Invalid system disc

[anulaibar]

I have an old computer running win95, that I thought I'd set up as a server, so I installed two network cards. I tried to get the drivers installed, but was asked for the win95 cd, which I didn't have, so I decided to format c: and install win98. Unfortunately something went wrong. On startup all I get is the message: 'Invalid system disc...'
I made a win98 boot disc which I found on a website, but won't work. It seems the floppy drive isn't even searched on startup. In bios setup I enabled 'Floppy drive seek at boot', but it doesn't help. Both the harddrive and the floppy drive seems to be detected, but I'm stuck with the error message.

My computer is a 486DX4, 100MHz, 800Mb HD from 95.

I'd be very thankful for any suggestions.
Thanks,
Olle

 

[aqueryus]

sounds like you need to run fdisk on that hard drive and create a new primary partition. that is usually what causes the invalid system disk error.

once you create the primary partition, you can format it using the windows startup disk. win98 can be installed after that.

you mentioned that your floppy may not be coming up during the boot sequence. what bios is the system running? there should be a way to change the boot sequence a,c but it differs according to bios. check your setup options again. also, make sure all the cables are securely plugged in. its a good idea to check your cmos battery, i've seen bios do wierd things when the battery was no good, try replacing it.

good luck

 

[mattjurado]

I was just about to say, you might remove the battery for 15 minutes and put it back in, then try to set the boot order in your bios for the floppy first.

Matt J.

P.S. Please always take the time to backup any and all data before performing any actions suggested for ANY problem, regardless of how minor a change it might seem. Also test the backup to make sure it is intact.

 

[anulaibar]

I'm not so experienced with the interior of computers, but I'll try removing the battery for a while. The bios is AMIBIOS and I tried both boot sequences(a:, c:/c:, a, but the error remains. Thanks for the help so far, I'll be back in a bit.

Olle

 

[anulaibar]

I removed the battery on the mother board and shorted it for a minute, then put it back and started the computer. Now I get the message "drive not ready, insert boot diskette in a:". I made a win98 boot diskette from a site(

http://www.drd.dyndns.org/fr_index.html?/disks.html),

but it won't read it. It's as if something is wrong with my a: drive, because it doesn't even read the floppy to see if it's a boot diskette or not.

What should I do?

Olle

 

[anulaibar]

I messed up before - the power supply cord for the drive was loose, the cable from the mother board was twisted and the boot disc was no good either, but now I'm starting to get things working. I made a new boot disc from my winXP machine and it was accepted, so now I can at least get to DOS mode. My only problem now is to get win98 installed from the cd-rom. I tried all the letters of the alphabet, but I can't access the cd-rom drive.

Any suggestions?

Olle

 

[edfair]

When the bootdisk starts loading drivers it tells you where it puts things. So if you are not seeing any drive location messages it indicates that there is nothing being loaded.
So the suggestion to try a bootdisk from

http://www.bootdisk.com

might lead you to download one that has the right drivers that will tell you what it is doing.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[micker377]

A WinXp disk may not work in Win98. WinXP has no DOS - so no DOS drivers! A Win98 bootdisk has the necessary drivers to make the CD rom function.

 

[yada]

E-mail for a boot disk and I'll send you a download. At the prompt you just type in setup.

 

[pel02]

Hi previous contributors!

This seems very similar to my current problem. The drive with my OS (windows 98)on has been zapped and now shows as invalid, like so C:\#. If I try to open it I get invalid disk drive. And, just like the OP, I find myself in the catch 22 that I can reboot to DOS, but have no windows - the disk is thoroughly scrambled - and am unable to access the CD ROm drive in order to install it!

My main difference from the OP being that I'm now actually trying to install XP, having long ago lost my windows 98 installation disc.

So: if the OP is still on this forum: Did you eventually find a solution, and if so what was it?