crashed windows 98. want to fix

[themadhacker]

Ok I just recieved a free crashed windows 98 and a crashed windows NT.
I would like to fix the 98. All it does when I turn it on is a black screen with the words "operating system not found". I would like to fix this just for the hell of it, so If anyone has any advice, or knows how to fix this please post it. I will say what's wrong with the windows NT later.

[Aguiluz]

Does the sticker with the product key still on?

[bicostp]

All it does when I turn it on is a black screen with the words "operating system not found".

That's a BIOS message. There are several possible problems (listed here in level of probability):

1. Hard drive crapped the bed
2. The partition table crapped the bed.
3. The boot loader crapped the bed
4. Catastrophic hardware failure (dead IDE controller, etc)
5. Critical OS files are missing or damaged
...
99,999. Someone previously worked on it and forgot to plug the hard drive's IDE cable back in

Boot it off a DOS boot floppy (I like bootdisk.com) and try getting on the C drive. If this works, you have problem 3. If not, you have problem 1 or 2. If it does work, hurray. If not, oh well. 98 was junk anyway. (But still nothing compared to the steaming turd that is Windows ME.)

I say don't waste your time.

[nitro2k01]

"Operating System Not Found" 99% of the times means the MBR is damaged. Boot a floppy or Windows 9x CD and give the command
fdisk /mbr
When booting a CD choose to boot with or without CD support. (Don't remember exactly how the menu looks, but you should end up at a DOS prompt)
That should fix it.
Windows 2000/XP CD's can do a similar thing to fix the MBR.

[tom61]

Check the IDE cable anyway, those sometimes work loose, even if no-one has messed with it. It'd probably would be a good idea to clean out the case for as long as that much has been in service, to make sure the fans won't clog up with years of dust build-up.

[Tibia]

I don't mean to hijack, but I have a similar issue.

I don't care what Windows I get running, I just want this thing working again. If I've taken the hdd out and used a USB/hdd adapter and I still can't access the drive, is that what's killing the laptop? Will a new hdd solve my issue?

[bicostp]

@Tibia: Yes, your hard drive's dead.

[themadhacker]

Well, it was the had drive. I put in a working hard drive from my other broken windows 98, and it worked.....sort of. Now when i go on, everything is in 16 color mode. I tried to play a game, but it said " needs 256 color mode". I went to change the settings, but the only option other that 16 color is 2 color. So what do I do? do I need a better graphics card?

[bicostp]

You just need to install the drivers for the graphics card in that computer.

Figure out what the card is and go driver hunting.