If you can't even boot to the floppy disk when no HDD is present... Sounds
like it accesses the floppy but can't actually read it, or it can read it
but can't process the info sufficiently to prompt a boot... I dunno, sounds
to me like your motherboard is the problem. I forget, have you tried these
HDDs in a different system? And, are you certain the floppy disk you used
will boot a healthy machine?

I know it sounds like a drudge, but being very methodical and complete is
the only way to track down the culprit for sure.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS MVP Shell/User

"Chuck" wrote in message
...
Nope. All I get is the initial memory test (HIMEM, etc) and that's it. The
floppy drive buzzes and whatnot, but I get nothing.

"Gary S. Terhune" wrote:

Without any HDD attached at all, will it boot to a floppy startup disk?
BIOS
upgrades are usually performed using a floppy disk boot.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS MVP Shell/User

"Chuck" wrote in message
...
I think it's an ASUS board. But even if one exists, how do I install
it
w/o
the ability to boot up?

"Steven" wrote:

On Tue, 21 Feb 2006 13:45:27 -0800, "Chuck"
wrote:

I am trying to install a new replacement HDD in my boy's PC (PIII
333MHz,
Win98--yeah, it's old). I have a Seagate 80GB replacement HDD.
After a
couple
of tries and some cable swaps, I got the machine to boot back up
from
the
motherboard, but it will not detect the new HDD. It won't even boot
from my
Windows staretup disk.

Older Award BIOSes have a disk size limit. It used to be 34GB and
then
65GB. If such a BIOS tries to detect a larger disk it aborts with a
division overflow.

Can you check if there is a BIOS update available ? Check the
mainboard
manufacturer's site.

--
Steven