get them all copy all the files to a formatted disk. Don't copy the entire folder. Once you get to the a prompt then type in fdisk and delete all partitions. I will write more in an email.

kener40 · Answer

I got the dos start up disk from my desktop (Dell Dimension). I got the (win 98 se OEM) start up disk from www.bootdisk.com. I have an original win 98SE cd that came with my last computer.

My Dimension has XP it came with a reinstall XP cd. I have a dial up connection, but you can still send me the start up files if you would like. I'll try it.

Thanks for your responce

Message Edited by kener40 on 12-17-2007 03:46 PM

kener40 · Answer

You are Gold  :smileyvery-happy: thank you so much for your time and support I  would have given up long ago, if you hadn't been there with the E-mails Have a great Christmas  & New Year Thanks again Regards Ken

dbramlet · Answer

Well thanks Ken but not all that good! I appreciate your comments and I am very happy you got the laptop going. You hung in there and stayed with it until you got it working and that's called a learning experience! You are welcome for any help I was and have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

billk1124 · Answer

If you have a Windows 98 boot disk you could boot the computer with the floppy, FDISK the hard drive, and use FORMAT C: /S to make the hard drive bootable. If the bootable floppy disk loads drivers for the CDROM, you can create the following folders. You will need FDISK FORMAT.COM, and XCOPY.EXE, and XCOPY32.EXE on the floppy. Then enter this: MD WINDOWS CD WINDOWS MD OPTIONS CD OPTIONS MD CABS CD CABS D: CD WIN98 A:XCOPY *.* C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS When all the files have been copied to the C drive, remove the floppy drive and reboot the computer on the C drive. Change to the WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS folder and run setup: setup /is The /is skips the disk checking function. You can omit that if you want to do a thorough check of the drive first. GOOD LUCK.

Windows General

missing operating system

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