-=> JAMES BRADLEY wrote to MARTIN ATKINS <=-

JB> MARTIN ATKINS wrote to TOM WALKER, "Win98FE Harddrivicide?"

JB> Who here remembers the origin of this thread?

JB> You'll never guess, but I formated my C: partition this morning, was
JB> shoving W98FE into it, and when it went to the reboot... NO FRIGGIN'
JB> DRIVE! 

Sounds like it is most certainly hardware. :(

JB> The same seemed to have happen to my master on the same bus, so

C: _is_ or should be master. I hope that's just a typo and you haven't
got the master position on the ribbon jumped slave. =:)

JB> I'm suspecting: A) Controller is being funky. (Possible.) 

It could also be a flaky connection to the mother board.

JB> B) MBR getting messed up. (I guess so.) 

This is looking less likely but without knowing if or what other
partitions are on the same disk it is difficult to make an educated 
guess.

JB> C) W98 is releasing a time bomb. (Even I don't think so.) 

You could have tested it by installing a minimal DOS on it first
(if that was possible). That would have ruled out a corrupt medium.

JB> D) A Trojan got through two years ago.

Very unlikely. Again though i am blind to what you where doing before
things went pear shaped. 

JB> What I'm suspecting right now, is A) Controller/Cable issues. The BIOS
JB> doesn't even see them, so how could it be anything but? The first
JB> victim is a 1.something G Seagate, and this slave drive is a 8.4 G
JB> Bigfoot. (Seagate too?)

I think (as you suggested in another post) that you need to remove all
disks off the IDE 0 ribbon and put your master disk on IDE 1. Does your
system have the capability of booting from IDE 1?

JB> This is only a hobby. This is only a hobby. I don't think we're in
JB> Kansas any more, Toto... Hang on a minute!

Hobby or not it is still annoying for you not to be able to figure
out what's going on. 

JB> Arrr!!! Film at eleven.

 Watch the film and get a good nights sleep. It often helps
to put things down and walk away. Clear the head and go back to the
problem when you feel refreshed. I tired and irritable person is
not the best one to solve a problem.

L8r. :)
 
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