Problems from reformatting

Edited text of question

Edited text of question

Hi,

      Reformatting your drive might of changed the drive letters around a bit.  Try different letters (i.e. C, D, etc.).  Or, make sure your Bios is setup to boot from the floppy drive and insert a dos or windows95 startup disk and reformat the drive using fdisk and format.

Problem  still exists.. Cannot access the A drive at all. Have a Packard Bell Recovery Disk, Windows Start Up Disk.. None of them work.. Almost like it does not reconize the A drive. Checked BIOS and A is a bootable drive. Still searching... Please help..

Make sure the connections to the floppy drive didn't become unplugged when you installed the hard drive.  Also, try changing out the floppy cable for a different one (it may have gotten pinched)

Silly question but was the A:drive working before you reformatted?  Also what sort of drive is your A drive?.

If you have the hardware or the inclination you could try swapping your A drive for another one or try your A drive on another machine.

My bet is it's a hardware problem and its coincidental to having the hard disk formatted. Semontgomery has a good point.

I did not just install the HD, it has been in for awhile. I was just cleaning out the HD.A drive was working before although it was acting a little strange. Maybe a Hardware problem. The Hard Drive partioned into two drives.. The "C" and "D".. I can access both of them.. When I put in the recovery disc and reboot it comes up to a blue Maxtor overlay banner and says if you want to boot from a floopy hit the space bar, but when I do I get the error "General Failure reading from Drive A" or I have even seen the error " Not ready reading from Drive A"  

Also if I try to do a "warm boot" without turning machine off, I get an error "drive not ready error, Insert Boot diskette in A" .. I was getting this error even before I reformatted thought. Is this a Boot Record problem.???

Try another KNOWN/VERIFIED system (bootable) disk.  

Verified Recovery Disk is ok.. "A" drive just won't read any floppy at all.

In BIOS Setup, which type of floppy set. AWARD BIOS allows you
to change type to anything you want: 360K, 720K, 1.2M, 1.44M, 2.88M.
Make sure that you have 1.44 set. Not sure about PackBells tho'.

  Ewilken,

  Is the floppy drive light coming on when it's trying to read? Is it coming on and staying on when you boot? Or not coming on at all? Your floppy drive problem is hardware related. Check drive, power and data cables, including orientation, then check BIOS settings. (Also ensure that the BIOS battery is not failing.)

  Once you get the floppy drive working, you should (if at all possible) remove the hard disk overlay, then  FDISK and reformat it. Holler back if you need help with any of this...
 

So, you were cleaning your HD. Is your floppy drive clean to be able to read and write? try replacing it with another drive, to check out where's the problem.

Your orginal question states that you are able to boot up from your hard drive, but when you try to access A:, you receive a "General Failure Reading Drive A.  If what you say here is true, there is nothing wrong with your hard drives boot record; unless the is a virus sitting in the master boot record of the hard drive.  Did you check for viruses?  When you formatted the HD, you obviously booted from a floppy that contained the overlay program, right?

It sound like the cable to your floppy is loose, or not on properly.
I don't think you are telling all that you did.
Did you open the machine to do anything?

Is it possible to try either your drive on another machine or another floppy drive on your machine? I think that would tell us and you a lot.

Ok guys.. here goes.. Problem fixed..Put floppy drive in another machine, worked fine.. So not hardware problem.. Put Floopy drive back in machine and tried to boot up again.. Still same problem. I noticed a sound coming from the back like the modem was trying to come on.. Just on a hunch I removed the modem card and tried to reboot.. Presto.. Booted up to the Recovery disk perfectly.. Not sure why. Got Rom drivers loaded and all software back on.. Seem to be running ok now.. Also reinstalled modem and is working OK.. Go figure... To all who replied I appreciate all the responses you guys came back with.. Thank you very much!!!!!

 When you boot your machine, listen for any sounds coming from the modem. If you hear anything, try removing the modem, and then boot. If you're able to boot, then reinstall the modem. This should correct the problem. Let us know if it works...