I boot a laptop I just received from an auction that has no O/S but was tested and refurbed with an O/S that was removed before selling to me.

The first screen is in a red square and says,
"Save to disk partition not found. Save to disk feature is disabled. Run Phdisk for information. File: create new. Partition: consult manual. Hit any key to exit."

I have tried to fdisk and reformat to no avail. I tried to load 98 Se but it gets hung up in the later stages of installation.

Does anyone have any idea of how to remedy this message or is the motherboard shot?