Topic: HELP - New Hard Drive on Old PC and Need To Install Windows 98 SE

[MysterD]

Okay, my old Compaq AMD Athlon 700 Mhz PC, the hard drive died recently (finally). It was only a matter of time, as it kept coming up with bad sector errors.
So now, the new hard drive is here and it was installed physically last night. Good start.

I do have a Windows 98 SE Boot Disk (3 1/2 floppy) and all, just in case...

I get the message when I turn on the PC of "Operating System not found." So, how do I reinstall Win 98 SE from off a Compaq Restore Disc (that has Win 98 SE on it)?

Yeah, my old Compaq PC, it came with one of those Restore CD Discs with Win 98 SE on it. Putting that disc in the DVD drive does nothing.

Do I have to get into the BIOS to tell my PC what components I have so that I can run the restore disc and get a shot to reinstall Win 98?

Any advice on how to get Win 98 SE back onto this new hard drive from scratch, guys?

Any good online guides or something?

[Xessive]

You need to go into the BIOS and make sure the CD-ROM is set as the first bootable device. Put the recovery disc in the drive and reboot. During the boot sequence it should bring up a prompt to start the recovery disc, from there it's just a matter of following the onscreen instructions.

If you have a Win98 SE CD you can use it to boot and install as well, but you'll have fetch the Compaq drivers anyway. You may as well just use the Compaq recovery CD.

[MysterD]

Okay, no dice...

Looking here at BIOS.

Legacy Diskette A = 3½ floppy
No drives set to primary master, primary slave, secondary master, secondary slave.

Looking under "Boot" here....
Floppy check is enabled; quickboot mode is enabled.

Boot Order:
ATAPI CD-ROM drive
+ HD
+ Removable Drives
Network Boot

Hmmm....

[Cobra951]

The only change the BIOS might need to know about is the drive you replaced.  Then as Xessive told you, the CD drive needs to be set to boot.  Then of course you need a bootable CD with the OS you mean to install.  Beyond that, I'm not sure at all what the problems might be.

Was the new hard drive installed the same way as the old, meaning master, slave, or cable select?  Is the new hard drive a lot bigger than the old one?  Beware of problems with addressing large drives in old hardware and/or OS.

[scottws]

Okay, no dice...

Looking here at BIOS.

Legacy Diskette A = 3½ floppy
No drives set to primary master, primary slave, secondary master, secondary slave.

Looking under "Boot" here....
Floppy check is enabled; quickboot mode is enabled.

Boot Order:
ATAPI CD-ROM drive
+ HD
+ Removable Drives
Network Boot

Hmmm....

Well, figuring out the booting is something that needs to be done, but the BIOS doesn't appear to be detecting your hard drive or CD-ROM drive either.  Unless they aren't IDE devices, which I highly doubt.

Check your jumpering on the CD-ROM drive and hard drive.

But yeah, what Cobra said about large drives is correct too.  I think you want to stay under 145 GB with 6+ y/o hardware.

[MysterD]

New HD is an 80 GB Seagate.

[Xessive]

As Scott said, it doesn't look like it's reading any of your IDEs. Check the jumper settings. I have made the mistake of neglecting the jumpers too many times in the past.

Keep checking the BIOS (in the CMOS section I think) to see if it's detecting your IDE drives.

Regarding the jumper settings I would recommend that you avoid using the "Cable Select" setting, just set one drive as master and the other as slave. CS just seems to create problems for me.

[scottws]

I agree with Xessive.  Master/slave works 100% of the time.  I've seen Cable Select cause issues before.