reformatted pc, registering a disk in a drive - but none in there?

[joko]

i have reformatted a pc and i am now trying to reinstall windows.

however when i turn it on it goes through all the start up stuff (no beeps though) and then gets to the point where it says ''non system disk, replace and then strike any key''
but, there is no floppy in the drive!!
the drive light is on.
it also does it when i put the start up disk in too...?

any ideas why this is and what i can do about it?

i check all internal cabled etc, all are fine.

thanks

[rojash]

You haven't mentioned which operating system you are trying to install.

The message "Non system disk" is referring to the hard drive.

If you are installing XP, you can boot from the CD, but you will probably need to to set this up in the BIOS. Exactly how you do that will depend on the BIOS, but generally there is a section where you can set the order in which it checks devices to see if they are bootable, so you can then set the CD drive as the first bootable drive.

[joko]

thanks rojash, but i can't get past the error message to do anything else.

the message, is the one that comes up anytime if you boot up while there is a floppy in the drive.
it is registering that there is a floppy in there and will not allow me in until i remove the disk - but there is no disk in there.

it is win98 by the way. its a oldish system that i am trying to get going for my mum.

i can get into the bios/cmos, but i don't know what to do when i get there.

I returned the unit to factory settings so i assume they are currently on the defaults

[rojash]

You need to get into the BIOS settings - you do this before the machine attempts to boot (and so before you get the message). The normal boot procedure is as follows:

POST test (during this time you should see a message telling you how to get into the the CMOS setup for the BIOS - it varies according to the make and version of your BIOS, but it usually requires you to press F1, Del or a cobination of keys such as CTRL+S

Search for operating system boot loader. Generally the BIOS will first examine the Hard Drive for a loader first - obviously in your cas it won't find one. It will then proceed to search each of the other possible devices - e.g. CD drives, pen drives, floopy drive.

If it fails to find a boot loader then it will display a standard message - the fact that the message appears to refer to the floppy drive is just due to history.

You sy that you get the same message if there is a startup disk in the floppy drive. The possible reasons are:

Duff startup disk
Faulty or wrongly connected floppy drive or controller
Floppy drive disabled (either completely or just for boot purposes) in the BIOS.

If you have another bootable disk - try starting with that. If that fails, you need to get into the BIOS CMOS settings and see how it is set (using one of the key/key combinations above). These keys MUST be pressed right at the start of the process, before you ever get the message about a non system disk. Most BIOS require you to press DEL, and the best thing to do is switch the machine on, and immediately start tapping the DEL key until you see a message along the lines of "Entering Setup".

[rojash]

Sorry, just noticed that you said you can get into the BIOS. Can you describe what you can see in there (there are lots of different BIOS interfaces, so I can't give you specific advice without having an idea of what yours looks like).

One other point - you have connected the floppy drive correctly? If the cable has 3 connectors (i.e one at each end and one in the middle) there will be a twist in some of the wires between the middle and end connector - this is used to distinguish between the A drive and the B drive. You need to connect the drive AFTER the twist.

[joko]

hi rojash, thanks for your help.
i'll copy these instructions and take them to the computer.

as its in my mums, i don't know when i will next get chance to have another look, so could you subscribe to this question so you will know when i reply?

many thanks


the floppy drive light comes on, so theres power.

what fo you mean connect after the twist? the twist is there and is plugged in, and so is the little white 4 pin.

have i missed something?

the cmos screen is bright blue with yellow writing, and maroon bits - is this the bios or cmos or are they the same thing?

what info should i make a note of in there?

cheers

[ryepie]

If your PC worked before, and the you simply reformatted it than you shouldn't need to go into the BIOS to change anything. Did you reformat it it by using the 'format' command in DOS from a boot disk? What you you probably entered was:

format c:

what you actaully need to enter is:
format /s c:

the '/s' switch means it will be formatted as a system disk. voila!

[rojash]

That will indeed make the hard disk bootable, but only into DOS, and without any external commands - it won't help much in the installation of Win98. You need to boot from the Win98 startup disk in order to get support fro for the CD drive from which you are going to install the operating system. It's a long time ago, but if I remember correctly Win98SE came with a bootable CD (assuming you PC supports booting from CD), otherwise you need to boot from the startup floppy.