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Hi, I'm still trying to find out what is wrong with the compaq I have. I have been trying all kinds of things for over a month. At first I thought the harddrive died, but I got a PC Professor cd on Ebay, and I was able to boot up but only in dos, as A:\. Well, this cd does lots of things according to the seller, and I have seen its programs on my new computer, but I can't get it to do any windows work as a utility on the Compaq. It uses X:\ as the cd drive, however, when i get there, it won't work to get wintool ,disktool,etc. stating can't use these programs in dos. Also, the floppy disk drive works, but I don't know how to transfer files from a cd there. I'm not a computer person just learn on my own. I'm wondering if my cd drive is bad, or the harddrive is in need of replacement. Also, I took the harddrive out before, and am not sure it is connected right, as the problem. But the cd drive lights up and runs, but I can't get windows anywhere. Should I just give up, and toss this computer? I hate to, because it has some good hardware and memory and software on it, along with a monitor, keyboard, etc. Help, help!!!! Rog.

Oh Rog, what a tale of woe...

Don't toss the PC just yet. There are some things that you will need to do (if you are feeling confident).

1) Open the PC case and check that all cables to and from the hard drive are seated correctly. Also, keep the side of the PC open when you switch on the PC and listen to the hard drive. Does it whirr into life (or spin up)?

2) Did you change anything on the back of the hard drive (jumpers) little plastic plugs?

3) When you switch on your PC can you tap the Delete button until you get into the bios screens. Then go to the "Drives" section and check that the hard drive is actually being "seen" by the PC.

Come back when you have done those things.

Thanks Hengis, I wish I knew some of what you do. I checked the cables, appear to be seated ok, the harddrive cable extension is seated in the black slot, behind the white slot, I guess on the motherboard. Is this right? I have the cd drive in the white slot.
I didn't change jumpers, if I touched them, I don't know.
Harddrive appears to whirr, when turned on, (what is spin up?)
Tapping the delete button did nothing, but the screen when computer turned on says, invalid system disk,replace the disk and press any key.
I put in the pc professor utility disk, and had to press ctrl, alt, and delete, then windows 98 runs down the screen, and it goes to A:\ in dos. I can run scandisk, which shows damage on drive a, errors can't be fixed in cluster 2, other damage prevents it. What is this? the cd drive, or the harddrive problem? Please answer, If you want to call me, I can give you a number,free. Thanks, Rog.

I have distributed this thread to the other Techs and one of us will come back to you shortly on this. Sorry for the delay.

Hey there rog,

• Do you have a link to the ebay site you bought the CD off, basically I am wanting to know exactly what programs are on the disk and whether they can only be used in Windows or in Dos as well?
• Alternatively do you have the names of the programs that are on the disk?

If the delete key didn't work to get into your BIOS then try using F10 or the sequence <ALT> <CTRL> <ESC>.
Once you get into the BIOS checkout the drive section and tell us what drives it has detected (if any)

• Do you have a windows 98 (SP2) CD?

If the answer is yes then try booting off that CD and reinstall windows.

HI Zimbo, The utility disk I purchased on ebay, is called PC Professor, the seller is jonelee2006, and it was listed in the computer parts or software section. It can boot on the compaq to the dos drive listed as A:\, but windows 98 specifications run down the screen before it arrives at A:\. I got an email from Jonelee, which stated that even though I can boot from the cd, if I wanted to use the tools, I would have to export them into a floppy disk, and then put them to use in the old computer. I don't know what he means, for one thing my new computer EMachine, does not have a floppy disk drive.
The tools on the utility disk are wintool, disktool, and various programs like wintool/windows boot rescue disks, data recovery, password recovery, hdrescue, floppy copy disk clone, etc.
I tried to get the bios like you said, but no luck. I even changed the cables from the harddrive and cd drive , switched them around on the connecting board, but surprisingly, they didn't change anything, how is this possible?
I don't have a windows 98(sp-2) cd, but I have a windows quick restore disk, which came with the compaq and is only for this computer, with windows98, but when I run it, the start page comes up in full color, with the words, quick restore , blinking, but it never goes anywhere or does anything after appearing on the screen ( doesn't run program)

It seems very peculiar, with all that I have done, that all I can do is get the dos starting point, run some dos programs, but nothing else of use. Windows is installed on this computer, I never deleted it, but it appears the harddrive is down, or the cd drive has a problem, or there is a connection problem. What do you guys think I should do now? Rog.

It sounds like the problem could be with your hard drive, do you have another machine that you could test this hard drive in.

If you do then follow these instructions:

• Remove hard drive from machine
• Change jumper on hard drive to SLAVE
• Place hard drive in other computer and boot up
• Try access the hard drive through Windows Explorer.