> which could not be carried away was destroyed)
>
> These old computers have been donated and we are trying to get them
> working. We cannot get into the BIOS or the hard disk to load programs. We
> cannot even find a battery on the motherboard. We have got some to boot
> from a DOS floppy by disconnecting the HDD - but have found it impossible
> to format HDD.

could you try booting netbsd from floppy?
it should detect and be able to use HDD after loading from floppy


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