"Ben Myers" wrote:

"Arlykat" wrote in message ...
Hi Ben,
I created the boot disk and went through the process of it running on the
computer that won't start. It found several errors that it fixed, took quite
some time to get to the end.

Actually, the floppy should do nothing but boot to an A:\ prompt.

Unfortunately, I still can't get Windows 98 to
come up. I ran your SCANDISK C:, I did get to a point where it told me there
were many new changes in Windows 98, a long read.

This sounds a message generated by Windows setup.

From that, I also tried
running SCANDISK/MOUNT C: and SCANDISK/ALL and CHKDSK.EXE (when I ran the
last one it told me to run scandisk which would fix more problems).
Now, when I turn on the computer I get the IBM Aptiva screen and Windows
screen, then it shoots me into open the computer with the list of safemode,
normal, safemode with command prompts, etc. It has highlighted and tells me
to open the computer in Command Mode. Tried every mode also, keeps bringing
me back to the command mode thing and A:/. I open the computer with the disk
in the A drive and again type SCANDISK C:. It says it is going to begin to
open my computer (which it did when I first ran the boot disk that did all
the fixing) and it may take some time. I can see a time progression line on
the bottom showing it is beginning to do something. Then the final prompt I
get is: "ScanDisk encountered a data error while reading the FAT entry for
cluster 1829168 (I am assuming they are the number '8' - it looks like a zero
with a single dot in the middle which makes it look sorta like an 8). This
error prevents ScanDisk from fixing this drive."
snip

It sounds like the computer is having difficulty reading the hard drive. Start the
computer and watch the screen closely for something like "Press del for setup".
Restart, pressing the appropriate key and look for "Autodetect hard drives".
If you find it, redetect the hard drive or drives and save the changes. Then run
ScanDisk again. If this doesn't help, most hard drive manufacturers have
diagnostic utilities available for download.

Maxtor and Seagate http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/
Western Digital http://support.wdc.com/download/inde...n&pid=999&swid

Ben



Hi Ben,

Again, thanks so much for sticking with me and trying to help me get this
computer up and running for my friend. Will tell you something before I go
any farther in this response - I am a female and I am about 2% under the
point of starting to cry over this in frustration. Okay? Just so you know
what frame of mind I am getting shoved into.

I found something similar to what you said to click when the computer was
starting up and it took me to the Setup menu which is the one that also lists
computer info, etc. When you then say to "Restart pressing appropriate key"
you lost me. When I get to the setup menu there is no place for me to click
on restart, only "more info" and "exit." So, I was stuck on that. I took
the menu that I did have and looked at everything to see if I could find
anything even slightly familiar to Autodetect hard drives or anything to do
with redirecting drives and found nada.

I went to both Seagate and Western Digital and found, at least at Seagate,
that it says I can download the only 'free' utilities diagnostic tool they
offer and then transfer it to a CD. Unfortunately, it then says that I would
have to redirect the startup process to boot from the D drive first, which
would be mighty tough for me to do on the computer with the trouble because I
can't make it do anything basically. It also said that it would only work on
computers using Windows 2000, XP or Vista. None of which is on the ole Win.
98SE computer I am trying to fix.

I went to Western and that is when I sorta had much of my hope fade and
ended up not even looking for something that might work from there. That is
when I was going to cry. I am now just sitting here, very down, very
frustrated, very depressed. I don't want to stop trying to fix this but I am
losing hope. Maybe if you told me about the "restart pressing appropriate
key" thing I could try that again. I honestly don't even know if the menu
you are wanting to show up is the menu that is showing up when I do press the
key that takes me to the Setup menu I get. I have spent hours and hours on
this - now MY computer is having trouble with its floppy drive and I am
jumping through hoops trying to fix that. Plain spit.

Will wait to hear from you.

Arlykat