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Error msg: "Invaild System Disk - Replace disk and then press any
I was on the internet last night and my PC locked up. When I tried to
reboot, I received the following error message "Invalid System Disk - Replace the disk, and then press any key". There's no floppy disk in the A: drive. When I restart the PC my hard drive is detected during startup. I confirmed in the BIOS that my hard drive is detected. I received the error message right after seeing "Verifying DMI Pool Data..." during startup. I never see the Windows splash screen and I cannot get the PC to boot up in Safe mode. I tried a couple of things in the BIOS to no avail. I turned off the Floppy drive and reconfigured the device booting order. None of this worked and resulted in the same error message. Please help with any help and/or suggestions. |
#2
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Identify the brand of hard drive, go to the drive maker's web site and
download their diagnostic software. It runs from a floppy disk and will tell you the health of your hard drive. -- Regards Ron Badour, MS MVP for W98 Tips: http://home.satx.rr.com/badour Knowledge Base Info: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=kbinfo "Alton" wrote in message ... I was on the internet last night and my PC locked up. When I tried to reboot, I received the following error message "Invalid System Disk - Replace the disk, and then press any key". There's no floppy disk in the A: drive. When I restart the PC my hard drive is detected during startup. I confirmed in the BIOS that my hard drive is detected. I received the error message right after seeing "Verifying DMI Pool Data..." during startup. I never see the Windows splash screen and I cannot get the PC to boot up in Safe mode. I tried a couple of things in the BIOS to no avail. I turned off the Floppy drive and reconfigured the device booting order. None of this worked and resulted in the same error message. Please help with any help and/or suggestions. |
#3
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Eject any floppy or CD left in a drive. Does it still happen? Then...
I guess do go into BIOS first, to see settings weren't mussed that may upset the "geometry" of it. I don't know what you might look for, but I have two guesses... (1) I guess "Reset to defaults & exit" is a viable choice. (2) I suppose that means it will Auto-Detect the hard drives. Here is what I know of the MBR and partition boot sectors. "Fdisk /mbr" will restore Microsoft "boot code" to the Master Boot Record of the boot HDD, usually the Primary Master. (This perhaps should not be done, if you have a drive overlay in the MBR or if you suspect a boot sector virus. The drive overlay would have to be restored in the first case.) Boot code in the MBR, as I understand, searches the partition table, also in the MBR, for the one that is Active. The boot sector of the Active partition is hard-coded with the name of the OPERATING SYSTEM that the boot code must load. For Win98, that OS is IO.sys (DOS), which eventually leads to Windows. The other portion of the MBR, the partition table, normally is not disturbed by "Fdisk /MBR". The partition table contains the dimensions of the partitions and is updated only when the partitions are created or resized. However, /MBR may combine multiple partitions into a single one. It will do so, if it discovers a missing End-Of-Sector marker (55AA) in the MBR sector. This may result in a "mess of goo", says Blanton, if you had multiple partitions, per http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=149877 Boot Record Signature AA55 Not Found (1) (a) Hold Ctrl as you boot for the Startup Menu, if it hasn't already been activated at "START, Run, MSConfig, Advanced button". Select to boot to the "Command Prompt Only" (DOS). .......Start...Quote from Windows 98 Secrets (Livingston/Straub)..... Ctrl or F8: Starts the Windows 98 Startup Menu. You need to hold down the Ctrl key before the DOS bootup process begins. If you have quick fingers you can press the F8 key in between the end of the power-on self test & the beginning of the DOS bootup phase. .......End........ (b) Alternatively, get a Startup Diskette from http://www.bootdisk.com/ , if you don't already have one from "Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, Startup Disk tab". Put the diskette in & turn on the computer. (2) Enter "DIR C:". Did you get a listing or an error message? If a listing, then... things to consider.... (1) Perhaps enter "SYS C:". This will copy certain system files (IO.sys, Command.com & perhaps MSDOS.sys) from the Startup Diskette to C:\. (It also sets the BPB drive number to HD0, so that it is now in the bootstrap. It does so, no matter whether it is HD0. To boot it, one must still move it to be HD0, however.) You may now be able to boot to Windows, if all folders are intact. If not, some further adjustment need be done to "MSDOS.sys", that was copied to C:\. The