Hi all again, I have an old computer, actually a friend said I i could fix it up I could just kepe it. He appearently used some sore of nuke boot to clear his HD which had windows ME on it origionally, and took all the parts out. I reassembeled it and got it up to the BIOS at which point it asks for a floppy boot disc, I want to put linux on this old comp, but a floppy? so what i ended up doing wa inserting an old win 98 bootdisk into the floppy drive to get the CD drive to work, the options are to start from CD drive and continue with start up or go without CD drive assistance. So i start up with CD drive and it tells me I need to partition the system, and when I enter the DOS command FDISK (which the computer tells me is the command to make a partition) a notice comes up stateing "The disc does not need to be fixed" or something to that effect. What's the deal? I iknow I'm not very tech oriented but any help and I'd appreciate it. I hope this is the right place to ask.

I don't know the specific answer to your problem, but have you considered maybe using a 'nix boot disk to reformat the drive?

Check the BIOS on the computer. See if it will allow for CD booting. If it does then you can just use a Linux Install CD to reformat and partition the Drive when it installs. If it doesnt you will need a Floppy boot disk. Whatever distro your using will most likely have one for downloading. What distro are you going to use?

I was thinking ubuntu.

EDIT: No it will not boot from CD, and I found a Windows ME boot disc, I figured this could do the trcick but everytime I enter the command "Fdisk" I get a reply "No disks to be fixed" (something simmilar)

How about "format c:\"?

I attempted the format command with different parameters but it says "unable to format"]

EDIT I was able to find the problem by using microsoft and searching. Here's what I ended up with.

Error Message When You Run ScanDisk or Fdisk: No Fixed Disks Present
View products that this article applies to.
Article ID : 309459
Last Review : January 31, 2007
Revision : 1.3
This article was previously published under Q309459
SYMPTOMS
When you attempt to run the MS-DOS command-line utility fdisk.exe, or when you run ScanDisk from within Windows, you may receive an error message similar to the following:
No fixed disks present.
NOTE: This error message may occur intermittently, and you may receive this error message even though your computer's hard disk is detected in the computer Power On Self Test (POST).


CAUSE
This behavior can occur because of any of the following hardware issues:
• The hard disk is defective or too hot.
• The jumper settings on the hard disk are incorrectly configured.
• The hard disk data cable is defective or too long.
• The hard disk controller is defective or incorrectly configured in the computer BIOS.

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RESOLUTION
To resolve this issue, contact your computer manufacturer to obtain a computer diagnostic program or further troubleshooting information.

For information about how to contact computer hardware manufacturers, click the appropriate article number in the following list to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
65416 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/65416/EN-US/) Hardware and Software Third-Party Vendor Contact List, A-K

60781 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/60781/EN-US/) Hardware and Software Third-Party Vendor Contact List, L-P

60782 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/60782/EN-US/) Hardware and Software Third-Party Vendor Contact List, Q-Z
Microsoft provides third-party contact information to help you find technical support. This contact information may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this third-party contact information.


APPLIES TO
• Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition
• Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition
• Microsoft Windows 98 Standard Edition
• Microsoft Windows 95

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Keywords:
kberrmsg kbprb KB309459

No Fixed Disks Present is substantially different than the error you reported in the first post, The disc does not need to be fixed" or something to that effect. Perhaps we would have been able to help you better with a proper error message?

I know I'm sorry see I only have one monitor, so By the time I try out the commands and come back I forget, and then I keep forgetting to write it down. I'm thinking that because the cmd prompt is showing A:> that I have to use the cd C: command

EDIT: nope changing to C: doesnt really help either, keep getting same error.

if you are in the A: drive (floppy) to get to the hard drive which is usually the c: drive you type "c:" that's "c colon" without the quotes not "cd c:" or you can type "dir c:" without the quotes to see if there is any thing on the hard drive.