🚀 go-pugleaf

woody@portal.apana.org.au (Terry Wood) writes:

>Hello there...

>Now I rebooted the system, and all i get after it shows the system config is:

>128 KB CACHE MEMORY
>Missing operating system_

The BIOS disk geometry doesn't match the geometry in the MBR and elsewhere
on the disk.

>and thats it... I can load Dos from my 6.22 dos disks and then issue C:
>and the HD is all there perfect... fdisk reports the hd as the Active 
>partition, and i even did a fdisk /mbr and that achieved nothing.

Oops.  Now things are really confused.  Last I knew, only the DOS 5
fdisk supported /mbr properly; which did you use?

>I then reinstalled Dos 6.22 over the dos on the hd (which come from the same
>set of disks aswell)..  Nope, nothing... So then i made sure and copied the
>command.com, io.sys and msdos.sys (whatever anyway) aswell as the dos dir 
>into another dir, and did a COMPLETE dos re-install...

>Nothing... Im still looking at the dos box with a Missing operating 
>system... I would like to fix this as i HATE reinstalling MS products 
>again, and ill be forced to sit down and set it up from my sister winging 
>about it every time i see here...

Understandable.  A few things you can try : fire up something like
pfdisk, or (possibly) an old nortons DI, and see if it agrees
with the BIOS geometry.

Failing that, back everything up to another disk or tape, and reformat.

>	  Woody

miff@apanix.apana.org.au writes:

>woody@portal.apana.org.au (Terry Wood) writes:

>>Hello there...

>>Now I rebooted the system, and all i get after it shows the system config is:

>>128 KB CACHE MEMORY
>>Missing operating system_

>The BIOS disk geometry doesn't match the geometry in the MBR and elsewhere
>on the disk.

>>and thats it... I can load Dos from my 6.22 dos disks and then issue C:
>>and the HD is all there perfect... fdisk reports the hd as the Active 
>>partition, and i even did a fdisk /mbr and that achieved nothing.

>Oops.  Now things are really confused.  Last I knew, only the DOS 5
>fdisk supported /mbr properly; which did you use?

>>I then reinstalled Dos 6.22 over the dos on the hd (which come from the same
>>set of disks aswell)..  Nope, nothing... So then i made sure and copied the
>>command.com, io.sys and msdos.sys (whatever anyway) aswell as the dos dir 
>>into another dir, and did a COMPLETE dos re-install...

>>Nothing... Im still looking at the dos box with a Missing operating 
>>system... I would like to fix this as i HATE reinstalling MS products 
>>again, and ill be forced to sit down and set it up from my sister winging 
>>about it every time i see here...

>Understandable.  A few things you can try : fire up something like
>pfdisk, or (possibly) an old nortons DI, and see if it agrees
>with the BIOS geometry.

>Failing that, back everything up to another disk or tape, and reformat.

Last time this happened to me reformating did'nt work either:-(
I had to re-partition as well!  ie use fdisk to delete the 
partition and recreate it.  There must be an easier fix though.  
I can't remember if I checked that the partition was marked active
using fdisk though.  Try that.

dave

Did you make sure the CMOS has the right specs for your HDD? If you have 
installed DOS to your HDD, (which it will do, even if the CMOS has the 
wrong size, sectors, etc) then the BIOS won't recognize teh drive.  I'd 
run the setup and check to see if it has the right settings.  CC

davo@apanix.apana.org.au wrote:

> Last time this happened to me reformating did'nt work either:-(
> I had to re-partition as well!  ie use fdisk to delete the 
> partition and recreate it.  There must be an easier fix though.  
> I can't remember if I checked that the partition was marked active
> using fdisk though.  Try that.

You should make sure you fix up the BIOS settings before going
ahead with this brute force approach. If your incorrect
parameters specify a drive larger than the one you really have
you will lose data once your disk gets near full.

Use Nortons Diags or one of those auto IDE detect utilities.
Those utilities are a dime a dozen on SIMTEL or on BBS's.
-- 
--      .     +------------------------------------------------------------+
    ,--_|\    | John Saunders  - (Work) johns@rd.scitec.com.au             |
   /  Oz  \   |                - (Home) john@pacer.apana.org.au            |
   \_,--\_/   | SCITEC LIMITED - Phone +61 2 428 9563 - Fax +61 2 428 9933 |
         v    +------------------------------------------------------------+

John Saunders (johns@rd.scitec.com.au) wrote:
: davo@apanix.apana.org.au wrote:

: > Last time this happened to me reformating did'nt work either:-(
: > I had to re-partition as well!  ie use fdisk to delete the 
: > partition and recreate it.  There must be an easier fix though.  
: > I can't remember if I checked that the partition was marked active
: > using fdisk though.  Try that.

: You should make sure you fix up the BIOS settings before going
: ahead with this brute force approach. If your incorrect
: parameters specify a drive larger than the one you really have
: you will lose data once your disk gets near full.

