old PC. with no orginal software HELP

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Stormy
old PC. with no orginal software HELP

I have a friend with a really old pc,running win.98 & no orginal software.I've tried fdisk & I've tried to reinstall win.98 to no avail.Windows won't even start it says it has a paragon boot virus,and everything is running in ms-dos mode to boot.It's a no name brand computer & upon checking for a web site I've learned the company was bought out long ago,and the info on the new site doesn't go back far enough to help any.What I need help in is can anyone tell me how to wipe it clean & re-install win.98,cause the fdisk doesn't work & with no orginal software I'm at a loss.Any help will be greatly appreciated or even if someone could tell me where to go to get a generic re-format disk,I've searched & I can't find any such thing.Someone PLEASE HELP!!!

Tie Guy
I'd recommend determining the

I'd recommend determining the manufacturer of the hard drive and download their utility program. There should be an option to zero fill the drive back to a fresh state. Also, you may want to download and install the latest BIOS for your motherboard.

marineman
Hard drives are pretty cheap

Hard drives are pretty cheap these days. Why not just buy a new drive?

Tie Guy
He's got a point. New hard

He's got a point. New hard-drives are cheap, but I still don't think it would hurt to restore the old one first. Keep in mind that the issue still could be in the BIOS, so I'd also try that before buying a new drive.

GlenJohnson
http://home.pacbell.net

http://home.pacbell.net/dbk4297/fdiskformat.html
Cut and paste into a url and follow these instructions from a working pc.

kristi marco
JUST HOW OLD??I HAVE SOME

JUST HOW OLD??I HAVE SOME ORIGINAL SOFTWARE SETS YOU CAN HAVE LIKE IBM APTIVA-OR GATEWAY 2000.WHAT I HAVE DONE IN THESE SITUATIONS IS GRAB ANOTHER HARD DRIVE(OR HOOK IT UP TO A DIFFERENT COMPUTER)CHANGE THE JUMPER SETTING ON THE PROBLEM DRIVE TO SLAVE.IT WILL BOOT OFF THE DIFFERENT HD.THEN YOU CAN BOSS AROUND THE "SLAVE DRIVE"AS MUCH AS YOU WANT TO FORMAT IT.THEN YOU JUST RESET THE JUMPERS ONE THE NOW "GOOD" HD.DON'T FORGET TO RUN A SCAN DISKAND SURFACE SCANALSO YOU REALLY SHOULD RUN AN ANTI-VIRUS PROGRAM BEFORE YOU INSTALL AN OPERATING SYSTEM.

 

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