need help searching for boot record from IDE.0..OK !!!

[kel]

ok guys i have a bit of a problem and i dont know what to do.

i was no my pc when it started to go really slow,
i could not acess anything, so i ctrl-alt-delete to restart

now when i boot up i get the first screen listing my drives,
then on the second screen i get searching for boot record from IDE.0..OK

and then it hangs, does anyone know what im supposed to do?

i am running windows 98se.

[bunyip]

It may be just be a boot sector error or it could be that your hard disk is failing, the Windows system files may be corrupt.
Here's what I would do.
- Just to be sure check that the cable is firmly in place from the motherboard to the Hard drive.
If the cable is OK then,
- Locate a Windows 98 boot floppy and boot the PC using this.
- If you can read the hard drive in this state I would recommend that you backup any critical data that you can't afford to lose before moving onto the next steps.
- While still booted to the floppy run 'CHKDSK /R' to check and repair any damage to the hard drive. If there is any physical damage to the HD this step may take a long time, I would recommend that you let it complete even if it takes several hours.
- When the chkdsk completes I would then repair the boot sector by running 'FDISK /MBR'.
- If the hard disk is OK you should be able to boot to the HD in the normal way.
- If the repair doesn't work, you may be faced with re-partitioning, re-formatting and re-installing windows (but that's a last resort).

[gmatov]

A fairly quick preliminary test would be to boot from floppy and begin a re-install of 98.

When it gets to the Checking Your Disks for Errors point, allow it to do so.

Depending on what it finds, it will either repair those files, or halt the install with warning that it cannot install, Run Scandisk for Windows.

This will consume a max of 10 minutes or so, rather than checkdisk's hours.

If it does say that, then checkdisk. Not much alternative,as you cannot even do a reinstall if it does find unrepairable errors.

A reinstall of 98SE will not do anything to your system, all progs will stil be registered and will run. This is ONLY if you have an actual OS to install from, NOT an OEM Restore Disk, although if you browse the disk you may find the actual setup files rather than the Restore directory/files. Should be in a folder named Win9X.

Cheers,

George