Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!pallas!kabra437
From: kabra437@pallas.athenanet.com (Ken Abrams)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: Can't boot off my hard drive
Message-ID: <420@pallas.athenanet.com>
Date: 27 Sep 90 21:46:48 GMT
References: <6985@brspyr1.BRS.Com> <1140.2700dc30@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com>
Reply-To: kabra437@pallas.UUCP (Ken Abrams)
Distribution: na
Organization: Athenanet, Inc.,  Springfield, Illinois
Lines: 25

In article <1140.2700dc30@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com> browns@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com (Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems) writes:
>In article <6985@brspyr1.BRS.Com>, jillj@brspyr1.BRS.Com (Jill Jacomine) writes:
>diskette (write protected, of course) in drive A: and boot your system. 
>Then type the command
>     SYS C:
>(I assume C: is the hard disk you're talking about.)  Then remove the
>diskette and boot again.  You should be okay.
> 
In many cases, SYS C: won't "take" except to a virgin drive.
I don't know exactly why this happens and I don't care since Nortons
will overcome the problem and apply a new boot block, system files, etc.
I have used it several times for this purpose in exactly the situation
that the original poster described (won't boot but all files appear OK).
My recommendation is to low-level format it after the fix is applied.
Loss of a boot block or system files indicates a possible time bomb 
waiting to go off.  Spinrite or Optune works well for this purpose
without requiring backup and restore.
Regardless of what the user tries, a complete backup would be in
order FIRST.

-- 
========================================================
Ken Abrams                     uunet!pallas!kabra437
Illinois Bell                  kabra437@athenanet.com
Springfield                    (voice) 217-753-7965