Now, now, don't laugh too loud.

I was given an old 286 with a 40 mb Hard Drive. I would like to
get the critter running well enough that my kids can use it for
homework (basic word processing) when dad needs his computer to do
his own work.

I can boot to the C: drive and see the directory (dir/w) without a
problem. I can run other programs that are on the hard drive and
in other directories. The previous owner had lotus, windows 3.1,
a couple of games, and some misc other software installed.

However, if I change to the "windows" directory (win 3.1) and then
try to view the directory the following errror message pops up.
"general failure reading drive C: abort, retry, fail?"

This error message pops up every time in the "WINDOWS" directory
only. Any ideas?

There is nothing I need on the hard drive right now. So wiping the
slate clean is a feasible idea if someone can supply step by step
instructions. I have the disks for dos 6 and win 3.1. I am just
not sure wether they are still good. Do I need to reformat first?
If so how do I do it? I have seen warnings about formatting a hard
drive on this list in the past few weeks and don't want to kill
a potentially useful computer.

Any help is sincerely appreciated.




Dave Thuillier    Chief scripter & Master of the arcane web at
Dreamer's Den Game Shoppe  - Hillsboro, New Hampshire
http://www.dreamersden.com   mailto:[log in to unmask]

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