So, I've been known to experiment with my computer's configuration.  Sometimes with successful outcomes, and sometimes not.  :-/

Tonight, I got my hands on a Windows 98 SE disc and decided to try to install it on my external Seagate drive.

I've been running XP Professional SP2 for the past few years on a non-partitioned hard drive.  Everything is on the C drive.  In My Computer, the external hard drive was recognized as the F drive. (Only two hard drives hooked to computer.)

I re-booted my computer with the Windows 98 SE in the drive.  I had hoped there was a partition manage similar to the one on the XP Professional disc.  The screen for the Windows 98 SE disc was a bit different, but nothing too odd.

So, I began going through the screens, nonchalantly passing a screen warning me about corrupting other operating systems booting tendancies (STUPID!), and finally came to a screen asking where I wanted to install Windows 98 SE.  The external drive (F) did not show up on the list.  The only drive that showed up was my drive holding XP Professional (C).  At this point, I didn't want to mess around any longer and quit the Windows 98 SE setup.

I turned off my computer.  When I STARTED back up, I took out the Windows 98 SE disc and the screen that either says "Press any key to boot from CD...." or nothing at all presented me with a new message.

"Invalid system disk
Replace the disk, and then press any key"

So, now I'm at a loss of ideas.  I PUT in the Windows XP Professional CD to try out the Repair Console I always saw, but never utilized.  I assumed the problem had something to do with the booting configuration, so I tried out the "BOOTCFG /rebuild" COMMAND to repair my boot.ini file.

-I selected "1," when it asked me to select the installation.  "C:\WINDOWS" was the only selection.
-Prompt for the identified versions of Windows installed: Y
-Prompt for entering the load identifier: MS XP Pro
-Prompt to Enter OS load options: /fastdetect

This did nothing at all and I'm too scared to try anything else.

If anyone knows any way to solve this problem, please take me through the steps.  There are some important files on the C drive that I can't lose.  I'm positive all of the files are still intact as when I checked the hard drive size with the Windows XP Professional disc, it said my 120 GB HD had 35 GB free.

THANK YOU!!!
Ryan KIf youare going to attempt something like this you must install the oldest version of Windows first. As it is you have probably mangled the boot manager or the MBR.

Take out the other drive and boot with your legal XP CD. Fromt he repair console type in fixmbr and press enter.

Good luck.

(By the way that XP drive WAS partitioned, as all drives must be. It just happened to be partitioned as one primary drive.)You're right,  I stand corrected.

I typed the fixmbr command and exited the prompt.

When I restarted, I SET the boot device to the hard drive, but I'm still getting the

"Invalid system disk
Replace system disk, and then press any key"

screen!

Do the same procedure except type fixboot....