BOOT Problems.

[lesbentley]

I installed ME on someones PC, Seemed to work OK for a while. Now when I try to boot get error message

" “Pri Master HDD Error”, a string
51-0505-001437-00111111-071595-M1531/43-001_10_-H
appeares at the bottom of the screen."

If I soft boot CTRL-ALT-DEL, from this point, it will boot into ME, after 3 repertitions of the message
"Searching boot record from floppy..not found
Searching boot record from IDE-0..OK"

If I now restart ME from the shutdown menue it will restart, after 3 repertitions of above message, but if I shut down and power off I am back to “Pri Master HDD Error”.

Spec:
Boot screen says;
AMIBIOS...11/26/97 S
Main Processor :Cx6x86 PR166+
Processor Clock :133MHz
Pri Master : 02.02.01 ST3850A
Pri Slave :F0INA10 H3342-A4
Sec Master :104 CRD-8240B

Other info;
RAM=32MB
BIOS ver=AMI 0505 15.07.95
chipset ALI M1531 TXpro,
Drive C: initally formated under win98 and the DOS system files installed,
"ver" command now reports ME version 4.90.3000,
Drive C: is aprox 850MB,
Drive D: 342MB,
CDROM installed,

I've been up all night trying to sort this,I can't understand what is going on, please help!

Regards, Les.

[Votan]

First, your RAM and HD capacity are too small to handle ME. This could be one thing you should consider.

Another thing, check the cable of the drive if they are firmly inserted.

Now, how did you inastall ME, clean install or atop of the existing one? If it wasn't clean install, try to do it that way and, considering your HD capacity, I would remove the partition D. Your HD is not too large, you should be able to back up your files on floppies, zip them first, then reformat the drive before you install the whole thing.

[Dante]

Its sounds like the uninstall/install of the OS wasn't clean. Its still searching for an OS that isn't there. Why did you install WinMe on a pentium?

[lesbentley]

Votan, cables checked, first install was over the top, then I tryed it clean (no FDISK, FORMAT C:/S/Q from a win98 boot disk). D: is NOT a partition it is a physical drive.

Dante, I didn't want ME on it, it's someone elces PC, I havent even met the person and don't know why he wants ME. I would point out that the error message “Pri Master HDD Error” occurs on the initial screen before the operating system has booted!!!

[lesbentley]

Votan, cables checked, first install was over the top, then I tryed it clean (no FDISK, FORMAT C:/S/Q from a win98 boot disk). D: is NOT a partition it is a physical drive.

Dante, I didn't want ME on it, it's someone elces PC, I havent even met the person and don't know why he wants ME. I would point out that the error message “Pri Master HDD Error” occurs on the initial screen before the operating system has booted!!!

[Ya_know]

I recomend that you load 95 or 98, call the customer and tell him that this system isn't going to perform well under ME and call it a day. Here are the minimum requirements from MS. As we all know,

Pentium 150MHz processor or better
32MB of RAM or better
480MB to 645MB free hard-disk space

Keep this site handy, and print out the minimums from MS for ME to give to the customer.
<a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windowsME/upgrade/sysrequire.asp" target="_blank">ME system requirements</a>

Remember that the customer can't always be right!

[Votan]

The C drive should be fine if you do not have much of sofware installed. You might need to desable the RESTORE function. The restore alone takes more than a gig.

The D drive, I presume it is a salve, is likely the culprit. Try booting without it.

It would be less frustrating if you FDISK the HD with one partition.

[apd183]

Is looks like most of the error messages are occuring during the bios startup. If checking the cables and taking off the slave drive dosen't work, take a look at the bios settings for the drive. If those are correct, then the drive may be bad, or getting there; if it is set on auto, try manually configuring the drive.

Also disable the system restore function. I read somewhere that it will keep on creating backup images until the drive is full. That could be a problem.

Hope this helps.

[Votan]

<font face="Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Geneva" size="2">
Also disable the system restore function. I read somewhere that it will keep on creating backup images until the drive is full. That could be a problem...[/B]</font>

You have the option to limit the size of RESTOR on the disk, It doesn't make a sense to make it less than 1 gig.