I was the person that built the machine from bits, and used the information
direct from the top of the HD (which is a 6month old WD 420mb drive) and placed
them straight into the cmos settings for the user drive when i put the machine
together 6 months ago... Now, with resetting the cmos to clear the password, i 
just got EXACTLY the same details from the top of the drive and placed them 
straight in the same spot (user type drive, not a predefined Cmos setting).. 
I am 100% positive that i got that right, and i am 100% positive they are the 
same as they were before.. Thats the odd thing..  The information is printed
on the top of the drive, and when placed in it reports the correct size drive
and so on... 

Yet all the email and postings (thanking you all very much) indicate that i
have got the settings wrong, which sounds quite reasonable, and what i thought
aswell, but i know they arent from the information originally used and now
re-used again...

: Use Nortons Diags or one of those auto IDE detect utilities.
: Those utilities are a dime a dozen on SIMTEL or on BBS's.

OK, ill have a look on one of my Simtel or cica cds and see if its here
and give that a whirl...

In answer to others email, i tried scanning for a virus, and ive tried
sys c:, aswell as checking the cmos chip seating.  I go with the
idea of wrong drive parms aswell, but i am at a loss to explain how thats
all...

At this stage, i am starting to think that i will zip up her hd, and
using ethernet and winsock on her machine, transfer it all to my linux
box, reformat her dunga of a machine and just ether it all back! :)...

Catch ya,
	  Woody
--
 Terry J. Wood located at Winnindoo, Gippsland, Victoria, Australia
   Net: woody@portal.apana.org.au Portal PA Unix +61(0)51-992869
      Linux Box 1.2.1/Dx2-66/8/1.7Gig/Supporting Amiga and PC
                i486dx4-100/8/730/CDRom/SB16 Games Box

Following my post on this thread in comp.sys.ibm-pc & aus.comp.ibm-pc
I would just like to add the following.

In article <3su0m5$jsf@seldon.apanix.apana.org.au>, miff@apanix.apana.org.au writes:
> woody@portal.apana.org.au (Terry Wood) writes:
>
>>Hello there...
>
>>Now I rebooted the system, and all i get after it shows the system config is:
>
>>128 KB CACHE MEMORY
>>Missing operating system_
>
> The BIOS disk geometry doesn't match the geometry in the MBR and elsewhere
> on the disk.
>
>>and thats it... I can load Dos from my 6.22 dos disks and then issue C:
>>and the HD is all there perfect... fdisk reports the hd as the Active
>>partition, and i even did a fdisk /mbr and that achieved nothing.
>
> Oops.  Now things are really confused.  Last I knew, only the DOS 5
> fdisk supported /mbr properly; which did you use?
That won't help the /mbr switch will only rewrite the Bootstrap loader, ie
the program that will boot the OS in the bootable partition.  If your CMOS
does not match the partition table, then this will always happen.
See my other post on how to match the CMOS to the partition table.

>
>>I then reinstalled Dos 6.22 over the dos on the hd (which come from the same
>>set of disks aswell)..  Nope, nothing... So then i made sure and copied the
>>command.com, io.sys and msdos.sys (whatever anyway) aswell as the dos dir
>>into another dir, and did a COMPLETE dos re-install...
Only when your Bootstrap loader can start booting the OS from a definite
Cylinder Head And Sector will you boot properly.

>
>>Nothing... Im still looking at the dos box with a Missing operating
>>system... I would like to fix this as i HATE reinstalling MS products
>>again, and ill be forced to sit down and set it up from my sister winging
>>about it every time i see here...

If it is not too late the other post I made gives you a description on how
get your PC up and running again.

> Understandable.  A few things you can try : fire up something like
> pfdisk, or (possibly) an old nortons DI, and see if it agrees
> with the BIOS geometry.
>
> Failing that, back everything up to another disk or tape, and reformat.
>
>>        Woody
>
Matt

Matthew you have deleted two files that your computer looks at when it 
boots. Both files are system files. You can use undelete by logging onto 
C:\ and typing undelete. You will then be shown deleted files one at a 
time and asked whether you want to undelete the files. You must know the 
first character of the file to recover it. One of the system files you 
undeleted is IO.SYS and the other is MSDOS.SYS. You also need to ensure 
that COMMAND.COM is present. This will correct your problem without 
having to reformat your harddrive. A simpler way to correct the problem 
is to use SYS.COM from Disk 1 of your DOS 6.20 disk set. TO do this you 
need to log on to A: or B: as appropriate and type SYS C:\   This will 
reinstall the missing system files and you can then reboot and your 
system should work fine!

Matthew you have deleted two files that your computer looks at when it 
boots. Both files are system files. You can use undelete by logging onto 
C:\ and typing undelete. You will then be shown deleted files one at a 
time and asked whether you want to undelete the files. You must know the 
first character of the file to recover it. One of the system files you 
undeleted is IO.SYS and the other is MSDOS.SYS. You also need to ensure 
that COMMAND.COM is present. This will correct your problem without 
having to reformat your harddrive. A simpler way to correct the problem 
is to use SYS.COM from Disk 1 of your DOS 6.20 disk set. TO do this you 
need to log on to A: or B: as appropriate and type SYS C:\   This will 
reinstall the missing system files and you can then reboot and your 
system should work fine!