System Recovery

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?!

On 01/22/2010 11:29 AM, zenchild wrote:
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?!

We don't know exactly what you did, but you could try using a boot disk
[if you have a floppy - ERD or similar] or a bootable CD/DVD and do a
sys on the hard disk. Don't do this if it is dual boot or has a boot
manager.

You can also do an fdisk /status to see whether you have issues with
the partitioning or other.

So help us help you, and tell us what you did and why you needed to
clean and re-install.

--
MEB
http://peoplescounsel.org/ref/windows-main.htm
Windows Info, Diagnostics, Security, Networking
http://peoplescounsel.org
The "real world" of Law, Justice, and Government
___---

On 01/22/2010 11:29 AM, zenchild wrote:
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?!

We don't know exactly what you did, but you could try using a boot disk
[if you have a floppy - ERD or similar] or a bootable CD/DVD and do a
sys on the hard disk. Don't do this if it is dual boot or has a boot
manager.

You can also do an fdisk /status to see whether you have issues with
the partitioning or other.

So help us help you, and tell us what you did and why you needed to
clean and re-install.

--
MEB
http://peoplescounsel.org/ref/windows-main.htm
Windows Info, Diagnostics, Security, Networking
http://peoplescounsel.org
The "real world" of Law, Justice, and Government
___---

"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?!

That message is typical when the 'boot sector' becomes corrupt. Your data
may or may not be ok but until the boot sector is fixed that message is all
you'll see. You said the system was shut-down. Do you mean the power went
out? Did you turn off the computer before it shut itself down? It's helpful
to have specifics!

How to proceed? If there is nothing on the disk of value, repartition and
reformat it. If you NEED to save something on the disk let us know.

"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?!

That message is typical when the 'boot sector' becomes corrupt. Your data
may or may not be ok but until the boot sector is fixed that message is all
you'll see. You said the system was shut-down. Do you mean the power went
out? Did you turn off the computer before it shut itself down? It's helpful
to have specifics!

How to proceed? If there is nothing on the disk of value, repartition and
reformat it. If you NEED to save something on the disk let us know.

Need to know the type of computer you put it on to help start up the CD ROM
For You Need to Boot by A: Drive or CD ROM Drive
for you windows reseat CD ROM to boot on drive C:\ and need to reseat the
computer back CD ROM drive D:\
so that widows can reinstalling the missing operating system.

AND THE type of computer is?



"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?!

Need to know the type of computer you put it on to help start up the CD ROM
For You Need to Boot by A: Drive or CD ROM Drive
for you windows reseat CD ROM to boot on drive C:\ and need to reseat the
computer back CD ROM drive D:\
so that widows can reinstalling the missing operating system.

AND THE type of computer is?



"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?!

need to know Ram size to MEB

"MEB" wrote in message
...
On 01/22/2010 11:29 AM, zenchild wrote:
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?!

We don't know exactly what you did, but you could try using a boot disk
[if you have a floppy - ERD or similar] or a bootable CD/DVD and do a
sys on the hard disk. Don't do this if it is dual boot or has a boot
manager.

You can also do an fdisk /status to see whether you have issues with
the partitioning or other.

So help us help you, and tell us what you did and why you needed to
clean and re-install.

--
MEB
http://peoplescounsel.org/ref/windows-main.htm
Windows Info, Diagnostics, Security, Networking
http://peoplescounsel.org
The "real world" of Law, Justice, and Government
___---

need to know Ram size to MEB

"MEB" wrote in message
...
On 01/22/2010 11:29 AM, zenchild wrote:
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?!

We don't know exactly what you did, but you could try using a boot disk
[if you have a floppy - ERD or similar] or a bootable CD/DVD and do a
sys on the hard disk. Don't do this if it is dual boot or has a boot
manager.

You can also do an fdisk /status to see whether you have issues with
the partitioning or other.

So help us help you, and tell us what you did and why you needed to
clean and re-install.

--
MEB
http://peoplescounsel.org/ref/windows-main.htm
Windows Info, Diagnostics, Security, Networking
http://peoplescounsel.org
The "real world" of Law, Justice, and Government
___---

"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)