Computer won't boot.

[BlindApex]

hey, a friend of mine asked me to try and fix his computer. he doesnt know much about computers, so i had a hard time trying to figure out what the actual problem was.

what i think he meant is that he recently got a new hard drive. i checked the case and there's only one, so he probably got rid of the old one.

he gave a bunch of boot disks. 2 floppys, "startup disk" and "boot disk". then two cd's with windows 98 SE.

i start up the computer several times, trying the different disks. It does POST, and the BIOS looks fine. the startup floppy takes me to some windows 98 setup screen, and tells me that i may need to partition the hard drive, then it just goes to the DOS screen and shows A: (I'm about to check the floppies on another computer to see whats on them) the "boot" disk does nothing. i just get the DOS screen with the flashing underscore.

The CD's do nothing. So what I'm wondering, is if there even is an OS installed on the hard drive. Like I said, i cant really get much information out of him. Any ideas? I'm not the greatest at this stuff either, so tell me if you need any more info.

Specs:

Intel Pentium 233 MHz
64 MB Ram
Hard drive...its a mess in the case so I don't want to take it out and check the size

*EDIT

The Boot floppy contains these files:

ASPI2DOS
ASPI4DOS
ASPI8DOS
ASPI 8U2
ASPICD
BTCDROM
BTDOSM
EBD
EXTRACT
FDISK
FINDCD
FLASHPT
FORMAT
HIMEM
MOUSE
MOUSE (driver)
MOUSE (config)
MSCDEX

The Startup floppy contains:

File -Function
Aspi2dos.sys -Real-Mode Adaptec CD-ROM driver
Aspi4dos.sys -Real-Mode Adaptec CD-ROM driver
Aspi8dos.sys -Real-Mode Adaptec CD-ROM driver
Aspi8u2.sys -Real-Mode Adaptec CD-ROM driver
Aspicd.sys -Real-Mode Adaptec CD-ROM driver
Autoexec.bat -Startup batch file
Btcdrom.sys -Mylex/BusLogic CD-ROM driver
Btdosm.sys -Mylex/BusLogic CD-ROM driver
Command.com -Command interpreter
Config.sys -Loads the device drivers
Drvspace.bin -Microsoft DriveSpace compression driver
Ebd.cab -Cab file containing extract utilities
Ebd.sys -File identifying the ESD
Extract.exe -File to expand the Ebd.cab file
Fdisk.exe Disk partition tool
Findramd.exe -Utility to find the RAMDrive during startup
Flashpt.sys -Mylex/BusLogic CD-ROM driver
Himem.sys -XMS Memory Manager
Io.sys -System boot file
Msdos.sys -Boot option information (paths, multiboot, and so on)
Oakcdrom.sys -Generic device driver for ATAPI CD-ROM drives
Ramdrive.sys -Creates a Ramdrive during startup
Setramd.bat -Searches for first available drive to be a Ramdrive



Dont know if this helps...any ideas?

 

[hilowe]

What happens if you don't boot up with any disks in the drives? BIOS will probably come back saying can't find OS, so I'm going to go off of that. Since the setup disks are saying that you may have to partition the hard drive, you'll probably have to use fdisk and format. After that, 98 should install, if that's what your friend wants.

 

[fiezk]

Change the setting in the bios so that it boots from CD first. Then try the Win98 CD's.

 

[hilowe]

Didn't read close enough. Thought you said setup disk, not setup floppy. Try what fiezk is suggesting.