Help Me! "invalid System Disk" Problem

Hello, how is it going? Alright I need help...I am not very good with computers so you might need to explain just a little bit more than usual if thats ok. My old computer isn't working to well. I had recently cleared it out by deleting all my songs and junk like that...I had formatted all the songs to be on the C drive...and moved all my Folders to the D drive. So I cleared the whole C drive knowing that nothing important was in it but just songs. Well the next time I turn on the computer and after the first page when you boot up comes up, it says "invalid system disk replace and press a key when done" or something like that. I read all the previous posts on this problem but none seemed to help...maybe because I couldnt understand what the people were saying. Well yeah if you can help please do..and don't forget to explain it a little better because I'm not to good with computers..

ehh, did you moved ALL folders, including c:\windows?
If that's the case, you can't just move your operating system and expect it to function......Also other program will stop functioning if moved. I don't know if it's possible to move them back, otherwise you'll have to reinstall windows......

No windows files were deleted I made sure of that, and I do want to reinstall windows I have the disks and all to do it... Can you tell me how I get passed this problem though? And yes the files were transfered correctly and it was working after I did that for months...

i think that u shoud restart your PC. and insert a startup disk.
than format drive C completely, and then install WinXP all over again.....

you'll need a boot diskette to start in DOS ( if you don't have it dl it here. Insert the diskette and start th PC. It's best to format the C drive, so type Format C:. after that reinstall windows. It may be a good idea to surf the net before to find usefull sites, or buy a book :rolleyes: I learned a lot by reading books like "windows for dummies" and such. I don't think it's wise to do these kinds of things without knowing what to do.

If you have an other computer you could do it with our advice step by step. :)

Yeah I'm on my other computer... I dont have that disk but I am going to download it from the site...I will keep this updated b/c im not too sure if it will completely work but thanks for the help so far!
Its not that I dont know what I am doing its just a problem I couldnt handle.... :rolleyes:

You will need a boot disk, however it does not need to be a dos boot disk, unless you want it to be. If you are currently using Win98se or earlier then you can make a startup disk from within that OS. If you don't know how to do that then come back and ask, we will monitor this thread for questions.

Once you have the disk then you will boot from that. Place it in the floppy and start the computer. It should boot to an a: prompt. If it does not do this then it is booting from the hard drive. You will have to go into the bios and change the setting.

As the computer starts read the screen. There will be a command for going into the bios, normally the delete key (tho not compaq). Press this and go into the bios. In there you can change the boot disk options. Make the floppy the first option, CD the second option and hdd the third option (IDE-0)

Save settings and re-start the computer, you will boot to the floppy a:

If you wish to recover the missing files you can do so from here. Please let us know if you want to do this and we will give some more details. If you want to format the hdd then do the following.

format c:/s

this will format the hdd and make it bootable. This will not work with a boot disk from ME onwards, the format will but not the /s switch.

Once it is formatted you have clean c:. You can install the operating system there. If you have 98 SE you can restart the computer with the cd in the drive (take out the floppy). The CD will boot and you can install the OS.

Otherwise reboot with the floppy in place. Select with CD support. When the system boots go to the CD drive, assuming it is e type

cd e:

Then just type setup. Proceed as normal.

I prefer to install 98 from the hdd and I can tell you how to do that if you want.

Cheers and Good Luck. Let us know how you get on.

Thanks for that last reply that was very helpful! thanks very much!!! you all have been helpful and I didnt even have to wait..this sites great...

I'm confused - how is this a hardware issue.

Not that it matters as long as the chap gets it fixed, but I cant see it myself.

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Originally posted by JmiF@20 March 2003 - 20:47
I'm confused - how is this a hardware issue.

Not that it matters as long as the chap gets it fixed, but I cant see it myself.

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yeah, since when is an os hardware? :D :lol:

He needed to format his Hard Drive. Hard drives are hardware, right?

Okay, I have just one stupid question about this, if there are multiple drives, are either of these drives set to active??????? I mean, if neither drive is active, the system can't boot from nothing and even the boot disk isn't going to help unless a program is installed and automatically sets an active drive or partition.

