MBR - W98se Boot Message: "Missing Operating System"!

[Loote1]

Any suggestions as to possible reasons are appreciated.

The only strange thing prior to this was that twice (in one day) when lauching Outlook to check e-mail, I was prompted to enter password. Few hours later, turned on PC only to be met with the message at the end of (devices installed list in) the boot process ( in DOS), "Missing Operating System".

If this is a complicated issue, I'll gladly reinstall as all primary data is backed up however I would
like to have an understanding as to what could have caused this.

Thanks,

-Loote1

 

[Bartman39]

Sounds like the master boot record is toast...? You possibly could overlay (reinstall Win9X) over it and recover you most recent changes...? Then repartition and format/install...

Reason...? Possible Virus or a Hardrive is going bad...? (bad sector in the boot area...?)

 

[Willoughbyva]

If you are using windows 98 use a boot disk or cd and boot then do a "sys c:" without quotes. If it is another operating system like XP you might want to do a repair, but I would probably do a reinstall.

Sounds like a virus or bad drive acting up, though sometimes the boot record might get messed up. Also make sure the first partition (or the right partition) is set to active. Usually if there is only one partition on a drive it is automatically set to active.

Other than that I really don't know.

Will

 

[AreEss64]

Boot from your 98SE CD...

C:
cd windows\command
fdisk /mbr

That hopefully will fix it. Try Willoughbyva's suggestion after this one though. This will rewrite your Master Boot Record. If it's gotten nuked, it's usually a sign of a dead/dying hard drive or a virus. (There are a lot of MBR viruses.)

 

[GiGoLo]

<< if you are using windows 98 use a boot disk or cd and boot then do a "sys c:" without quotes >>



this would only work if the error was "invalid system disk" or "command.com not found"... all sys c: does is copy the 3 files necessary to boot.... io.sys, msdos.sys, command.com... has nothing to do with if an os can't be found

 

[nihil]

about 3 people that i know have had this problem in the last couple days. does anyone know of any mbr virus going around or something?

 

[Loote1]

I thank you all for your replies.

I noticed for what it?s worth that under "FDISK Partition Info.", ?System?, it
indicates ?unknown? instead of ?FAT32?. I ran a check for errors which came
up with none. Whenever I try to type a command under ?C:?, I get the prompt,
?Invalid media type reading drive ?C? ? Abort, Retry, Fail."

-Any additional theories behind this?
It appears nothing can be done with out a ?FAT*System.

-Can a "FAT*" system be implemented without wiping the drive?

If not or as I mentioned before, I?ll just reformat, get nother drive just to be safe,
just replace this old (secondary) loyal storage machine.

Again,

Much thanks to you all.

-Loote1

 

[dude8604]

<< Boot from your 98SE CD... C: cd windows\command fdisk /mbr That hopefully will fix it. Try Willoughbyva's suggestion after this one though. This will rewrite your Master Boot Record. If it's gotten nuked, it's usually a sign of a dead/dying hard drive or a virus. (There are a lot of MBR viruses.) >>



I've had problems with my MBR in the past, and that worked every time.

 

[Willoughbyva]

I am not sure you might can buy a program that will restore the fat tables and such enough to get the data off, but I don't really know how efective they are.

There are places you can send the drive to for recovery of data, but they tend to be expensive.

Good luck with it.

Will

 

[Loote1]

Willoughbyva:

Thanks but I think I?ll tinker with this myself and if no luck?will just flush.
However, regarding ?sys c:?, I came across a few approaches and not quite sure
how this should be executed. I would like to know (if you don?t mind) step by step how this is done. I?m not sure if this is done at the ?a:?, ?c:?, or ?cd-drive?
prompt.

Recomendations:


?boot off of a win98 boot disk and do the following "fdisk /mbr" then "sys c: "

"If you are running win9x, just boot to a bootable floppy with sys.com on in. From the A:> prompt type: sys c: That will make the C: drive bootable"

"Boot from your 98SE CD... C: cd windows\command fdisk /mbr"

My primary question at this learning stage is should my HD (where ?FDISK Partition Info.? indicates the system type) show ?FAT32? or is it not strange that it says ?unknown?? Could this be why I get
the message "Invalid media type reading drive C Abort, Retry, Fail?" ? Although I would come up with the command (at "C" promt):

I'll have to find it again.

-Loote1

 

[Loote1]

Ok.

It was the string from AreEss64?s post:

c:
cd windows\command
fdisk /mbr

However, I made this one complete string which took me back to the ?C:/>? prompt.
I don?t know where to go form here. I think I hear a flush on the way.

-Loote1

 

[Willoughbyva]

When you do a "fdisk /mbr " it just does it and doesn't display any info abot it doing it. You did have win9X fat 32 on the drive right?

If you boot from floppy after booting just type "fdisk /mbr".]

If you boot from the cd you might have to change directory to where fdisk is located. It has been a while since I used win 9X so I'm not 100%
So it would be cd (drive letter of cdrom the disk is in) (win 9X will probably put the drive down a letter than normal).

do a "dir" and you will see what is listed in the directory

then "cd win98" or what ever directory you have the files in. do a "dir /w/p" to see if fdisk.com or .exe (I forgot what it is) if so do a "fdisk /mbr"

To be honest I have been up all night and my thinking might not be the greatest at the moment.

Good luck

Will

cd = change directory
dir= display directory
dir /w display directory windowed
dir /w/p display directory windowed and pause


BTW after you do the "fdisk /mbr" you won't get anything to tell you that it did it.

 

[Willoughbyva]

I just reread your last statement!

If you boot from floppy/cd can you do a "c:" and get to your c drive if so then you can probably get the information off of the drive. If not then post what you get after doing "c:"

Will

EDIT after doing a "c:" do a dir and see what is listed in the directory. Is it the ram drive that the win9X boot disk made or is it actually your hard drive information?

 

[Loote1]

Willoughbyva:

Thank's for all the support. Just wanted to come back to say this and that after some pretty extensive
searching and asking around, it appears that the only hope for this drive a "repo service" then
trash heap.

I extend my apologies the the late reply.

-loote1