ok well i bought a computer tower for $10 at a garage sale.
i also got a computer from a friend(TylerG) and im trying to build a really good computer out of one of them by ravaging the parts out of another.

anyways the garage alse comp came with 2 hard drives i tested them on my regular computer and only one works... and ya well my other comp (the quantex) had a hard drive but the owner took it out b/c there was check info in it or somthing and he didnt feel like deleting all of it so i tried to use one of the extra hard drives but when it gets to the Verifying VMI pool data part in booting th computer it just freezes onto that...but the first time i started the computer i got passes that and got to starting windows with a bar going across the screen but still with a DOS look to it (right b4 it would of said loading windows 95 or 98)  but then when the bar finishes the computer just restarted and now is stuck on verifying vmi pool data.  i have a windows 95 upgrade CD and windows xp home upgrade cd and a Windows 98 CD for pc's w/o windows so if there is some way i can boot with those to just intall one tell me and tell me a way i can use this computer.

i am also eventually going to upgrade it to xp.

dont even bother with the windows 95, install the full win 98 then use the xp cd to upgrade from 98

to boot from cd and install windows when i reloaded was just keep pressing f8 when ur comp starts up the choose start from cd drive and it should do it

also try calling microsoft at 1-800-microsoft they will help you install windows properly, they did for me

Some rules for garage sale stuff:

- Double check for compatibility
- Double check for errors, faulty equipment, etc... (bad equipment can fry good equipment)
- Always erase (aka format) harddisk completely and start of from clean harddisks. After that check the drive for cluster and sector errors with specialized software. (Simply plugging it in to a working system and transfer some files is absolutely no garantee the drive is ok)
- Double check for compatibility

I did that =). A friend gave me 2 Pentium 1 and another friend gave me his old 15 GB HDD (because he just opgraded to 120GB), also I used my ex-computer P3 (it didnt have HDD), mixed the components and now it's a very good computer .

What are the spec of the PC?

ok the comp i making out of the 2 has 2 hard drives both around 10 gb but i forgot that i took out one of them b/c it was broken so there is only one 10 gm HDD... it has 229 MB ram what else do u want to know about it?

I also know about the F8 trick but that booting screen will not come up after pressing F8.

Keep it pressed that after the BIOS screen until it cames up.

About the spec... Kinda enough for XP. I just hope the CPU is 600MHz or more. If not it's going to be something slow.

well the minimum for xp is 233mhz but i dont know what the cpu is in mhz...ill try the boot selection again hope it works!

i also forgot to tell you that some times it asks for a system disk and i dont have one so ya (disk as in 3.5 floppy)

(as I said before) format the HDD before using it and install a brand new OS on it.

Do not boot up/use installed OS's on harddisks you got from garage sales...

If you keep on using the installed stuff you bound to have problems (even if you do get it to boot up)...

Also don't forget to configure the BIOS to your new system first!!

Heres an idea....take it to someone who knows how to do it correctly

hey for some reason my computer wont let me reformat one of the hardrives here is the message that appears

wait nvm i forgot my background was saved in that hard drive


and i tried to reformatt it again and that message still appears...help!

If you have a W9x bootdisk use it. If you dont have any download one from www.bootdisk.com. Boot the system with it, run FDisk and delete any partitions from the drive, right after that create one FAT32. Then you should be able to install W95/W98/WME.

ok ill see what happens but i really need to get the drive reformatted and it wont for some reason

If you're in XP it won't let you format it.

ya i have XP and why wont it let me? and can i do it through ms-dos or somthing?

quote:

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Originally posted by MR_5_MR
ya i have XP and why wont it let me? and can i do it through ms-dos or somthing?

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quote:

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Originally posted by YottabyteWIzard
If you have a W9x bootdisk use it. If you dont have any download one from www.bootdisk.com. Boot the system with it, run FDisk and delete any partitions from the drive, right after that create one FAT32. Then you should be able to install W95/W98/WME.

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o ok now i just have to get my 3.5 floppy drive to start working...for some reason it wont turn on and i checked the plugs and they seem fine but it wont turn on so i put another floppy drive in and it wont turn on either.

as with all things, check your cables and jumpers on the motherboard and also make sure the BIOS settings are correct

ok well im just gunna burn the win 98 se boot disk to a CD-R and then go to a friend's comp and do it with his floppy drive

and ill tell yall how the boot Disk with the windows 98 CD goes.

Check in the boot screen if the HDD shows up, if it doesn't recheck connections (data and power (sometimes power cables are damaged if they used to connect/disconnect too much)) and jumpers. If it does shows up... then i don't other idea.... or maybe i have one more: check the bios for the HDD settings, if there's an option for AUTO use it, do not use specific configuration.

You should be able to install XP straight from the Upgrade CD, and it will also let you format the drive too. It will just ask you for to insert another CD at some stage, and you can use the win98 one for that.
It sounds like perhaps you need to check your bios settings as mentioned before, or the jumper settings on the drive. I'm pretty sure XP can recognise drives even if they are disabled in bios, this *may* be a possibility.

what do those asterisks *really* mean??

ok well after not messing with the computers for a while ive wanted to work on it more.  i got the boot disk and windows 98 cd and partitioned the HDD and now when i try setup it initializes, then it scans somthing and then setup halts and says "windows setup requires 734"  and now everytime i retry setup a word from that phrase disappears like now when i try it just says windows but please help me b/c i really want this computer to work so thats in advance.