Cannot Access Drive 1 or 2

[GrimChild]

Im trying to get an old ESP386sx pc to run again. The memory is now totally wiped, i have MS_DOS access, And the only thing i can do is access the Diskette drive. What do i need to do to get this set up ?.

here is some info on the hard drive ::

This Driver Is Provided By Oak               Technology,INC..
OTI-91X ATAPI CD-ROM Device  Driver,REV D91XV352
©Copyright Oak Technology Inc. 1987-1997DEVICE NAME     :MSCD001

All i need to do is be able to create a C drive to setup windows on, but C: or D: do not exist , What do i do ?
Please Help !!

[davidgsmith]

Hi Grim
O.K. let's make sure we are talking the same language...

1.When you say the 'memory' was wiped clean I am assuming you mean the Hard Drive. These are 2 totally different thing.

2.When you say 'totally wiped' do you mean reformatted? Exactly what process was taken to wipe it? Repartition and format or just format. Which boot disk was used to do this? DOS, Win 9x ?

3. You say you have MS-DOS access. If hard drive is wiped then there is no OS on the machine. I take it you are at a DOS screen.

4. The code you show for your hard drive, is the description of the generic CD driver that a Win98 boot disk installs.

5. I take it you are going to install Windows 3.1. You will need the 3 MS-DOS disks and the 6 Windows 3.1 disks.

That's enough for now....give us all info requested above and we can go from there.

Good Luck,
Dave

6.

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[GrimChild]

Hi davidgsmith ::

The facts ::

Im not all that great working with MS_DOS,
Until a few days ago i didnt even know what Partitioning was.. Anyhow, i figured it all out and heres what i did..

When i hit VER in MS_DOS i get
WINDOWS98 [VERSION 4.10.2222]

I used FDISK to delete all partitions.
then i created a primary partition with half the memory the machine would allow me to.
then i created an extended partition with the other half of the memory.. then i restarted the machine and formatted the Drives 1 and 2 which i just created.
EVERYTHING WORKS WITHOUT ERRORS BUT,
i start the machine without any boot disk (this time no errors) and i get the WINDOWS 98 Startup logo for a brief second, then the logo goes away and now im in MS_DOS mode under C:\> , But theres nothing under the C:\> except for COMMAND.COM ,

This i did all last night after i posted the previous message.So now im asking what to do knowing that drive C:\ and D:\ are completely empty. think of it as if you were to delete those 2 drives on your machine, would would you do if you didnt have any real Windows Installation disks..

i downloaded these files from a sight, would these be any help ?

flsetup.ini
ie4.1
ie4.pif
setup16.exe

ie4.2
ie4.3
ie4.4
ie4.5
ie4.6
ie4.7

i got them from http://www.massed.net/download_old/f...in31/disk1.htm

Im really appreciating this, Thanks a million !!



[This message has been edited by GrimChild (edited 08-11-2000).]

[jevans]

You now have a completly empty hard drive. Your next step is to do a full installation of an operating system.

Do you have an operating system installation disk? (ie WIN95, WIN98, DOS6.22)
Do you have a CDROM drive?

[GrimChild]

RE :: jevans

You now have a completly empty hard drive. Your next step is to do a full installation of an operating system. 
Do you have an operating system installation disk? (ie WIN95, WIN98, DOS6.22)
Do you have a CDROM drive?

Is that a good thing ?
I dont have any sort of disks for OS installation , i found this PC in the trash(who cares)..
Anyhow, the machine is only equipped with a Diskette drive (A:\> )

can i get the disks online somewhere ?
if not could i copy the files from my system restore CD i got with my Compaq Pressario ?



[This message has been edited by GrimChild (edited 08-11-2000).]

[Vernon Frazee]

Windows 98 requires a computer with at least a 486DX/66 and 24MB of RAM.

Windows 95 requires a computer with at least a 386DX/25 and 4MB of RAM.

[This message has been edited by Vernon Frazee (edited 08-12-2000).]

[jevans]

If you want to install WIN3.11 or WIN95 your best bet would be www.ebay.com
Remeber this is an old machine and WIN95 will probably work but run very slow.
I would suggest purchasing DOS 6.22 and WIN 3.11 and do a fresh install starting with DOS then Windows
You can purchase these for roughly $20 - $30 (for both) at veriouse locations on the internet, like ebay.com. It would be difficult to find them at your local computer store.

Hope this helps

[Chicken]

my goodness. This is nearly the smae problem I am having.

Bought a used computer, decided to format c: and now can't access cd rom (d) to install win95 (just have the CD, no floppies, no dos).

I suppose I should have thought this through hmph. Is the "look for it on ebay" the only option here? If I am reading this correctly, I don't have dos now. And no disks to install dos.

Blah. What a bad idea. If anyone can help, please post here (better yet email at [email protected] without the NOSPAM, of course.) Just found this forum today and don't really know what else to do, but ask you guys

[Paleo Pete]

Chicken: Yep, ebay is close to the only option. About 6 months ago the CompUSA here where I live still had DOS 6.22 on the shelves, about $35. That's about all I know of. I got mine, with license, long ago and always make sure I use a back up copy, I keep one unused copy put up for emergencies. Same for Win 3.11, I have 3 licenses, but they're useless unless I keep at least one clean copy for back ups.

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