System Recovery

"zenchild" wrote in message
...

I was in the middle of cleaning and reinstalling windows 98 on my
computer,
then the computer was shut down. Now when I try to go and do over again
it
just tells me missing operating system. it won't let me type anything,
restart the process, or do anything. It is just a black screen and just
says
missing operating system. What do I do?!

1. You need a (disk) Operating System in order to do anything
with the hard drive. What indicates successful load of an OS
is a prompt
A or C
on the screen. You load an OS by rebooting from a disk
(floppy or CD) with booting code. (Some disks have booting
code, others do not.) BIOS settings govern which disk drives
are searched for booting code and in which order. (When
you turn on the power, the first indications on screen
describe the BIOS (not the same as the DOS) and tell
you which key interrupts the process so you can reprogram
BIOS settings as you require.

2. Before installing an OS on a hard drive, it should be tested
in good condition (by the manufacturer's diagnostics) and
partitioned (by FDISK) and FORMATted (by FORMAT) for use.

3. Win98 installation is done under MS-DOS after this OS
has been loaded into RAM. The instal program is SETUP.EXE
on the Windows CD. The CD drive appears as driveletter D:
(or later, if you have other disk drives configured.)

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

"zenchild" wrote in message ...
I was in the middle of cleaning and reinstalling windows 98 on my computer,
then the computer was shut down. Now when I try to go and do over again it
just tells me missing operating system. it won't let me type anything,
restart the process, or do anything. It is just a black screen and just says
missing operating system. What do I do?!

Go into the BIOS setup, check the boot sequence and make "CD" is
first. Be sure to save any changes. Then try starting the computer with
the Windows 98 CD. If this doesn't help, go to
http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm and create a Windows 98
boot floppy. Use it to start the computer in question, select "Start with CD
support", insert your Windows 98 CD and carefully type the following:

for %a in (%path%) do %awin98\setup

Ben

"zenchild" wrote in message ...
I was in the middle of cleaning and reinstalling windows 98 on my computer,
then the computer was shut down. Now when I try to go and do over again it
just tells me missing operating system. it won't let me type anything,
restart the process, or do anything. It is just a black screen and just says
missing operating system. What do I do?!

Go into the BIOS setup, check the boot sequence and make "CD" is
first. Be sure to save any changes. Then try starting the computer with
the Windows 98 CD. If this doesn't help, go to
http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm and create a Windows 98
boot floppy. Use it to start the computer in question, select "Start with CD
support", insert your Windows 98 CD and carefully type the following:

for %a in (%path%) do %awin98\setup

Ben

"zenchild" wrote in message
...
I was in the middle of cleaning and reinstalling windows 98 on my computer,
then the computer was shut down. Now when I try to go and do over again
it
just tells me missing operating system. it won't let me type anything,
restart the process, or do anything. It is just a black screen and just
says
missing operating system. What do I do?!

First step...
Boot with your win98 floppy

then issue the command sys c:

That should make the machine bootable again...
(but of course will not fix your Windows install if it's corrupted)

"zenchild" wrote in message
...
I was in the middle of cleaning and reinstalling windows 98 on my computer,
then the computer was shut down. Now when I try to go and do over again
it
just tells me missing operating system. it won't let me type anything,
restart the process, or do anything. It is just a black screen and just
says
missing operating system. What do I do?!

First step...
Boot with your win98 floppy

then issue the command sys c:

That should make the machine bootable again...
(but of course will not fix your Windows install if it's corrupted)

In message , philo
writes:

"zenchild" wrote in message
...
I was in the middle of cleaning and reinstalling windows 98 on my computer,
then the computer was shut down. Now when I try to go and do over again
it
just tells me missing operating system. it won't let me type anything,
restart the process, or do anything. It is just a black screen and just
says
missing operating system. What do I do?!

First step...
Boot with your win98 floppy

then issue the command sys c:

That should make the machine bootable again...
(but of course will not fix your Windows install if it's corrupted)


Ah, a bit of sense at last. The
format-and-reinstall-at-the-drop-of-a-hat brigade would have you scrub
everything, when you may have only corrupted one file. The above will at
least give you (limited) access to anything remaining on the disc,
though the F&R route may be advisable in the end, depending on what
_caused_ the problem. (I presume your "the computer was shut down" means
you had a power cut, or someone leant on the power switch for too long,
or something. If that's the case, the damage probably isn't great.)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf
** http://www.soft255.demon.co.uk/G6JPG-PC/JPGminPC.htm for ludicrously
outdated thoughts on PCs. **

I'm getting pretty enough for radio now (Desmond Lynam in Radio Times, 1998)