Computer Problem, need help please

Boot into DOS and see if you can manually launch windows. If that fails for some reason, and it worked earlier, do a registry backup. Can't remember how you'd do that on win98 but it's not that hard, try googling that. If that fails as well (which I doubt) try to repair the windows installation from the cd. Make sure you allow your pc to boot from the cd-drive in your BIOS settings.

Like Arjen said, if you have the reinstallation CD that should have come with your computer, just put that in and go through the steps as it prompts you. I have done this with my computer several times.

You might also call Gateway. Their support should be able to tell you how to get everything back. Once, when I did use the reinstall CD I did not get Microsoft Word back. I called Compaq and they told me how to get it back. So try that. I have old Windows 98 too.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

Thanks a lot for the responses. I'll try it all, and get back to you guys.

Thanks again,

Love,
Tasocles

Taso and Wez i'd be more worried about the fact i'm still running windows 98 let alone fix it :shock: :shock: :D :D :D

Taso m8 don't mean to hijack your tread here but

You do know microsoft doesn't support win98 anymore right ? To my great surprise i found out at a comp conf last week that as of OCT 10 support on windows server 2000 will also be stopped - not sure if that will filter down to Win2K Professional.
But not to worry
I'm awaiting a BETA copy of Windows VISTA as we speak/i type :?
That's goin to be freakin insane :twisted: :twisted:

But back to your problem.
I'm reachin here but if the above mentioned doesn't work it might also be a hardware problem, check if youre PC detected the HDD in the BIOS settings.
If it hasn't your HDD has likely gone but you can try changing the IDE cable maybe that's faulty.

Is your HDD running as a slave or master to your CD-ROM ? Try connecting it to the primary IDE channel as a master without any other drive connected.

IF all that failes - well i hope the data's backed up somewhere.

HTH
Minus Human

I've no idea what BIOS you have in a Gateway PC, but most go through the memory check and then tell you what IDE drives it's found. Most PCs have 4 IDE connections - IDE0 primary, IDE0 secondary (or slave), IDE1 primary, IDE1 secondary (or slave).
Your boot disk should appear on IDE0 primary. BIOS will tell you what sort of disk it sees. If this is not what it should be, you'll need to look into the BIOS to see what the settings are.

You get into BIOS either by pressing the "Esc" key or Ctrl & (probably) S, whilst the memory check is running or just after. Depending on the BIOS, you'll either be given the page with the disk setting, as standard, or you'll have to manoevre along the drop-down menus, until you get the disk setup.

In about 95% of cases the "Auto" setting will be fine.

If that's OK, you should open the housing and check that the cables are all still attached.

If that doesn't solve your problem - I'm available at very good rates + travel expenses (from Germany) :lol: :lol: :lol:

Don't worry about Microsoft no longer supporting Win95/98 - you'll never get any sense out them anyway (even if they DO support it). Their track record is not the best - somewhere along the lines of "sort 1 bug, create 2 more".

Vista? No way. That's going to have more holes in it than all the Emmentaler in the Allgäu.

I've also seen computers that used F1, F2, or Delete to get into the BIOS. I've never seen one with Ctrl+S, but I have seen them with just Ctrl. So try all those, and just bang on the keyboard until you get in if none of them work. On some computers which display a full screen logo when you first turn them on you may need to hit the key there.

I've no idea what BIOS you have in a Gateway PC, but most go through the memory check and then tell you what IDE drives it's found. Most PCs have 4 IDE connections - IDE0 primary, IDE0 secondary (or slave), IDE1 primary, IDE1 secondary (or slave).
Your boot disk should appear on IDE0 primary. BIOS will tell you what sort of disk it sees. If this is not what it should be, you'll need to look into the BIOS to see what the settings are.

You get into BIOS either by pressing the "Esc" key or Ctrl & (probably) S, whilst the memory check is running or just after. Depending on the BIOS, you'll either be given the page with the disk setting, as standard, or you'll have to manoevre along the drop-down menus, until you get the disk setup.

In about 95% of cases the "Auto" setting will be fine.

If that's OK, you should open the housing and check that the cables are all still attached.

If that doesn't solve your problem - I'm available at very good rates + travel expenses (from Germany) :lol: :lol: :lol:

Don't worry about Microsoft no longer supporting Win95/98 - you'll never get any sense out them anyway (even if they DO support it). Their track record is not the best - somewhere along the lines of "sort 1 bug, create 2 more".

Vista? No way. That's going to have more holes in it than all the Emmentaler in the Allgäu.

Greybeard i take it youre not a microsoft Man hey ?

Minus Human

If you are getting OS not found you have a problem.

If you have another Win98 box lying around, make an emergency boot disk and try to boot your old system from it. If you can, run scandisk.

Sometimes operating system files will get accidentally deleted, MSDOS.sys, IO.sys and command com. Do an attrib *.* and see if they exist on your root partition.

Sometimes operating system files will get accidentally deleted, MSDOS.sys, IO.sys and command com. Do an attrib *.* and see if they exist on your root partition.
I think that you get a different error than "OS not found". I think his problem is deeper - either the disk is not being seen by BIOS or the boot sector has been somehow corrupted.

Wow , guitarists and geeks :wink: .Thats amazing.(i think even i can qualify as a geek , i do format my comp plenty of times and mess around more often than not :lol: )

It's certainly possible it isn't being seen in BIOS, or the cable came loose, or the power supply is going bad, or you added a new drive and the power supply can't power the drive.

Or the disk could be bad, the file system corrupted, virus infected, motherboard fried, you could have a floppy stuck in the floppy drive...hey did you check that?

Use a boot disk and see if you can even see a C: drive.

Because they play guitar, they can't be considered geeks. ;)

Ok, Im not familiar with some of these terms.

Whats an IDE? And an IDE cable?

and what does "attrib *.* " mean ?

I did the F1 thing, and I don't have any hard drives listed... Does that mean that it went bye bye? Or do I have to check the IDE cable (which is why I'm wondering what IDE is)

Thanks for all the responses everyone, such helpful people.

As far as Win 98, I don't use the computer, the old man does, and just for Ebay, haha. I don't think I've ever gotten help from Windows. When I have a problem, I call Dell.

Thanks agian
Taso

If you've got no drives listed then it's probably a cable problem. I'm assuming you managed to find the place where they should have been listed and it was empty.

IDE is the name of the interface your drives use, and IDE cables are the 40 pin ribbon cables running from your hard drives and CD drive to your motherboard.

Attrib is a command that will let you change the properties of a file (read only, archived, hidden and system). I'm not sure what the reason for using it here would be. If you've got no drives detected then you couldn't try it anyway, because you couldn't access the drive the files you're looking for are on.

The reason would be is if you can see the C drive, you can check for the existence of the hidden system files, like MSDOS.SYS. This is a win98 machine.

If you can't even get to the C drive booting from a floppy, then the point is moot.