Subject: | |
From: | |
Reply To: | |
Date: | Thu, 18 Feb 1999 11:25:40 -0800 |
Content-Type: | text/plain |
Parts/Attachments: |
|
|
On 17 Feb 99, at 12:35, Dreamer's Den wrote:
> 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?
Have you tried CHKDSK /F?
> 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.
The warnings that you have seen will have been about *low-level*
formatting of *IDE* drives. This 40 MB beast is almost certainly MFM
or RLL, and the low-level format code in the drive controller's ROM
should work just fine.[*]
But it's not clear that a low-level format is even called for. The
high-level format done by the FORMAT command is probably more than
sufficient.
[*] This is invoked from within DEBUG -- which you might not have a
copy of -- by an incantation that looks rather like "g=c800:5".
David G
The PCBUILD web site always needs good submissions. If
you would like to contribute to the website, send any
hardware tech tips or hardware reviews to:
[log in to unmask]
|
|
|