How to load a operating system on a newly built computer? (1 Viewer)

[thanh]

Hello all, I just finished building my first computer: Intel D815EPEA2 mother board with Celeron 633 mhz CPU.When I first turn on the computer, I get the Intel logo screen and the message " drive is not ready, system halted" I put a Window 98 bootable diskette in the floppy drive and turned it on, this time I get a blinking cursor on top left of the screen (after the Intel logo screen )I used this Window 98 bootable dikette before to load WindowXP on a computer that I bought on-line that came without a OS.I also put another diskette that came with another computer in the floppy drive and this time I get a Window 98 start up menu with 3 choices: 1- automatically start up windows to repair an existing installation. 2- format C and start up Windows and 3-start up computer in MS-DOS with support for CD-ROM. I tried the first 2 choices and ended with error messages.The third choice I ended up with a cursor(I guess it is in MS-DOS but I don't know a thing about MS-DOS)I also have a CD-ROM drive but I didn't get any respond from the computer when I put a CD in it.I hope all the expert out there can tell me how to load a OS software after building a computer from scratch.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

OK, that diskette was obviously customized for another system. I believe the Win98 CD is bootable, so go into the BIOS and change the boot order so that the CD-ROM boots first and let it go

If that doesn't work, then use another computer with Win98, and make a Starup disc from the system menu of the control panel. Use that to boot your machine and start your computer with CD-ROM support when prompted

 

[thanh]

HI Jeff, Thanks for the reply, but how do I go into the BIOS? I will try your second suggestion.thanks again.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

It dependson the computer. When you start it up it'll say something like "press DEL to enter setup" or something like that. Check your manual

 

[Steve_Ch]

When you get the CD drive, can you do a DIR D: on it ? If you can, you can probably move over to D drive (your CD) and just run setup from there.

 

[thanh]

Hi Jeff, I tried your second suggestion, here is what I got:I put a Window 98 start up disk in the floppy drive and turned on the computer, I got the Window 98 start up menu with 3 options:1- start the computer with CD-ROM support,2-start without CD-ROM support and 3- view the help files.I selected option 1 and after displaying some informations like manufacture and driver number and PCI bus scan...I got the message" prepare to start up the computer this will take a few minutes please wait..." and after that I got the message "the diagnostic tools was sucessfully loaded to drive D" and I got the cursor with a prompt"need help type help and press enter" And when I typed help and pressed enter, I got long page of informations but I still can't load the OS CD.I put the WindowXP OS into the CD-ROM and the green light blinked for few seconds and nothing happened.I don't have the manual for the computer because I built it but I do have the manual for the mother board so I will read it hopefully I will find some helpful informations.

 

[thanh]

Hi Steve, I don't know how to do a DIR, could you tell me how? remember I don't have an operating system on my computer right now.

 

[Joseph Bolus]

Hmmm ...

It sounds as though you need a driver for your CD-ROM drive on that particular "boot" floppy, or that your BIOS menus need to be accessed to setup the controller for the CD-ROM drive.

When the Windows 98 emergency boot disk stated that it had "successfully loaded the diagnostic tools to Drive D", that was your clue that your CD-ROM drive was not available. The "Drive D" that it was referring to was a temporary "RAM Drive" built by the emergency disk. If the CD-ROM drive had been available, some other drive letter would have been indicated. In all likelihood, this Windows 98 "Emergency" disc was built on a machine with a CD-ROM drive that is not compatible with your current machine, or your CD-ROM may not be setup properly in your machine's BIOS.

Try Jeff's suggestion above to make your CD-ROM drive bootable via the BIOS (and to ensure that your BIOS is setup to properly recognize your CD-ROM.) Usually you will press either the "DEL" key or the "F2" key while the system is "booting" to access your BIOS menus. As Jeff stated, the proper key to press will be indicated on the screen as the system starts up.

 

[John*Jones]

every time i've loaded windows 98 and i get to the c prompt after it "successfully loaded", i just enter SETUP and it starts the process of loading the OS

 

[brentl]

Another problem people haven't considered is the fact that Windows XP CANNOT be loaded from a DOS environment.

BOOT from CD ROM with the XP disc in and all should be fine.

Brent

Make sure your "first boot device" in the bios is the CD.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

OK, so are you installing Win98 or WinXP?

If it's XP, I haven't done that yet so I can't help as much

 

[thanh]

I went in the BIOS set up and selected CD-ROM as #1 booting device and put the WindowXP CD into the CD drive and exit BIOS.The computer is trying to boot from CD ROM but it failed to boot.Here is what I get from the screen: "booting from CD, hit any key to start.... Starting Window 98..." and I got error messages. I wonder why it said starting Window 98 when I have Window XP in the CD drive?

 

[Jeff Kleist]

This is an official copy of XP right? A straightup disc from Microsoft, not gotten from another PC vendor or a friend?

 

[Steve_Ch]

>>Hi Steve, I don't know how to do a DIR, could you tell me how? remember I don't have an operating system on my computer right now.D:
D:>
--display directory
D:>DIR
--Should display a bunch of files at this point
D:>SETUP

The above is typical for Win95/98 type install, I do run XP, but I have not yet done a raw install, so not sure if the same applies. For XP class machine, I think it really should have CD Boot, as others already suggested, which would make things alot easier.

 

[thanh]

Hello All, I am happy to report that I have WindowXP installed on my new computer but don't ask me how I did it.For the sake of learning I would like to tell you what I did (not exactly because I don't really remember)After setting booting device to CD ROM, I put the windowxp cd into the cd drive (legal UPGRADE version bought from Amazon.com )I got the message: "booting from CD, hit any key to start.... loading Window 98" and error messages after that.I then tried the Windowxp pro (legal version bought from Micosoft during one of their promotion)and I got the same result.I then tried WindowNT 4.0 (look like the OEM version bought at the flea market for $1)and I got the set up screen that would allow me to install WindowNT on my computer.Although I don't want WindowNT, I went along to install it. After couples of screens, I got the message that WindowNT cannot install on my hard drive because the partition is to large.From here on I don't remember exactly what I did (deleted the partition, format the partition...??) I finally took the WindowNT CD out and put in the WindowXP CD again and to my surprise I got the set up screen for installing WindowXP and I just follow the steps and everything went smooth.I hope some one can make sense of all this.I know some programs on the WindowNT got things going for me.

 

[brentl]

No idea what you did, but can you do it again?
Brent

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Well, you were using an upgrade CD on a blank HD. That may have been your problem. It could be that when you mucked around with NT it left enough files for XP to say "okey-dokey" to the upgrade

 

[thanh]

Hi Jeff, don't forget I also tried the WindowXP Pro and that is a full version.I just replaced the hard drive on another computer and I will need to load the OS again.Yes, I think I can do it again now that I have the experience.