Hi Ben, Gary and Rebel,
OK first new info then what I did(operations) then Questions.

New Info
I do have the Windows 98 book with the cd key but no book for the eMachine
itself.
AMIBIOS version 1.20, base memory 641kb, Ext. Memory 262144.
Hard Drive is Seagate U4 Model ST34311A, 4.3Gbytes, Firmware 6.01, 8944 CYL,
15HDE and 63 SECT.
Motherboard is Intel AGPse FW8243LZ. I also found jumper settings.

Operations
Hardware
I opened the computer and reseated the cable ribbons to and from the
motherboard (3) and the CDROM ribbon also.
Reseated the 2 Dimms cards and all connections on Motherboard and CDROM.
BIOS
SETUP - I reset BIOS to auto. The only thing it detected was CDROM in
Secondary Master. (the Primary Slave was 26).
UTILITY - clicked detect IDE, went to autodetect. again the only thing that
was detected was SM CDROM.
DEFAULT - Clicked load optimal.

Then proceeded to startup error 202:boot failure and 203:insert boot
diskette in A.
I inserted cd then pressed format HDD with step by step.
path=a:\ N.
a:\format c: invalid drive specification.
Restore HDD from CDROM.
Restore is now in progress.
C: Y.
Invalid drive specification.
cd\ Y
md c:\windows Y
IDS (then 2 more commands windows\system, windows\options. Same error
Invalid Drive Specification.)
a:\unzip - od c:\windows\options\R:\cabs.img (went from small r to capital R)
checkdir: can't create extraction directory

Back to BIOS - I uninstalled A. The computer beeps only once now.
Error 200 and 203, insert cd, Boot to DOS prompt from cdrom.
A:\dir (all the files seem to be here)

Questions
Hardware
I remember there was a high pitched noise coming from the top of the
computer when it crashed. I am sure the exterior fan is working. How do I
check the other internal fan?
Could I unplug the A drive cable or could it be connected to the CDROM?
Operations
How can I reformat the drives?
Thank you all for your help. grafxfriday