PLEASE HELP! Invalid System Disk error 2

[irishz]

I formatted the hard drive which had windows 95, but wanted to install windows 98 so I used fdisk. Everything seemed fine, but I had to leave so I shut the computer off, and now it won't boot up to the floppy drive at all and just keeps saying invalid system disk, replace the disk and press any key. I put the windows 98 boot disk in and it won't recognize it at all. I made another boot disk, for both windows 95 and 98 and it still isn't recognizing them. Please help! I don't know what to do now????

P.S.) This is a old computer that is a 95 I believe

 

[vacunita]

Is it booting from the floppy first or the hard drive? Have you gone into the BIOS and have it set to boot from the floppy?

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Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[irishz]

It is set to boot from the floppy, but I also changed it to the hard drive and it is still giving the same error message. I know the hard drive was working fine, before I ran fdisk. When I try to hit detect hard drive and set it to automatic it shows nothing, then I tried user and still it didn't detect the hard drive. It's also showing no hard drive when it boots up, but even when it did show the hard drive after booting the error message still came up

 

[G0AOZ]

Are you sure the boot disks you have created work ok? Can you successfully boot up another PC with them?

Check the BIOS settings to see that the floppy drive is enabled. Try rebooting with one of the boot disks in the drive. Can you see the floppy drive l.e.d. illuminate during POST? Often you can hear the drive "grunt" during this process...

If yes to the above, then maybe the floppy drive is out of alignment. Try changing the drive for a known good one.

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[irishz]

I'm now getting the error message floppy disk (40) failed and have tried two different floppy drives now. Could this be the harddrive that's failing? or only the floppy drive?

 

[vacunita]

Lets slow down a bit.

When I try to hit detect hard drive and set it to automatic it shows nothing, then I tried user and still it didn't detect the hard drive. It's also showing no hard drive when it boots up, but even when it did show the hard drive after booting the error message still came up

This is one Problem getting the hard drive to be detected.
If BIOS isn't picking it up, then there could be a problem with the drive. Which is why its not getting picked up.

I'm now getting the error message floppy disk (40) failed and have tried two different floppy drives now

This is a separate problem to the hard drive. a failing hard drive would not affect the floppy.
This could be either the connector on the MB is failing, or the cable is failing. If you happen to have another cable you could use to test this.

Taking both things together, it could mean the Motherboard is failing, in which case it would cause both the hard drive and the floppy to not be picked up.

But we need to take this one step at a time.

Lets solve the Floppy first. Make sure the power connector to the floppy is securely and tightly connected to it. Make sure the cable going from the floppy to the Motherboard is also tight and secure. As i said, if you have another floppy cable, you can try it, to rule out the possibility of a failing floppy cable.

If nothing of the above makes the floppy come back, then its possibly a filing MB, or a failing connector on the MB, in which case the only course of action would be to buy a new Motherboard.



----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[irishz]

what I am getting is it says Floppy Disk/s fail (40)



CMOS CHECKSUM ERROR DEFAULT LOADED

 

[irishz]

I changed 3 floppy drives and also the cables and the floppy light is coming on when i have the windows 98 start up disk in.
When the computer boots up it shows the hard drive, but in the bios under detect hard drive it isn't detecting it.

 

[vacunita]

CMOS CHECKSUM ERROR DEFAULT LOADED

This means something is wrong with the BIOS. Probably the battery is dying.

You've tried 3 floppies and changed the cables, that would mean that either MB is failing, or the connector on the MB is. Or its a by product of the BIOS/CMOS having problems.

Now if the hard drive shows up when it starts, then it means the BIOS is picking it up. I don't know the specifics of your BIOS, but I would assume there would be an entry for the hard drive. Something that would look similar to this:

----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[irishz]

Thanks for the help! I kept getting different error messages and finally gave up after working on the dumb thing all day I just threw the motherboard away and kept the other stuff just in case someone else ever needed them.