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Originally posted by SideSwiped@21 March 2003 - 00:19
Okay, I have just one stupid question about this, if there are multiple drives, are either of these drives set to active???????  I mean, if neither drive is active, the system can't boot from nothing and even the boot disk isn't going to help unless a program is installed and automatically sets an active drive or partition.

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What on earth are you talking about. A system will boot without there even being a hard drive installed, never mind a partition set as active. As long as the floppy, or CD is a boot disk.

There has been no mention of FDISK here. Even if there was the floppy would still boot the PC.

How do you think a system can boot without the hdd having any partitions.

This is the sort of nonsense that annoys me.

He might not even need a boot disk. Some systems can boot from a Windows CD. Then all he'd have to do is run 'Setup' to reinstall.

he's still gonna have to setup the boot option to boot from the cd, if as he says it worked before it looks like he's lost his boot record from c:, even if he installed windows, or somehow transfered his windows folders to d: he would still need to have boot record on c: to tell pc where windows was, tho god knows how he managed that with editing a hell of a lot of dos files, which i doubt was the case, anyway if they've gone to rats that would result in him being locked out.

if he's running xp he should be able to boot from his cd and repair the exisiting installation on d:

but i think for all around ease I've give it up as a bad job, format c: and bang a new os on

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Originally posted by JmiF+20 March 2003 - 23:31--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (JmiF @ 20 March 2003 - 23:31)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteBegin--SideSwiped@21 March 2003 - 00:19
Okay, I have just one stupid question about this, if there are multiple drives, are either of these drives set to active??????? I mean, if neither drive is active, the system can&#39;t boot from nothing and even the boot disk isn&#39;t going to help unless a program is installed and automatically sets an active drive or partition.

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What on earth are you talking about. A system will boot without there even being a hard drive installed, never mind a partition set as active. As long as the floppy, or CD is a boot disk.

There has been no mention of FDISK here. Even if there was the floppy would still boot the PC.

How do you think a system can boot without the hdd having any partitions.

This is the sort of nonsense that annoys me.[/b][/quote]
@JmiF, you seem to have a very short fuse, the quote given was a question? <_<

Sometimes you can be arrogant and abrupt. :(

i noted that u said its and old comp and that u said u had all the disks(plural)
for the os. are these floppy disks?
if so what os is it?
win 3.1 or win 95 as these are the only versions of windows that came out on floppys

if they are floppys and its win 95 all u got to do is put the first disk in and start the comp to re install the os (and be ready too spend a few hours changing flopys)

if its windows 3.1 or ull need to install dos 6.11 first to do that put the first disk of dos in first and start up the comp(if this is it i wouldnt even bother but its up to u)

also if they came with ur comp when u got it its probly realy old and will not work with windows Xp it might work with win98 if it has a cdrom

also if ur D drive is not a 2nd physacal hard drive then dont run fdisk as u will lose all the info u saved on the D drive (u can run "fdisk /mbr" if the master boot record is mesed up in order to fix it without losing info)

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Originally posted by leecheskicked@21 March 2003 - 12:51
he&#39;s still gonna have to setup the boot option to boot from the cd, if as he says it worked before it looks like he&#39;s lost his boot record from c:, even if he installed windows, or somehow transfered his windows folders to d: he would still need to have boot record on c: to tell pc where windows was, tho god knows how he managed that with editing a hell of a lot of dos files, which i doubt was the case, anyway if they&#39;ve gone to rats that would result in him being locked out.

if he&#39;s running xp he should be able to boot from his cd and repair the exisiting installation on d:

but i think for all around ease I&#39;ve give it up as a bad job, format c: and bang a new os on

