>
> Hi people,
>
> Here is what happens at boot up:
>
> You see the computer POST, summary of computer stats.
>
> Normally you would see
>
> Starting MS-DOS ... <I always see this when I boot with a floppy>

Do you still see this with a bootable floppy?  Does it finish booting from
the A: drive?

> But I don't see that part. The computer just sits at this point.

That is where it stops when you try to boot from the C: drive, right?

> I believe the hard drive has some bad sectors.

If the drive has some bad sectors, which are properly marked as bad sectors
so that they are avoided and not used, then the only effect is a slight
loss of capacity.  Have you tried any of the various hard drive checking
utilities - especially the one from the manufacturer of your hard drive
(but there are other generic utilities such as HDCHECK, SPINRITE, ONTRACK,
MS-DOS's SCANDISK, etc.)?  These will do an exhaustive test of the entire
drive, and mark any new (previously unmarked) bad sectors.  A few more
won't hurt, but if you lose dozens and dozens, then perhaps a Low Level
Format is in order.

Done properly (See recent postings on this subject), it can resurrect a
dead drive.  Done improperly, it can kill a good one.

> It is very old. Only a 156 meg hard drive!

> I have tried formatting the entire drive.

I hope you had a recent BACKUP, as you have probably lost everything on
the hard drive.  (You could try UNFORMAT to get it back.)

I gather you booted (successfully) from a bootable floppy with the FORMAT
and FDISK commands on it, using FDISK to check that the drive is set with
one active, primary DOS partition and FORMAT C:/s to transfer the OS. (Or
SYS C:.)  WARNING! If you change anything in FDISK, you could lose all data
on your drive - on the other hand, if you have nothing to lose, or don't
care, go ahead.  FDISK/MBR will restore the master boot record, and wipe
out many viruses - but some, such as CIH/Chernobyl are triggered.

>                                            Reinstalling DOS 6.22 on it. It
> always does the same thing!
>
> Could this mean there is something wrong with the drive?

Yes, for instance, an unmarked bad sector where the Operating System is
stored, could cause the system to crash.  So could some viruses.

 > If anyone have has suggestions I would love to hear them!

See above, verify that the system operates properly (Run diagnostics, scan
for viruses from a write-protected floppy, or play a game that tests the
system when booted from the A: drive (bad memory, a failing CMOS battery -
check if it keeps time overnight while switched off - or a failing chip,
among other things, could cause the system to freeze).

> +-/-\|)/-\|^| |_.----------------------------------------+
> | [log in to unmask]              [log in to unmask]  |
> | web: http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/park/2835  |
> +--------------------------------------------------------+

Hope this helps.

Boyd Ramsay

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