Can't boot or get fdisk to run

Thanks for the quick post Bob. I had tried putting the OS cd in but it did not seem to be working so after your post I tried it again. Well, it is not going smoothly and I don't get to the same screen every time. It will restart a couple of times until it finally comes up to the screen asking if I want to install linspire. Nothing generally happens after that, it almost appears to lock up. Do you think I need to clear my CMOS memory? One of the times in it's restart sequence and trying to load it said something like not enough memory or memory full, I can't remember exactly. Thanks again for all of your inmput.

Jason

by any chance, and if your answer is yes does Linspire have drive support for SATA drives or do you need to look for a SATA driver?

I don't know about the driver thing. How would I install a driver for it if I can't get it to boot? Right now I can hear my cd drive making a sound every couple of seconds and my screen has the "_" just flashing at the top left corner. Thanks for your inputs.

There are too many missing details in this discussion. But let's skip to the solution I use.

I boot the Linux CD. If you can't boot the Linux CD then trouble shoot that since DOS is not needed to install Linux.

Bob

Thanks for all of your replies. Sorry about the missing details, obviously I'm not savvy enough to know what I'm not telling you that would help, sorry. The cd just will not boot, the hd has not been partitioned, I can't get that far. How would I go about troubleshooting the thing not booting from the Linux cd?

I've nuked my older computer before and started from scratch and I did not have any of these issues, it was kind of easy. That thing died after 8 years, I got my monies worth that's for sure. I didn't think I would have this many issues getting this one started.

Thanks Bob, sorry I didn't think about all of that little stuff. Here is what it lists in my BIOS for IDE channels:

Channel 1 Master: None
Channel 1 Slave: ASUS CD-S400/A
Channel 3 Master: SAMSUNG SP 2004C
Channel 4 Master: NONE
and none for channels 5-8

I have one IDE connection and that is connected to the cd drive first and a older Sony CDRW on the second connection from it. My flopy drive is connected to the FDC1 port. The HD is connected to the SATA 1 port. Of the 6 SATA ports it is the only thing connected to them. Memory is Corsair XMS2 2 GB DDR2. The Asus 40x CD drive is 7 years old. Video card is GeForce 7600 GT.

"-> Let's skip forward to where you booted dos, partitioned the drive. What next? To install Linux you need to boot the linux cd. This means that all the work to get a DOS boot working didn't help us get Linux installed."

I have not even gotten DOS booted or the drive partitioned. I'm stuck at the beginning I think. I appreciate your patience with me on this and all of your suggestions. Thanks again.

Jason

In my last reply I wrote "One owner had set the drive to slave but there was no master on the IDE channel. They lost a week wondering why that wasn't good."

Tell me why you don't have the master on that channel.

Bob

Bob,

It was simply a matter of swapping the cd drive and the burner around, putting the jumper in the right place for each and connecting the IDE cable to the master on the ASUS and the slave on the cd burner. The burner is a Yamaha, I think I said Sony earlier. Now the BIOS list shows:

IDE Channel 1 Master: ASUS CD-S400/A
IDE Channel 1 Slave: Yamaha CRW2100E
IDE Channel 3 Master: Samsung SP2004C
and the rest are the same

IDE channels 3-8 seem to be the SATA connections and 1 master and slave are the old ATA cable connections.

After I swapped the cd drives around it works. I got the drive partitioned and the OS loaded. I thought I had the cd drives exactly as they were in my old computer, but obviously something was different. Thanks so much for your patience with me on this and for guiding me to the solution. You guys are a real life saver.

Jason

Even if it's all via forum.

I think you see the issue more clearly now. Cheers and have a great time with your new PC.

Bob

I have the same problem guys whereby in my BIOS:
C1 master: none
C1 slave: DVD drive
C3: hard drive

It appears i need my c1 master to be my DVD drive but i've tried swapping my IDE connector around but it still wont boot up my OS disk and all i get is a black screen with "_" flashing in the top left hand corner. Can anyone please help me out get my new pc running!!

While the info is light, you see that NONE on the master and that can cause issues. Also some may fight it, but Windows seems to want the boot drive on the primary IDE as master. Many try other methods and end up calling for help.

Bob

im writing this from work and my pc is at home but as far as I can tell the problem is much the same as the thread starter except i have no floppy drive or burner. Just my Abit MB, LG DVD drive and 320GB HD all new. The IDE connector has two connection points (master and slave) but even when i put the master point into the DVD drive the BIOS calls it "slave 1". Its very confusing.

1. I use nothing but 80 conductor cables to save my time and get the best effects.

See http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/confCable80-c.html

2. I set all the drives to CABLE SELECT so I know the cable connection sets the master/slave proper for me.

If you use 40 conductor cables, then the old jumper rules apply.

Bob