OK! So I finally got it to work. Thanks for all the help guys. Here is what I think happened.
- I had a working computer with Win98 (original).
- I tried to install Win98 SE by booting from the Win98 Boot Disk
with the CDROM in the drive.
- It went through the boot sequence. I chose the "Install Win98 from CDROM" (or something similar) option.
- It checked the system and then asked me to reboot.
- Now the system would boot and then give the message
"TYPE A KEY TO REBOOT"
I think that in the process of setting up the system, the Win98SE installation must have tried to muck with the HD. In the process somehow the HD lost its format information. Now the BIOS could not read of the HD and went into the boot loop. I had the BIOS set to C,CDROM,A but somehow it only tried to boot off of C eventhough A had a boot diskette.
Here is what I did. I changed the BIOS boot sequence to A,CDROM,SCSI. That is the only way the BIOS would let me boot from A:
Although the HD was detected by the bios, when I went to C: I would get the prompt
C:>
but if I typed dir or anyother command, I got the
"Invalid Media Type reading drive C:" error.
(I wonder if this has to do with the FAT32/FAT16 etc.)
- Used an MSDOS boot diskette which had the CDROM driver to boot.
- Ran this command:
fdisk /mbr
- Then formatted the HD:
format C:
- went to E: (CDROM drive) and typed
setup
The Win98SE installation went all the way and I am back with a working computer with the OS change I wanted. I just lost all the files on the drive as I had to format it. Oh Well!
