Invalid system disk

[justing1223]

I really need some help please!! I bought a Dell Vostro 200 from a guy a few days ago to use for my business. First use everything booted up fine and windows was good. Later I accidentally pushed the cd rom drive shut and messed it up some how. I figured I stripped the gear or stretched the rubber band. idk. The next time I booted the comp I received the prompt "Invalid system disk, replace the disk, and then press any key", so I disconnected the cd rom drive because I dont need it any ways. After restart everything worked fine. Now its doing it again, and Ive tried re-connecting the cd rom drive,etc and nothing, just this same prompt every time I reboot. Am I screwed? I dont have any discs for this comp. Thnks for any help.

 

[robin_bga]

Hi, just go to you bios and change the boot priority to Internal Harddisk let this be the first on top and the Cd rom drive the second and that will be the end of you misery days..
Hope that helps.

 

[justing1223]

Please excuse my comp illiteracy, but when you say go to my bios, do you mean the only legable screen that comes up when I boot the comp that reads "dell", and says press f12 or f2? Other than this screen, once its gone, everything just turns to black screen untill I press a key that triggers the bad disc message. And should I just leave the drive disconnected since its not opening anyways? Thanks

 

[robin_bga]

Yes, so you press f2 as soon as you see it come up, them look out for boot priorities and change it to the internal Hard disk...
Hope that helps