tom@vrdxhq.UUCP (Tom Welsh) (09/23/88)
I have a problem. I have a Compaq Deskpro, 8086-based, with a 20 MB hard disk. A couple of months ago I reformatted the entire disk in order to go from MS-DOS 2.11 to PC-DOS 3.3. Since that time, the machine will NOT boot from the hard disk. It will boot fine from my 3.3 PCDOS floppy. After booting, the entire hard disk is available and works perfectly fine. I have tried reissuing the sys c: command and I even tried (using the debugger) copying the boot record from a IBM AT runing 3.3 and writing it to the boot record of my Compaq hard disk. Nothing. It makes no sense to me -- the contents of the hard disk boot record are almost identical to the floppy (except for obviuous things like sector count, etc.) NOthing. If I try to boot off the hard disk, it just hangs, forever -- stick a 3.3 floppy in -- CTRL-ALT-DEL and everything is fine, including hard disk access. I'm certainly not dead in the water -- but I consider it a major nuisance. Any ideas, anyone?
broode@orion.cf.uci.edu (Brian Roode) (09/23/88)
Did you run FDISK under DOS 3.3 to make an active boot partition?
casper@osiris.cso.uiuc.edu (09/23/88)
Have you tried going all the way back to the beginning? Hard to say why it doesn't work, but try a low-level format, then use fdisk, then do a DOS format with the /s switch. As a free added bonus you get to confirm the bad tracks/sectors on your hard disk. Of course, make sure everything currently on the hard disk is backed up, except for system files. (Obviously if you back up the system files in the root directory, do all the work to reformat your disk, then restore the [old] system files, you wasted your time.) And I definitely do not recommend copying boot sectors from one disk to another.
gmat@wuibc.UUCP (Gregory Martin Amaya Tormo) (09/24/88)
In article <10183@vrdxhq.UUCP> tom@vrdxhq.UUCP (Tom Welsh) writes: >I have a problem. > >I have a Compaq Deskpro, 8086-based, with a 20 MB hard disk. A couple of >to PC-DOS 3.3. Since that time, the machine will NOT boot from the >hard disk. It will boot fine from my 3.3 PCDOS floppy. After booting, >NOthing. If I try to boot off the hard disk, it just hangs, forever -- >stick a 3.3 floppy in -- CTRL-ALT-DEL and everything is fine, including >hard disk access. Use FDISK to activate the hard disk partition. I will bet it shows you your hard disk partition but not that it is active. It must be made active in order for the computer to know to look for DOS. dwd0238@wucec1.wustl David Deitch, Fido 1:100/22 ps. This is posted since I seem to not be able to mail out (reply) via UUCP.