I have an Olivetti laptop running Win98, I keep getting an 'Invalid Media, Reading Drive C' error, it didn't do this before, but I found out that a friend deleted the MSDOS.SYS and IO.SYS files from the root, the laptop can not boot from cdrom, as the cd rom and floppy drive are interchangeable, I booted the laptop with the win98 boot floppy, and tried 'SYS A: C:' but the 'Invalid media reading drive C:' error keeps coming up, so I had a look at the partition with FDISK option 4, it shows C drive as the primary DOS partition, and it's usage as 100%, this is wrong, it's usage should only be somewhere between 30 and 40%, then I installed DOS's INTERSVR on the tower system and ran INTERLNK (after editing the config.sys file to show 'device=interlnk.exe' on the laptop from floppy (after connecting them together with a parallel transfer cable), I found out that INTERLNK can not read the C drive of the tower because it's a FAT32 system, and INTERLNK displays 'File Allocation Table Error on drive E (E on the laptop = C on the tower), INTERLNK can not even detect the cd roms present on the tower. The hard drive on the laptop could be compressed with drvspace, but I'm not sure. Is there a way that I can get back win98 without having to format the drive? As I have some documents on there that are very important, and I don't want to delete them.
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Invalid Media reading drive C Error
- Thread starter Usalabs1
- Start date
Hi Usa,
Try booting again from the floppy and do the following:
- on the command prompt type: FDISK /MBR (this will create a new Master Boot Record)
- then do an new sys a: c:
If none of the above works, try to backup your files to a different disk and repartition your disk for a clean install... :-S
Good luck!
Try booting again from the floppy and do the following:
- on the command prompt type: FDISK /MBR (this will create a new Master Boot Record)
- then do an new sys a: c:
If none of the above works, try to backup your files to a different disk and repartition your disk for a clean install... :-S
Good luck!
try it as sys c: from the emergency boot floppy you made during install.
There were some changes in the media descriptor sometime around the beginning of 98 and earlier version boot floppies couldn't see later version FATs. But later version boot disks could see earlier FATs.
Once you get access to the drive you might want to rework the bootup stuff so the machine can come up in DOS with CD support available so you can switch in the CD and move the install files onto the hard drive. Makes it a lot easier to reload when the CD is no longer critical.
You can also do an overlay reinstall. Put everything back into the same place. Normally you would want to be doing it with a system that was backed up but sometimes that isn't a choice. Have never had one crash, but it is always a possibility.
Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.
There were some changes in the media descriptor sometime around the beginning of 98 and earlier version boot floppies couldn't see later version FATs. But later version boot disks could see earlier FATs.
Once you get access to the drive you might want to rework the bootup stuff so the machine can come up in DOS with CD support available so you can switch in the CD and move the install files onto the hard drive. Makes it a lot easier to reload when the CD is no longer critical.
You can also do an overlay reinstall. Put everything back into the same place. Normally you would want to be doing it with a system that was backed up but sometimes that isn't a choice. Have never had one crash, but it is always a possibility.
Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.
- Thread starter
- #4
edfair.......I tried using FDISK /MBR from the floppy, but it now says 'unable to find o/s'. I even tried using the emergency boot disk created while installing 98, but the cdrom driver won't load unless a cdrom is present, the only way the cdrom can be present is to pull out the floppy drive then insert the cdrom, but doing this, means that I can't boot from the floppy drive, the BIOS setup doesn't allow for cdrom booting, there's only the boot sequence of 'C,A or A,C', and if a format is done, there's no way 98 can be installed. If the drive has been previously compressed using drivespace from within windows, is there a way that I can uncompress it using a DOS utility? And just for information, the drive is FAT32, I checked this using FDISK option 4. Also, INTERLNK and INTERSVR are DOS 6.22 programs, which as far as I know, DOS 6.22 can not read FAT32 drives, are there any DOS utilities like INTERLNK and INTERSVR that can be used that would read a FAT32 drive? Then I could use these transfer utilities to run the 98 setup through the parallel connection from the tower to the laptop? Or a utility that can convert the FAT32 drive in the tower into FAT16, without destroying anything on the drive? So that I can use the DOS 6.22 INTERLNK and INTERSVR.
Use the floppy you made when installing. It has the correct versions of the stuff you need. Load the system from there.
Use the choice "no cd rom". Then sys c:. It is possible that you will need to use d:\sys c: to do the job. I can't remember if the sys command is on the root of the EBD or is loaded into the ramdrive that is extracted from the EBD. I can't put my hands on a 98 EBD to see. Or, if the c: is visible from the EBD, c:\windows\command\sys c:.
I've got no help with the inter* stuff. You've got a version difference to contend with.
I realise it is a pain to do, but you need to get the OS operative from the HD, then get access to the CD or floppy operative from the HD (whichever is installed) , then get the install stuff on the HD so it is available all the time.
You accomplish this by paralling the boot sequence of the floppy with the config.sys and autoexec.bat transferred to the HD along with the drivers used and editing the two files to point to the location on the HD.
Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.
Use the choice "no cd rom". Then sys c:. It is possible that you will need to use d:\sys c: to do the job. I can't remember if the sys command is on the root of the EBD or is loaded into the ramdrive that is extracted from the EBD. I can't put my hands on a 98 EBD to see. Or, if the c: is visible from the EBD, c:\windows\command\sys c:.
I've got no help with the inter* stuff. You've got a version difference to contend with.
I realise it is a pain to do, but you need to get the OS operative from the HD, then get access to the CD or floppy operative from the HD (whichever is installed) , then get the install stuff on the HD so it is available all the time.
You accomplish this by paralling the boot sequence of the floppy with the config.sys and autoexec.bat transferred to the HD along with the drivers used and editing the two files to point to the location on the HD.
Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.
- Thread starter
- #6
edfair........I tried the emergency boot disk that I previously created, and did an SYS A: C: but the same error came up, 'Invalid Media Reading Drive C:' I even tried the SYS command with SYS C: but the same error came up. The conclusion I came up with, is that the drive was preciously compressed with drivspace, and withe the IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS missing, the emergency boot disk can not read a compressed drive, I need to mount the drive first, but without any DOS utilities to do that, it looks like I may have to use FDISK and delete the primary partition on the laptop, then re-create the primary partition as FAT16, format the drive, then using the emergency boot disk (which I copied INTERLNK and INTERSVR onto, and use Partition magic to convert the towers drive to FAT16, then copy the win98 installation files from the cd in the tower to a temporary directory on the tower, then by using INTERLNK on the laptop and INTERSVR on the tower, I could transfer the win98 installation files from the tower to a directory on the laptop, then run the setup from that directory.
I would like to leave the format as a last resort.
I would like to leave the format as a last resort.
I don't know how the inter*.* stuff will work but suspect it will be OK.
I get around it by putting DOS on , then Lantastic, and network across. Or put the hard drive in a desktop with an adapter. I also carry a full set of install files on a parallel ZIP 100. Load DOS, put the guest on, copy from ZIP to HD. 95 thru B take 1 ZIP, balance take 2.
Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.
I get around it by putting DOS on , then Lantastic, and network across. Or put the hard drive in a desktop with an adapter. I also carry a full set of install files on a parallel ZIP 100. Load DOS, put the guest on, copy from ZIP to HD. 95 thru B take 1 ZIP, balance take 2.
Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.
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