Loooooog way OT

I tried to post this earlier, but it didn't appear for some reason. I screwed up and ran "format c:" command on an old Gateway 700 computer (vintage 1999). I need it to update some maps that I made in AutoCad14 with WIN98. I have tried many things, too numerous to mention. Short question: How can I make this Master Hard Drive appear like a "new one" that has some resident information (sys files), like a CD driver for a Hitatchi GD-5000-sm. Someone said it is resident on the WIN installation Disks, but I can not run the CD drive to get them. Right now the only entrance into the PC is via a 3.5 floppy drive, so the WIN98 or WINXP installation disks will not work. The BIOS shows the Master Drive, a Slave Drive, the Hitatchi CD units are present and in the proper boot order. When I boot up with no floppy or CD present, it comes to C: prompt. I can then go to D: and A: and see files. The only file showing on C: is Command Com. I can do nothing at C: but look. One suggestion was to open the config.sys file and autoexec.bat but they only appear on a WIN98 Start Up floppy that I made a long time ago when I bought the PC. I can't read or edit them, maybe because the edit & read commands are not resident anywhere on the floppy or the C: hard drive. Do I need a real PC doctor to fix it? Seems like there ought to be a repair floppy that resets a few things, but I have not been successful in finding one. I could move files into C: via the A: floppy if they didn't exceed 1.44MB. One last comment: The light flashes on the Hitachi when I insert a CD and also momentarily during boot up, but I don't know if this means it is totally functional. Could be that it is broken or the motherboard is not doing its job. All of the easy jobs are gone. Any help appreciated. Joe

ouch, joe.

so i'm clear here, u now have a computer with a blank hard drive, a CD drive u can't access, and a working 3.5" floppy drive, right? do u have a bootable MS-DOS floppy? and where are autocad and the maps u need to update?

"read" is not a valid DOS command. to view the contents of a text file, the command is actually "type" (without the quotes).

for example:

A:/>type autoexec.bat

It's been a while Joe but I may be able to help.
I still have machines running Windows 95/98/XP etc.
A Windows 98 boot disk will let you read the CD drive.

Assuming you have those maps stored somewhere other than
on the drive you formatted. If they were on the that drive,
your only option may be a hard drive recovery service.

Email me at RoyseTractors at gmail.com and I'll send you my
phone number so we can talk.

Royse, I have a 3.5" WIN98 boot floppy, not a cd disk. The maps are safe in another location. I am not worried about anything on the C: Master hard drive or the D: slave. I can do a "C: dir" command and see only COMMAND COM. There may be hidden files that I cannot see. I can boot up the computer with no floppy or CD, to the C: prompt and then change to the A: drive and the D: slave and read files that are there. The real problem is: The Hitachi CD will not let me reload WIN98 or WINXP. I can not determine if the problem is the "CD driver" (this is an error message) or perhaps a failed Hitachi CD device. It blinks during boot up and the light is on a little longer when I load a CD in the tray. It just doesn't respond by running. I wish I had a way to bench test it to prove one way or the other. Thanks for your interest. I don't hear very well on the phone.

Thanks HFJ. Check my reply to Royse. I don't have a bootable MS-DOS floppy. The machine boots to C: prompt, but I bet all of the DOS info is not present. I can probably find a bootable floppy on the web. I will look. Maybe this can solve the Hitachi problem.

Love this website. I do have a 1949 8N and an old Case backhoe. I may dig a hole if I can't get this fixed. LOL

(quoted from post at 07:34:35 12/19/16) Thanks HFJ. Check my reply to Royse. I don't have a bootable MS-DOS floppy. The machine boots to C: prompt, but I bet all of the DOS info is not present. I can probably find a bootable floppy on the web. I will look. Maybe this can solve the Hitachi problem.

Love this website. I do have a 1949 8N and an old Case backhoe. I may dig a hole if I can't get this fixed. LOL

Click to expand...

If you are booting to a C: prompt you do have an operating system running.

The Win98 boot floppy loads the drivers required to make "most"
CD drives work. Yours may be an exception or may be broken.
If the ultimate goal is to re-install Windows 98 you can hook
the drive to another computer, copy the Win9x folder from the
installation CD to the drive, put it back in this computer and
install Windows from the hard drive. Either C or D would work.