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no reason to think his MBR(master boot record) is bad. since it said that its not a system disk then it just ant a system disk to make it a system disk all u got to do is format /s if after he trys to format it and it dont work then it may have a bad MBR but that is vary u likly as u cant mess up the MBR just bye deleating files it would ether have to crash or have a program go in and mess it up(like fdisk or a virus)

and to make it boot from the cd u dont need to have a HD ether. if the comp suports boot form cd u go to the bios and set it to try to boot from cd
if there is no sys disk in flopy it trys the hd and if the hd is not sys it trys the cdrom u can set it to try in any order u want

the boot record is not even on the c: drive its on the hard drive sepret from any partision on it whether thers 1 or 20 partisions on it and has nothing to do with the drive boot sequnce

also the boot record dose not tell ur comp where the os is the comp looks for it on the first active partision of the master drive on IDE 0(or flopy or cdrom) if its not a system drive it gives errior this is not a sys drive
even if the os is on another drive the C drive must be a sys drive with a file(or a program called a boot loader) telling where the os is

ok I stand corrected, brain wasn&#39;t quite engaged I meant his system files, which are on C:, not his MBR, I was thinking about files the machine boots from and i suppose i figured he would know what i meant.

And as for booting from CD I meant he would still have to enter the bios and set up 1st boot option to C:

obviously he wont need a HD if he just wants to work in dos&#33; got a nice copy of First Framework if he wants it.

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Originally posted by Chilly+21 March 2003 - 13:20--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Chilly @ 21 March 2003 - 13:20)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>

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Originally posted by -JmiF@20 March 2003 - 23:31
<!--QuoteBegin--SideSwiped

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@21 March 2003 - 00:19
Okay, I have just one stupid question about this, if there are multiple drives, are either of these drives set to active??????? I mean, if neither drive is active, the system can&#39;t boot from nothing and even the boot disk isn&#39;t going to help unless a program is installed and automatically sets an active drive or partition.

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What on earth are you talking about. A system will boot without there even being a hard drive installed, never mind a partition set as active. As long as the floppy, or CD is a boot disk.

There has been no mention of FDISK here. Even if there was the floppy would still boot the PC.

How do you think a system can boot without the hdd having any partitions.

This is the sort of nonsense that annoys me.

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@JmiF, you seem to have a very short fuse, the quote given was a question? <_<

Sometimes you can be arrogant and abrupt. :( [/b][/quote]
The first part of the quote was a question, I can tell that by the 7 question marks. It is also a stupid question, as the poster acknowledged themselves. The next part is a statement, which includes a double negative (can&#39;t boot from nothing). It is also factually incorrect and misleading to the person who asked the question. Who themselves stated that they didn&#39;t know a lot about the subject.

Yes I do sometimes have a short fuse, when dealing with drivel like this. However if you read my earlier post, then you will see that far from being abrupt it is quite comprehensive. In fact it even offers additional help if required. Neither is it arrogant, the poster certainly didn&#39;t seem to think so in his reply.

Please don&#39;t take this as me caring what you think, nothing could be further from the truth. However I refuse to be insulted when I have gone to the bother of trying to help someone who has asked for that help. Neither will I stand by and let someone else mislead them.

If you don&#39;t ike this we can agree to differ. You go on helping your way and I will go on doing it mine.

OKAY DID ANYONE THINK OF ASKING ME NOW&#33;&#33;&#33;&#33; when i just solved the problem recently....

1) TAKE OUT HARD DRIVE -- SLAVE IT TO ANOTHER COMPUTER
2) THEN TAKE WHAT INFO YOU NEED, FORMAT HARD DRIVE
3) PUT HARD DRIVE BACK -- USE A BOOT DISK TO GO TO COMMAND PROMPT SCREEN <-- FIRST SWITCH BIO TO READ FLOPPY DRIVE FIRST
3) REINSTALL WINDOWS
4) SHOULD WORK AFTER THAT

-- thatz how i fixed it...

hi....I'm new to this site, and I don't know how to do anything.....except for reply to people's questions. I'm having the same problem with another computer, and I tried to use a boot disk, but it does nothing.......I really know nothing about this stuff.....can anyone help me?:huh:

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i think that u shoud restart your PC. and insert a startup disk.
than format drive C completely, and then install WinXP all over again.....

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Me too :P