Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!mcsun!cernvax!chx400!ugun2b!ugsc2a!fisher
From: fisher@sc2a.unige.ch (Markus Fischer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: error message when booting my computer
Message-ID: <230@sc2a.unige.ch>
Date: 16 Aug 90 13:00:40 GMT
References: <9011@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu>
Followup-To: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc,comp.sys.ibm.ps2.hardware
Organization: University of Geneva, Switzerland
Lines: 63

In article <9011@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu>, ghee@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Ghee Keong Lim) writes:
> Yesterday, when I tried to boot my ps/2 model 30, which has a 20 
> megabyte harddisk, I kept receiving this message:
>         01024 KB OK
>            163

On AT class machines, the error 163 is "Time and date not set-(Run SETUP)";
unless they changed everything on ps/2, this could be the problem.  Anyways,
the internal start-up routine complains about something.

>  and then function keys 1 to 10 appears on the bottom of the 
> screen, and the F1 key was blinking all the time.  

Again, don't know about ps/2's, but this looks very much like the resident
BASIC that is run from BIOS on AT's.  (When you say that the function keys
appear on the bottom of the screen, you certainly mean to say that a *menu*
is displayed, right?)  This happens when the computer can't find a bootable
disk...

You should try booting from the SETUP disk (DIAGNOSTIC, or whatever it's
called), that came with the computer.

> Does anybody knows what is the problem with my computer and 
> how to fix it? (Please pardon me for my ignorance.)
> 
> In addition, when I use the chkdsk function to check my harddisk, 

Does this mean you boot from diskette, or do you have a way aroud the
"blinking F1" situation?

> the following message appears: 
> 	2 lost allocation units found in 2 chains
>         Convert lost chains to files (Y/N)?
> What does this means???

Here at least I can answer with some confidence:  For some reason (usually
an "illigal"  exit of a program), the FAT (file allocation table) does not
agree with the directory information any more.  Specifically, this means that
the FAT has tagged two "allocation units" (clusters) as being in use by a
file, but when CHKDSK scans all directory information, it doesn't find any
directory entry (or any file, if you like) pointing to that "allocation unit".

In the present situation, this is exactly as if you had two "bad clusters" on
your disk, i.e. you can't read the data stored there, nor can you use the
space for another file.  CHKDSK can easily recover from this problem, when
you run it with the "/F" switch.  Basically, there are two solutions: (1)
modify the FAT to free the space for later use, or (2) create a file pointing
to that "allocation unit".  This is the meaning of  the "Convert ... (Y/N)"
prompt.  The files you might want to create (to inspect the content) will
be placed in root directory, and named "FILE####.CHK" (#### starting at 0000).

> 
> Please help me.  Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated. :)

Hope this helps some

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