Invalid system disk

[UKalliance]

Getting this error when boooting a P3 500 machine up running Win 98se and 64mb RAM. Hard disk is 10gb and there is about 6gb free space on that. Have removed the hard drive and connected it to another machine. Able to access the hard drive fine and ran a scan disk and defrag with no problems.

Have put the hard drive in the machine but still not able to boot up. Have tried other IDE cables and also another IDE connector on the motherboard.

Would this suggest that the motherboard itself is faulty?

What other tests could I carry out?

Thansk for your help in advance.... ________________________________________

The Collective known as
The UK Alliance
________________________________________

 

[Jakespeare]

I would reset the mainboard settings in the BIOS and see what happens.
Upon bootup, hit the DEL key and enter the BIOS. Since all BIOS's are different, and your computer is about 2.5 - 3 years old, I don't know exactly what your BIOS options are, however, what I would look for is this:
MAIN screen. Settings. IDE.
Under 01 or the first device, check the AUTO.

> Also, is there a "DETECT IDE" OPTION ?

> Sometimes computers just pull stunts like this, and have not failed, but just don't boot up the same as they normally do.
Try this and see what happens.

Do you have another HD that you can install on the Primary IDE cable on that computer to see if the IDE is functioning ?

I will check back.

 

[edfair]

And from your EBD, run fdisk /mbr, then sys c:. The last may not be on the floppy. Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[fedto]

This may seem silly, but is there a floppy disk in the floppy drive? or a cd in the cdrom?
It could be a bad floppy drive as well. Try disabling the floppy drive in the bios and see if the problem still exists.
In fact, try removing the cable to the cdrom, or if the cdrom is in-line with the HDD, remove the cdrom from the cable and the cable to the floppy drive.

 

[ceh4702]

Did you put the system on the Harddrive???

It could be formatted without the system and be readable as a slave on another computer.

Use the floppy bootdisk and type a:> SYS C:

This puts the system files on the harddrive making it bootable.

You may have to go into the bios and see if the Sectors and Tracks are set up in the BIOS. It may autodetect the harddrive or have a utility in the BIOS that does the autodetect when you select it. It is possible to enter the setup manually also. Usually the proper settings are written on top of the drive on the label from the manufacturer or you can download them off the internet from the drive manufacturer's web site. If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[UKalliance]

OK.....

I have put the hard drive in another machine and formated it, then put it back into the machine I am having problems with and tried to install Windows, but get error "remove media disk. press any key to continue" have checked and there is no disk in any of the drives except the Win 98se CD rom, from which I am hoping to boot up.

Have put my own working hard drive in the machine with Win XP on and got error "invalid system disk" I therefore suspect that this is not a problem with the hard drive, but with the mainboard. Or is there anything else I can check? ________________________________________

The Collective known as
The UK Alliance
________________________________________