Yesterday, I attempted to install a Promise Ultra 33 card in my Aptiva
M40-2168.  I had to make an extension of the cable which connects the HD's
to the motherboard in order to reach the card where the HD's will be plugged
in.  I booted the computer;the card was recognized and the HD's were
recognized.  However, I received the same message you get when you reboot a
computer and leave a non bootable floppy in the computer.
Now I couldn't boot up.   So, I figured the card was causing the problem, so
I removed it, reconnected the cable without the extension to the motherboard
and rebooted.  Now it attempts to boot and runs scandisk.  Scandisk finds  a
bat FAT and tells me to replaced it with "copy 2" which I did.  Then it goes
through the "directory" structures and finds several damaged directories
which it fixes.  Then it finds crosslinked files (184 of them) which it
saves as file*.chk.
I again attempt to reboot and gets all the way to WIN98 desktop.  Then it
says file C:\win\system32.dll damaged .  Please reinstall file.  I made a
copy of this from another computer and same result.   Also, explorer does
not load.  I get the icons but no taskbar.  Hit C\A\D and no explorer.   Go
into safe mode with same result.
Now, I figure I'll boot from a WIN98 emergency disk and just reinstall
WIN98.  Do this and get an error "SUwin.dlll" which tells we to '"ignore" or
"retry" or "ok".  I hit OK. Blank screen.  Reboot and now it says "unable to
load kernel, reinstall Windows" and the computer shuts off.
I then attempt to boot of the emergency diskette.   I use "ghost" to backup
my computer and attempt to run it.  It shuts down and says "error - see
ghost.err" and ghost shuts down.
I tried to sys the c: and the computer says "no system on default drive".  I
can however go to the C: prompt and see all my files and directories.

Now for the questions:

Why can't I just sys the drive?   I think I may have reversed the connector
at the HD when I initially connected the Ultra 33 card because of the
"extension".  Is it possible I somehow damaged the drive if I did this?
What could I do at this point?  Sorry, this is so long!!

Thanks for your time,

Fred Hahnel

                                  -----
                PCBUILD mailing list -  http://nospin.com
         Bob Wright:[log in to unmask] - Drew Dunn:[log in to unmask]