I have an older machine that I put a new hard drive in about two months ago and installed a fresh version of Windows 98 SE. Initially it worked fine right after doing that, but I hadn't had it running since then and had it disconnected from the power supply. Now I TRIED starting it up and it won't boot up.

I get the following message instead:

Searching for Boot Record from CDROM...Not Found
Searching for Boot Record from Floppy…Not Found

200: Boot Failure
203: Insert BOOT Diskette in A:
Press any key when ready_ [flashing]

Any ideas what might be wrong, or more importantly, how I would go about fixing this?

[email protected]
Set the first boot device to HDD 0 in BIOS or remove floppies present in FDD (A:\)

Keeping a computer disconnected from the power grid may cause the CMOS battery to drain rapidly, resulting in default settings loaded upon reconnection.Jay:

Raptor is correct; your BIOS is looking for an operating system on a floppy disk and CD drive instead of searching for Windows on the hard drive.

Do you know how to change the boot order to boot to the hard drive first?

Let us know if you need assistance.

Regards,
DocThanks Doc, THANKS Raptor.

Nope - I have no idea how to change the boot order - so any assistance you guys can offer with that would be great.

I had already done a little reading on the internet, and it made me wonder if maybe having the CPU off power was the PROBLEM. Live and learn I guess.

Thanks guys.Jay:

OK, when you first start your computer, you may see something like the words, "Press X to enter setup" where X = the key you should press.  This key may be DEL or CTRL or F2 or something else.  

You will then see a text display (often blue with WHITE text) with instructions on how to navigate through the BIOS Setup options, make changes, and save changes.  Look for the area to change the boot order and make sure the hard drive is listed first.

Follow the instructions to save the changes and exit setup (often by pressing F10).  Your computer will restart and attempt to find the operating system files on the hard drive to start Windows 98.

Let us know how it goes,
Doc
Thanks Doc,

I've changed the BIOS boot up order like you suggested (it didn't save the changes the first time, but I've done it again and it saved it the second time) and the boot up order now has the HDD first.

Having SAID that, I'm still getting the same problem and the same error message.

Any ideas what might still be wrong.Remove any diskette present in the HDD whilst booting.

If there is no diskette present, go back into the BIOS and disable to option to read FDD regardless of boot order.Thanks Doc and Raptor.

Got it to work this morning. You guys are life savers. It's great to know that there is a community out there to "talk you in off the ledge" when you get out of your depth. I guess I'll know where to start next time......

Thanks again for everything!!!You're very welcome.