Computer Hope

Greetings!

A few years ago i bought this old timer at a garage sale just for kicks. It has a 486 thats at 66Mhz, 24mb of Ram and a 400mb hard drive. It booted Windows 3.1. I wanted to have some fun with it but i dont want to disturb the original Compaq install thats STILL on this machine.

I want to get windows 98 SE and 2000 on here jsut for fun. Now YES i know 2000 is gonna make this old timer work HARD. But i want to try it. I know the record is a 25Mhz 386?

Anyways. Ive placed a 3Gb Fujitsu hard drive that i know works. But when i plugged it in all that happens is the machine does it ram test and the cursor sits there. I realize i need to make a boot floppy, but it wont even boot my windows 98 SE floppy. I will be putting more RAM into it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

A machine that old will have trouble with a newer hard drive.
That machine will work find on a 500  MB drive. Right, Megabyte, not Gigabyte.
Did you prepare the hard drive on another computer?
If not, try this:
Remove all partitions on the hard drive.
Format a single partition with less than 2 GB and make it active.
Make sure the drive is set to master.

Thanks for the quick reply. Gosh i do not have a smaller drive then 2Gb.
Also just for kicks i placed the original hard drive back in. Odly it began to click. After a restart it booted fine and i discovered the floppy drive isnt working. Any tips on cleaning that? or just replace it?

Years ago I used to repair floppy drives. It is a hit and miss thing.
You might have to find a good used floppy  drive.

Older BIOS had a definition for hard drive structure that does not work for large drives. So you have to format it for some value under 2 GB.

Checking on eBay, that computer is not worth keeping.
Unless you hate somebody.
Give it to your rival and taught him with "You can't fix it!" 

That model usually came with a 270MB Drive, or thereabouts. The System dates to around 1994, which means it may be limited to a maximum HDD size of 528MB. However as the workarounds that changed the limit to 2.1GB up through 1996 were introduced in 1994 it's possible it could accept a larger Drive. 3GB is pretty certain to exceed the BIOS capabilities, however. FRor what you're doing a CompactFlash Adapter would work pretty well. You can get 512MB or 256MB CF cards dirt cheap or even in bulk, and swap them into an adapter fairly easily.

Getting Windows 2000 on a 486 may require some workarounds (disabling L2 cache, etc.) depending on the system. Look forward to waiting around 2 to 3 hours for it to complete the initial "Copying files" steps, as well.

Quote from: Geek-9pm on August 21, 2016, 04:57:35 PM
Years ago I used to repair floppy drives. It is a hit and miss thing.
You might have to find a good used floppy  drive.

Older BIOS had a definition for hard drive structure that does not work for large drives. So you have to format it for some value under 2 GB.

Checking on eBay, that computer is not worth keeping.
Unless you hate somebody.
Give it to your rival and taught him with "You can't fix it!" 

I have a few extra floppy drives lying around. Its more to keep the front face plate on the unit as this machine (believe it or not) is still white and looks almost mint. Its more just for fun and games i wish to do this. i realize its an older machine but despite hating Compaq's today, i like this machine. 

Quote from: BC_Programmer on August 21, 2016, 07:25:12 PM
That model usually came with a 270MB Drive, or thereabouts. The System dates to around 1994, which means it may be limited to a maximum HDD size of 528MB. However as the workarounds that changed the limit to 2.1GB up through 1996 were introduced in 1994 it's possible it could accept a larger Drive. 3GB is pretty certain to exceed the BIOS capabilities, however. FRor what you're doing a CompactFlash Adapter would work pretty well. You can get 512MB or 256MB CF cards dirt cheap or even in bulk, and swap them into an adapter fairly easily.

Getting Windows 2000 on a 486 may require some workarounds (disabling L2 cache, etc.) depending on the system. Look forward to waiting around 2 to 3 hours for it to complete the initial "Copying files" steps, as well.

This one has a 4XX i write XX beacuse i know its 400mb and something. its an old caviar and it appears to be the original Drive. As it has all the compaq extras including its specs, additional tools and even built in diagnostics.

I saw someone put 2K on a 25Mhz machine and thought it'd be interesting. Im thinking maybe try windows 98 SE on it. Id rather not spend any $$ on it. I know i have a 2Gb Caviar somewhere. I have a 500mb from a Performa but i dont want to erase Mac OS 7.5.5 thats on it

Microsoft still wants you to have a COA for any of its products.
For experimentation, you do better using nearly version of Linux. Many Linux users are also attracted to older machines. early versions of Linux work great on old machines.
http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/software/operating-systems/1404547/top-5-lightweight-linux-distros-for-older-pcs

QuoteDon't throw away your old PC just yet - give it a new lease of life with a lightweight Linux distro

Worth a try.
EDIT: CompactFlash to IDE
http://lowendmac.com/2015/the-lowdown-on-using-compactflash-to-replace-an-ide-hard-drive/
Easy way to get fast, cheap 2GB drive for old PC.

Quote from: Geek-9pm on August 22, 2016, 05:07:22 PM
Microsoft still wants you to have a COA for any of its products.
For experimentation, you do better using nearly version of Linux. Many Linux users are also attracted to older machines. early versions of Linux work great on old machines.
http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/software/operating-systems/1404547/top-5-lightweight-linux-distros-for-older-pcsWorth a try.
EDIT: CompactFlash to IDE
http://lowendmac.com/2015/the-lowdown-on-using-compactflash-to-replace-an-ide-hard-drive/
Easy way to get fast, cheap 2GB drive for old PC.

Wont a CF card go bad due to the read/write that say windows 95/98 needs? Ive heard there was a way to limit this but im no where that savvy in the registry. Granted i can find my way around it.

As for COA, i never claimed doing anything without it. I have a legit COA's for all the operating systems i plan to run, in this situation ie (2k MAYBE) 98SE, 95.

Quote
Wont a CF card go bad due to the read/write that say windows 95/98 needs?

Eventually, but I doubt they'd have a shorter lifespan than any actual HDD you could find for it; And they tend to be much cheaper and you can easily interface them with a modern system (eg CF Card adapters/Media front panels)