[azwolflady]

Hi everyone , hoping someone might help me with this problem.
Working on a Dell Inspiron 3600 Laptop, (F2 Key is broken and unusable) System has a universal bay used for A Drive or CD Rom. Can't use bothat the same time.
I am trying to format and reinstall Windows 98 from system restore disk.
I formatted the C Drive with the Windows 98 Startup disk.
Everything went well then I partioned. Rebooted with 98 start up disk in and it is no longer reading the A Drive. When I reboot the system it gives me 2 line of Microsoft copyright information, then goes right to the C Prompt. With or without the startup disk in, the computer reboots to the c prompt each time. I try to change it to the A Drive to gain access to the utilities on the start up disk, and I get back an error message-
Not ready reading drive a

I then type R for retry and the message comes back
Seek error reading drive
Abort, Retry, Fail?

When I type in dir from the C prompt
It comes back with -
Volume in drive C has no label
Volume Serial Number is 0E10-0FED
Directory of C:\

Command Com 93,890 04-23-99 10:22p
1 file(s) 93,890 bytes
0 dir 9,466.17 MB free.

If any one can help me get access to this A drive and figure out this problem, I'd very much appreciate it.
Thanks for your time.


azwolflady

 

[Lurker1]

Hi azwolflady

I couldn't find an Inspiron 3600 at the Dell site. Are you sure thats correct? The 3500 look like it can boot from a cd.
The windows 98 cd should be bootable without the use of a floppy drive. Plug an external keyboard in the back, go into the bios and select boot from cdrom first.

If that doesnt work you can download a new windows98 boot disk on a different computer. The one you have may be bad. (can you test your boot disk out in a different PC?

http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm