my03 wrote on 2023-12-08, 21:19:Hi, […]
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Hi,
i recently got hold of this model (its a dx4/100 w. 720MB hdd) and i could not get into any kind of bios on this thing (from what i've seen, F10 is required as soon as the cursor blinks on the top-right hand side of the screen, something it never does on this unit). I also now know that the bios is essentially replaced with some hidden partition software that supposedly boots up with F10 (i don't think i have this for reasons depicted later in this text).
So i googled around a bit and found the two diagnostic floppy images for these machines and wrote them to a pair of disks. When i now boot using the primary floppy, it tells me that i don't have any diagnostic partition available which is surprising as (from googling it again) this machine needs to have one in order to even boot up (??). If this is the case, its truly odd.
My goal here is to replace the mechanical drive with a CF/IDE one, but i'm not sure how large HDDs this machine can detect without having to resort to overlay-software (anyone knows?).
Which diagnostic SoftPaq disk set are you trying (your SP nos may vary depending on which version you downloaded)...
...Diagnostics/SETUP (SP1363) - https://ftp.zx.net.nz/pub/archive/ftp.hp.com/ … 1500/sp1363.exe
...Diagnostics/TEST (SP1456) - https://ftp.zx.net.nz/pub/archive/ftp.hp.com/ … 1500/sp1456.exe
Suppose another possibility, though not sure it applies here, is partitions do exist but have become corrupted...if it applies, maybe you could try this fix - https://ftp.zx.net.nz/pub/archive/ftp.hp.com/ … 1500/sp1454.exe
"Softpaq: SP1454
File Name: FIXPART.EXE
Title: Fix Partition Utility to Restore Primary Partition
Version: N/A
CATEGORY: Drivers / Miscellaneous
EFFECTIVE DATE: 15 December, 1995
PRODUCTS AFFECTED: Any Compaq product with a serial number range between x502xxxxxxxx and x547xxxxxxxx, except the Presario 7100 Family and the LTE 5000 Family
OPERATING SYSTEM: DOS 6.2 or Windows95
SYSTEM CONFIGURATION: DOS 6.2, DOS 6.2/Windows 3.1x or Windows 95
SUPERSEDES: None
DESCRIPTION: In rare instances on the above-referenced Compaq products, upgrading a hard drive system partition may result in the loss of the primary partition. The error "Missing Operating System" may appear upon rebooting after a system partition update.
- Use FIXPART.EXE (this SoftPaq) to recover from this error.
- To prevent the error on Compaq PC (non-server) products, obtain Compaq PC Diagnostics/TEST, Ver. 10.07 Rev B or higher (SoftPaq SP1456).
- To prevent the error on Compaq server products, obtain Compaq System Configuration Utility, Ver. 2.29 Rev C or higher (SoftPaq available in late-December 1995)
The FIXPART.EXE utility updates a corrupted file allocation table (FAT) using the backup copy of the FAT stored on the hard drive. The Operating System files are also replaced with the appropriate set of files for DOS 6.2 or Windows 95 systems. The utility will not correct partition information for units running Windows NT, OS/2, UNIX, or any other non-DOS operating system. Third-party utilities may be available to restore those operating systems; however, no third-party solution is either endorsed or supported by Compaq."