restarting a dinosaur

[LandyAndy]

Hi Guys
Wanting to try and get our old IBM win98 computer going to see if I can retrieve any photos on the harddrive before its thrown out.
When it starts I get the IBM screen then a black screen with a key icon in the top lhs of the monitor.It seems to want a 7 digit code.I have no record of any code we used when the computer was new.Its never shown this before.
Last time it was used it crashed and wouldnt do anything at all,at least now it seems it MAY want to play.
HELP please.
Thanks
Andrew

[Ferret]

I would try to just remove the drive, set the drive to 'slave', install it into a new computer and just read what you want from the drive.

This is assuming the drive itself was not the cause of the original crash

[LandyAndy]

Thanks Ferret
We only have a pair of laptops with XP and vista,so Im thinking its a touch harder than that for us.
Will see if a friend in town who knows a bit about computers is willing to give that a try that if we cant find another cure first.
I have done a bit of googling,sofar ESC and F8 dont work.
After 3 attempts it says "incorrect pasword specified system halted" or words to that effect.
Thanks
Andrew

[abaddonxi]

It's likely the bios battery has gone flat and the computer resets to defaults when you try to boot it up. If that is the case the code is probably a generic IBM one and you should be able to Google either the model of computer, or the model number of the motherboard and find out what the code is.

As mentioned above, probably easier to pull out the hard drive and put it in something else to get the pics.

[abaddonxi]

Oh, you've already done that.;)

[LandyAndy]

Havent removed the HDD yet.
Is the battery easy to replace,makes sense.A few of the Tait 2 ways in our work equipment all had their back up batteries fail recentley.
Thanks
Andrew

[Utemad]

Buy an empty USB drive caddy for $10 and read it that way.

How do you intend to copy the contents of the drive if you do get it started?
3.5in disk? The disk drive is probably stuffed but even if it worked how do you read the disk using your laptop? (unless your laptop still has a 3.5in drive).

[steveG]

Havent removed the HDD yet.
Is the battery easy to replace,makes sense.A few of the Tait 2 ways in our work equipment all had their back up batteries fail recentley.
Thanks
Andrew

The battery is usually just one of the flat silver ones like an oversize watch battery - CR2302 from memory. Usually just clip into a socket on the motherboard.

I reckon Utemad's suggestion is the way to go if you want to get data from it though.

steve

[Bigbjorn]

My god. You have almost new late model gear like that and can't remember how to use it. You may need to convert to it steam. Mind you, this could be a problem in WA as there is only s**t quality steaming coal mined over in the Hillbilly State. Try a banjo drive.

[Blknight.aus]

you can get usb-ide converters.

but why not just try a friend who has an IDE machine with a network port?

[clean32]

as all ready posted
no need to get a new battery, al though thay are cheep, all the battery will do i hold the settings like date time tye of HD etc etc so with out the battery you may just have to reset every thing each time you re boot. if you not going to keep it doint bother.

getting the password, crack the box and google the mother bord, but then why bother. and as posted you could have fun getting the picks on to sum sort of movable media.

just flick out the HD and change the jumpers to slave and plug it into your mates machine, or even just drop it off at any back yard computor shop

[loanrangie]

I'm guessing the hdd is of small capacity so a usb hdd case will be uneconomical, so slave it to another pc is best option.

[StephenF10]

Motherboards often have a pair of pins marked "Reset" or similar. Put a jumper across them when you boot up and the bios settings will be reset to default values and, with luck, the password may be wiped.

Stephen.

[clean32]

Motherboards often have a pair of pins marked "Reset" or similar. Put a jumper across them when you boot up and the bios settings will be reset to default values and, with luck, the password may be wiped.

Stephen.

if the motherboards battery is flat, then it has losed its settings and has reset to default

[LandyAndy]

Thanks for the tips guys.
The rest of the computer went up to the recycle shed at the tip today.Im going to remove the hard drive and see if a mate can get into it.We figure there isnt much on it anyway as when it started playing up I used a thumbdrive to shuffle files and save pics to CD.I bought my laptop soon after,so possibly 1 lot of Harvey pics on there,perhaps a camping trip.
Thanks
Andrew

[Mutley]

Buy an empty USB drive caddy for $10 and read it that way.

How do you intend to copy the contents of the drive if you do get it started?
3.5in disk? The disk drive is probably stuffed but even if it worked how do you read the disk using your laptop? (unless your laptop still has a 3.5in drive).


If this is the case - get a program called Spinrite from the internet - if anything will get the disk back, its that. Failing that its a very expensive fix to get the data back........

[HBWC]

i have a few it tecs in the family if you carnt get anything and they ow me a favor