Hi,

I have reformatted my C drive, and now I get an "invalid system disk, replace the disk and then press and key" error.  There are no disks in any of the drives, the CMOS looks ok. I can't boot from a boot disk, and I can't even get into DOS at all.  It just stays at this error. What have I missed? Did I do something wrong during formatting? I don't know what kind of computer I have, I am fixing it for a friend who had it hodge podged together from several different used ones.

Please help me!!!
CherieWhen you format a drive you will get "invalid system disk" until you install an operating system.Wellllll first of all does your HDD only have one partition obviously the C drive??? cause then you have all erase you HDD and the CPU can't load any OS. Did you try the OS Cd to boot it up again and reinstall the OS?? If nothing works then you'll need a DOS 6.22 disk to boot in DOS and then run Fdisk to see whats going on inside that HDD. Maybe delete the primary partition and recreate one will works. Then format that primary partition and try runni gyour OS cd to reinstall it. Try that and tell me whats happenning.Hmm maybe it's just that a floppy is in your drive try to reboot without any floppy inside your floppy disk or any CD rom.


hope it helped

:-/There is no floppy in the A drive and I can't load the OS from a CD and I have a Windows start up disk but it won't boot from that either.  :-/Queen:

You may need to change the BIOS setup settings.  When you boot your computer, does it display the name of the BIOS manufacturer before the error displays?  (For example, is it AMI or Phoenix or Dell or Compaq?)

This will help us tell you what keys to press to enter the BIOS setup.  Or it may say something like "Press F10 to enter setup."  If it does, press that key.  

When the BIOS setup screen appears, read the instructions about how to MOVE from screen to screen & what keys to press to make selections.  Find the screen that says something about the boot order.  Then, choose the option to boot to the CD-ROM drive first.  Press the correct key to SAVE changes & exit.  

Then, put in the Windows 98 installation CD & press Ctrl+Alt+Del.  When you see the message, "Press any key to boot to the CD . . . " press the spacebar.   The Windows 98 setup should then begin.

Let us know if you need more help.
DocMake sure Bios makes your CD-ROM a bootable device.  
Second look to see if your hard drive has any software it CAME with it, for installation purposes.  It will help you setup partitians and what not.  If it does not...make a partician using the dos shell prompt and then load your OS installation CD.  If you have a Mac...that isnt a G5 I am truely sorry..can not help you! Hi,
I tried the BIOS thing - making the CD rom the first in the boot sequence and that didn't work. Then I tried making the A drive the first in the boot sequence to boot from the Windows start up disk and that didn't work either. Now what?!!! :-/

I don't have any original software - I'm not even sure how old this thing is - could there be something wrong with the hard drive?  I forgot - it's not a Mac, so all is good there. I don't know how to make partitions for the DOS shell prompt.That is sooo odd you couldnt make your Cd-rom a bootable drive...hmmm...What I would suggest doing is getting a copy of your OS and power up your pc, put the cd in..shutdown..this is terrible..but hard shutdown...what i mean by this is hold down the button until it fully turns off...reboot the system with the windows cd in it...hopefully it is past windows 95.  and it should try to read all the disk drives and it will ask you if you want to boot from your cd-rom...hit a key any key and it will load from your cd-rom.  It will look all blue..no worries, just follow the instructions on the screen and it will ask you if you want to format your drive and make a partition with your windows on it...after windows installs on its partitian you can then go into windows and make any additional partitions. Its been a while for me to make partitions using dos..I would need my reference book in front of me in order to tell you step by step.


<---- agrees with Wraith  Hi again,

Thanks for the advice. I have tried the manual shutdown thing with the windows CD in the drive and it tells me that it's not a valid disc.  It also tells me that the Windows start up floppy is an invalid disc too. I have reformatted a C drive before and installed the OS, but I have never SEEN anything like this.  I'm starting to think there is something wrong with the hard drive itself.  Maybe this computer is so old I shouldn't waste my time with it! Queen:

CHECK the BIOS setup to make sure it is set to auto-detect the drives & set the boot order to boot to drive A first.  Then make sure to save the changes before you exit. Next, put a *known-good* Windows 98 or Windows Me boot diskette in the floppy drive & restart.  

If that doesn't work, test the boot disk on another computer just to be sure it works. If the boot disk does not work on that computer, use that computer (& a different floppy disk) to make a boot disk & try that one on your computer.

If that doesn't work, use a floppy drive cleaning diskette to clean the drive & try to boot to the boot disk again.  If that doesn't work, verify that the data cable & power supply connection is firmly in place on the floppy drive. Make sure the data cable is not upside down (if it is, the light will stay on even when no floppy disk is in the drive).

Be sure to write down any error messages or beep codes that occur & let us know.

Regards,
Doc