Usually hitting F12 during startup will allow you to boot from CD (or on some systems choose what you want to boot from). I usually start tapping it right when it finishes the memory test and is detecting the hard drives. Hit it once or twice or three times - not a big deal.
I agree with David on this. It's quite possible that your drive is fine. If you don't care about the contents, then I would try to reload the OS. If upon trying to reload you have problems/see errors, then you might consider going with the replacement drive. As for the size of the drives, David already mentioned that increasing the capacity doesn't increase the physical size. In fact, after giving you the link to NewEgg.com, I found a nice 750GB drive. Hmmmmm.... ;) Todd -----Original Message----- From: PBC Web Design [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, January 04, 2008 11:12 AM To: wdvltalk@lists.wdvl.com Subject: Re: [wdvltalk] OT: is this a good price on a hard drive? At 10:40 AM 1/4/2008, you wrote: >Are you sure that the drive in the old machine is dead, though? The >"Missing Operating System" error doesn't necessarily mean that the hard >drive is dead, it could just be that the bootloader has been wiped (by a >virus, for example). > >When you tried booting from the recovery CD / Windows CD, you may have >to press a key at the appropriate time to boot from CD, or you may need >to enter the BIOS setup utility and configure it to boot from the CD >before attempting to boot from the hard drive. No, I'm not absolutely positive but I thought that's what it meant. I tried F8 to try to get into Safe Mode, no luck. Tried that both w/the recovery cd and the Win98 cd. She does think this was caused by a virus. Any idea what key I'd press? If I can get in what do I do then to find out about the bootloader? Does that just mean it switched on how it loads? ÷÷÷ ÷÷÷ ÷÷÷÷÷ ÷÷÷ ÷÷÷÷ Deb Designer @ Digital Mouse Designs com ____ The WDVL Discussion List from WDVL.COM ____ To Join wdvltalk, Send An Email To: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] or use the web interface http://e-newsletters.internet.com/discussionlists.html/ Send Your Posts To: wdvltalk@lists.wdvl.com To change subscription settings, add a password or view the web interface: http://intm-dl.sparklist.com/read/?forum=wdvltalk ________________ http://www.wdvl.com _______________________ You are currently subscribed to wdvltalk as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe via postal mail, please contact us at: Jupitermedia Corp. Attn: Discussion List Management 475 Park Avenue South New York, NY 10016 Please include the email address which you have been contacted with.