[SOLVED] Windows won't load on my new computer.

Hello, I put my new computer together last night. The bios seems to be set right. I got the new hard drive formatted properly.The computer will boot from the floppy. I can access the directories on the floppy drive and the cd-rom, can see all the files on them, but when I type the D:\setup command to start the windows installation, I get a "Can't run program in MS-DOS mode". The hard drive works in my other computer, I put it in and copyed a few files to it to check it. Can anyone help me on this? Is there a way I could copy my current hard drive on to my new drive, so that windows will be on the new drive and load on my new computer? Any help I can get will save me from pulling more hair out. Thanks

 

Hi and welcome. It sounds like you have an upgrade cd and not the full installation.

And to be clear, at the d: prompt, you are only typing

setup
and pressing the enter key?

 

Hi, thanks for replying so quickly. Yes at the d: prompt I type setup and hit enter.The cd I have has the title "Windows 98 Starts Here, and"For distribution with a new PC only". I think that's the full version cd, I'm not sure. Thats when I get the "Can't run program in MS-DOS mode" message. I see the setup program on the disk when I type d:dir, but it just won't run. Any thoughts? Thanks for replying.

 

Nope that isn't going to get windows installed unfortunately........

 

So the disk I have is my problem? If so , That makes me feel better, because I will know whats causing all my headaches. Is there any way to copy my entire existing hard drive ( or the windows files) to the new hard drive so that it will load up Windows properly. Another idea, if I go out and purchase Win XP ( from Wal-Mart, only place in town that has it) will it be the full version and install on the new drive correctly? Thanks for your help on this matter. My hair(which I have been pulling out) also thanks you

 

Yes to both....actually to all three

Did a floppy disk come with the hard drive? If not, I would suggest you go to Maxtor's website, and download MaxBlast....hook the new hard drive up as master, hook the one you want to copy as slave.......boot with the MaxBlast software and it'll walk you thru copying the contents from the old drive to the new drive.

 

My new drive is one of those Western Digital 8 mb cashe ones. I downloaded WD Data lifeguard tools on to a floppy. It has an ootion to do a disk to disk copy. When I tried it everything seemed to be going well. I picked my boot drive as the copy from drive and the new drive as the copy to drive. It seemed to go, a screen came up and said initializing... 0% . I waited for about 45 min and nothing moved. It was like the computer was locked up. The hard drive light was constantly on but it didn't sound like anything was getting written. I noticed you said to hook the new drive up as master and the old one up as slave. I have mine just the oposite. Could this be why it didn't work for me? Thank you so much for help. I can finally see a light at the end of this long tunnel.

 

It shouldn't matter, you should be able to copy either way......

But, I've only done it the other way.......so I guess it can't hurt to try that......and trust me, the MaxBlast software is more user friendly. I have a WD drive too, and had problems trying to get it setup with their software, so I grabbed my handy dandy MaxBlast disk and had it set up in a matter of minutes

Oh, and by the way, there is a different jumper setting for the WD drive when it's on the same cable as another device......

 

You don't know how much I appreciate all the help. After looking through all my disks I found it ' one that said "Windows 98 for pcs without Windows" It also says it is for distribution with new pcs only and that it is the second edition. Is this the disk I need? I hope so. Once again thanks for all your help.

BTW I downloaded the MaxBlast program. Very nice. Thanks for the heads up.

 

That sounds like what you need......

A nice fresh install on a brand new drive is always best, in my opinion.

Setup should run if you'll go back to where you were when you first posted

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! I now have a shiny new 2.4ghz system( with a slightly tarnished, but freshly installed, OS) on a brand new drive purring away in my computer room. I had forgotten how nice a computer is that isn't cluttered up! Thanks so much for your help.