Invalid system disk replace disk and restart

[redalfa146]

I'm stuck.
I may be stupid - I formatted my hard drive and now get the 'Invalid system disk' message when I boot up.
I have a system disk on floppy but it's not reading it, athough it knows it has a floppy drive.
What am I doing wrong!?

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Hello and welcome to Techspot.

Go HERE and read my post.

Once we know which OS you are using, and what exactly you have done. We should be able to help you.

Now that you have formatted your hdd, you will need to install Windows from the Windows cd. Don`t forget to take the boot floppy out of you floppy drive.

Regards Howard :wave: :wave:

 

[redalfa146]

Invalid system disk replace disk and hit any key

I'm trying to run Windows 98SE on the machine that I formatted the hdd on.

It runs its memory check then gives me the invalid system disk message, but its not even looking at the floppy drive whether there is a disk in or not.
It also won't recognise the windows CD in that drive.

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Go into your bios, and set the boot priority to floppy/cd-rom/hdd then save and exit.

See if your floppy drive is recognised now.

Regards Howard

 

[RealBlackStuff]

Go into BIOS (press the DEL key at bootup), then change the boot-sequence to boot first from floppy, then from CD and finally from HD.
Now boot from the w98 bootfloppy (or get one here: www.bootdisk.com, and select the 'with CD-support' option.
Put the windows CD in and run the installation, when you see A:> type in d:\setup and hit enter.

A: = floppy
C: = harddisk
D: = CD

 

[redalfa146]

I tried that - no go. But I don't have the option in the bios to change the boot sequence to Floppy, CD, HD - All other options, the only one anything like that was A,C, SCSI and that didn't seem to work. It didn't recognise the boot disk either - I tried making a 98SE one and a 95a one because I think it had W95 on it when we first had it. At least it looked at the floppy this time - but I'm still getting the same message.

I definitely need a Guinness!

 

[RealBlackStuff]

Set the BIOS to booting from A,C, that is good enough.
While you are in there, let the BIOS also automatically find your harddisk again.

This is the boot-file one to download: http://www.mirrors.org/archived_software/www.bootdisk.com/winfiles1/boot98se.exe
When you get it, doubleclick it, it will make a proper bootfloppy for you.
If that does NOT boot, then your floppy-drive is not working correctly.
If it STILL does not work, you need to pay the pub a visit!

 

[redalfa146]

Now that seems to be working.

Thank you.