floppy has just a shell of it. Well, remove the floppy & boot. Oh gosh! Here are some warnings from Jeff Richards, MS MVP W95/W98, about "SYS C:". DON'T DO IT, he says, if: (a) "Major errors were reported in Scandisk." (b) "A drive is moved from one machine to another", because of the next two, maybe. (c) "The BIOS setting for a drive is changed (eg, LBA to LARGE)." (d) "A drive that uses overlay software is operated without the overlay loaded." (2) Enter "FDISK /MBR" This will rewrite the code portion of the Master Boot Record, leaving the Partition Table untouched, except it may muss the partition table, if there is a missing End-Of-Sector marker (55AA), per http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=149877 Boot Record Signature AA55 Not Found Here are the warnings against it... (a) If you have a boot sector virus, you may lose access to all partitions. Then http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/utilities.html MBRWork "might" help to recover them. (b) If you have "overlay" code in the MBR, e.g., EZ-BIOS, Maxblast, a boot manager, then that will need to be reestablished afterwards. http://www.aefdisk.com/ FDISK & Boot Manager http://support.microsoft.com/support.../Q245/1/62.ASP Overlay Utility & FDISK (c) FDISK may be buggy. So? Use MBRWork to do it, or http://support.microsoft.com/default...;en-us;Q263044 Latest FDISK, hoping this one doesn't have any bugs. (But it doesn't solve the 55AA thing.) (d) If for some reason the "geometry" setting in BIOS does not match the hard drive, then any write to the drive may be destructive. So, go into BIOS and have it "automatically detect" the proper setting. (If you can DIR the drive in DOS, then you have proven the geometry is probably all right, though Blanton has said it may not be so under a certain rare circumstance.) (3) (a) Boot to DOS. (Hold CTRL as you boot for the Startup Menu, & select "Command Prompt Only".) (b) Scandisk /Checkonly Might be wise to know beforehand what it intends to fix. Will display on screen & get written to "C:\Scandisk.log". (c) Scandisk Let it fix, if it didn't sound horrible. Otherwise, post what it said. In Dos, you may see "C:\Scandisk.log" this way... EDIT C:\Scandisk.log Alt-F-X (pressed separately) to exit EDIT. (TAB to traverse buttons.) ........Start......of quote of Glee.......... Download the diagnostics for your brand hard drive. If you do not know the brand, download Seagate SeaTools. After it is downloaded, double-click it, and it will create a bootable floppy disk with the diagnostic program on it. Then boot your problem computer using the bootable floppy, and choose the Generic long test. It will create a report that you can read from within the program when the tests are complete, and it is also saved as a text file on the floppy disk. Alternately, you can use the evaluation version of Ontrack Data Advisor, which is the same program in its original version. They both are created the same way. Seagate SeaTools: http://download.microshopper.com/har...e/seatoold.exe or http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/B7a.html Error codes: http://www.seagate.com/support/npf/s...ror_index.html Data Advisor: http://www.ontrack.com/freesoftware/#dataadvisor The download link has not been working recently...if it does not connect, use Seagate SeaTools instead. Installation instructions for both: http://www.ontrack.com/dataadvisor/downloadinfo.asp If you DO know the brand, find the diagnostics he Fujitsu http://www.fcpa.fujitsu.com/download...es/#diagnostic IBM and Hitachi http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#DFT Maxtor http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/products/index.htm Seagate http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/index.html Western Digital http://support.wdc.com/download/ or www.westerndigital.com -- Glen Ventura, MS MVP W95/98 Systems http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm ....glen -- Glen Ventura, MS MVP ............End......of quote......... -- Thanks or Good Luck, There may be humor in this post, and, Naturally, you will not sue, should things get worse after this, PCR "Alton" wrote in message ... | I was on the internet last night and my PC locked up. When I tried to | reboot, I received the following error message "Invalid System Disk - Replace | the disk, and then press any key". | There's no floppy disk in the A: drive. When I restart the PC my hard drive | is detected during startup. I confirmed in the BIOS that my hard drive is | detected. | I received the error message right after seeing "Verifying DMI Pool Data..." | during startup. I never see the Windows splash screen and I cannot get the | PC to boot up in Safe mode. | I tried a couple of things in the BIOS to no avail. I turned off the Floppy | drive and reconfigured the device booting order. None of this worked and | resulted in the same error message. Please help with any help and/or | suggestions. | |
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