Aggr3 Posted February 20, 2005 CID Share Posted February 20, 2005 Okay guys, help me out with this. I have a Gateway PII 300 Mghz laptop. Will not boot past Windows 98 window. Keeps trying to run scan disk and tells me "that it detected an invalid long file name entry on this drive but was unable to fix it." Twenty minutes later, it still will not finish running scan disk. Prior to this time, system was working extremely slow. I'd like to reload it with Windows 2000, but can't get that far. I have both an upgrade and a full operating system of Win 2000. Which would be best, or should I reload Win98? Tried booting in safe mode, but system can't get past the scandisk hangup or the Windows 98 screen. What am I doing wrong here? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stank_Ho Posted February 20, 2005 CID Share Posted February 20, 2005 Can you boot from the 2K cd? I'd do that and if you get that far, reformat the whole HD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aggr3 Posted February 20, 2005 Author CID Share Posted February 20, 2005 I've tried that...both with the upgrade and the full version. I'm not sure, but think the default might be set to boot from a floppy and my software is on CD. I don't know where the menu is that shows the boot sequence of the devices. Not real computer literate here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stank_Ho Posted February 20, 2005 CID Share Posted February 20, 2005 Before it completes booting up try to get into setup. The boot sequence is in there and you should be able to change it. It'll be the DEL key or F1, just look for it on the bottom when it's booting up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aggr3 Posted February 20, 2005 Author CID Share Posted February 20, 2005 Thanks man! I made the changes you recommended, and at this time Windows 2000 is installing from the CD drive. Might get stuck again, but at least the system is doing something which is a drastic improvement over where I was a few minutes ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stank_Ho Posted February 20, 2005 CID Share Posted February 20, 2005 Cool! I hope it goes well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swimmer Posted February 20, 2005 CID Share Posted February 20, 2005 Nice advice Scank Ho! Yeah I had something very simular happen to my old compaq Amd k6-2 500MHz.. A call to compaq and that didnt fix the problem so out to CDW to get windows 2000 pro full version!! It does sound like you are going to have to reformat.. There is just no way of getting around it.. unless you can boot into safe mode but that sounds like it is out of the question.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aggr3 Posted February 20, 2005 Author CID Share Posted February 20, 2005 Thanks guys...but I'm thinking this piece of crap won't handle win2000...it just keeps giving errors...and it won't load it to the HD....tries...but then locks up with another error. Think I'll try to find win98 disk.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wingzero2309 Posted February 20, 2005 CID Share Posted February 20, 2005 i also had a similar problem happen on my shitty $10 laptop (its a PII 300MHz[i think...maybe slower, maybe faster, somewhre around there], with 32mb of RAM, a like 14 in screen which has a broken hinge yet still works, some crappy int.gfx, no LAN, sometimes-works-floppy-drive, and cd drive, and 5 or 6GB harddrive) i have a win2k cd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stank_Ho Posted February 20, 2005 CID Share Posted February 20, 2005 Crap! Sorry to hear that. Swimmer, I've failed you master. Aggr3, I suppose you don't have a boot disk, do you? You could FDISK from a win98 boot disk. I suppose you could do the same from DOS, if you could get there. But you don't want to beat a dead horse either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swimmer Posted February 20, 2005 CID Share Posted February 20, 2005 you might have to reformat in the dos command prompt.. with fdisk... which is a pain.. 300mhz would not be recommended for windows xp.. unless you have like 256mb of ram in the laptop.. the you will be running the os from the disk cache.. Which is no fun! Windows 2000 might run faster once it is loaded.. it was really never intended to be shut down.. It was made to be stable one it was up and running.. there for it takes for ever to boot which is ok.. I still personally think that 2000 pro is more stable than xp.. and it might even be more secure.. Stank Ho..You tried.. you cant get everyone right on the first try! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VanBuren Posted February 21, 2005 CID Share Posted February 21, 2005 i would run Win 98 SE on that system, but do not install IE 6 that is dern buggy with win 98 VanBuren Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aggr3 Posted February 21, 2005 Author CID Share Posted February 21, 2005 Okay.....the laptop saga continues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wingzero2309 Posted February 21, 2005 CID Share Posted February 21, 2005 hey, that error that you are getting, i remember getting it on my old computer when I tried to reformat it (it was win98, and was FAT32). It kept giving me that error and since it wasnt working, i decided to format it to NTFS, and it formatted correctly that way. Maybe it will work for u if u format it to a different kind of file system too. just my 2 cents Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VanBuren Posted February 21, 2005 CID Share Posted February 21, 2005 hey, that error that you are getting, i remember getting it on my old computer when I tried to reformat it (it was win98, and was FAT32). It kept giving me that error and since it wasnt working, i decided to format it to NTFS, and it formatted correctly that way. Maybe it will work for u if u format it to a different kind of file system too. just my 2 cents correct me if im wrong, but windows 98 cant read NTFS, i know i had that problem when running dual boot with 98 and XP VanBuren Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aggr3 Posted February 21, 2005 Author CID Share Posted February 21, 2005 OK Van...the HD failed to format......sooooo..I tried fdisk command....now I'm hung up in this partitioning crap that I don't understand. It's 6gig and is not partitioned now...so I tried to do the logical answers.....I thought....runs me right back to where it started....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ROGMAN Posted February 21, 2005 CID Share Posted February 21, 2005 windows 98 cant operate under ntfs system. Has to be fat 32. Finding a windows 98 disk is like trying to find a needll in a haystack. If you cant find your 98 disc, then you may have to get a new laptop with xp on it. ( personial opinion is they should take all the windows 98 disc and burn em ) Worse operating system i ever saw. Was suppose to be upgrade from 95, what a joke. Oh well guess ill get off my soapbox here and wish ya luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aggr3 Posted February 21, 2005 Author CID Share Posted February 21, 2005 Okay. Here are my options when using FDisk. I must be doing something wrong (imagine that) because I am definitely going in circles here. After typing FDisk at the c prompt this is what I have: Current Fixed disk drive: 1 Choose 1 of following: 1) Create DOS partition or logical DOS drive 2) Set active partition 3) Delete partition or logica DOS drive 4) Display When I choose option 4 this is what is displayed: Partition Status Type Volume Label Mbytes System Usage C:1 A PriDOS 6189 FAT32 100% Total disk space is 6189 Mbytes. Which of the above options should I be choosing? How do I get out of this loop? Sorry if I get repetitious here, but I'd just like to get to the point that I can choose which operating system to use. I have Win 98 & 2000, but at this point both are totally useless to me because I am unable to load either one. Keeps telling me to run scandisk from Windows or from the CD, but it won't do that either. 'Bout ready to have a laptop bonfire! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stank_Ho Posted February 21, 2005 CID Share Posted February 21, 2005 I would do option 3 myself. Thats the only way to truely start to reformat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swimmer Posted February 21, 2005 CID Share Posted February 21, 2005 I have done this once.. i normally use Partition magic.. here is some good info.. http://www.computing.net/howto/advanced/ When I did this it scared the crap out of me.. it is basic and you can really mess something up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VanBuren Posted February 21, 2005 CID Share Posted February 21, 2005 I would do option 3 myself. Thats the only way to truely start to reformat. ill second that, after that run windows cd and windows will make you a new partition and format it VanBuren Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.