installing OS on older computer

I have wiped the hard drive of one of my older computers
and want to reinstall the OS. a task that I am familiar
with but; however, when I turn the computer on I get an
invalid system disk error which you usually see if you
have a non-boot disk in the floppy drive, obviously that
is what I thought the problem was. I get that error when
there is no boot disk in the floppy drive and I get that
error even when I insert the boot disk and reboot the
computer. I cannot get past the invalid system disk error
to install the OS. I appreciate any suggestions. FYI I am
installing Win98SE

on startup when the BIOS setup appears enter BIOS and change the Boot
sequence, it is seeking the Hard disk first which contains no OS, change boot
sequence to a;c;d or Floppy disk;hard disk;cdrom ,,different makers bios use
different words for the same thing, then reoboot and the boot disk will be
seen.

--
Adaware http://www.lavasoft.de
spybot http://security.kolla.de
AVG free antivirus http://www.grisoft.com
Panda online AntiVirus scan http://www.pandasoftware.com/ActiveScan/
Catalog of removal tools http://www.pandasoftware.com/download/utilities/
Blocking Unwanted Parasites with a Hosts file
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm
links provided as a courtesy, read all instructions on the pages before use
Grateful thanks to the authors/webmasters

"brad" wrote in message
...
| I have wiped the hard drive of one of my older computers
| and want to reinstall the OS. a task that I am familiar
| with but; however, when I turn the computer on I get an
| invalid system disk error which you usually see if you
| have a non-boot disk in the floppy drive, obviously that
| is what I thought the problem was. I get that error when
| there is no boot disk in the floppy drive and I get that
| error even when I insert the boot disk and reboot the
| computer. I cannot get past the invalid system disk error
| to install the OS. I appreciate any suggestions. FYI I am
| installing Win98SE

Go into the BIOS and check the boot device list. It looks like it is set to
boot from the HD only.

Simon


"brad" wrote in message
...
I have wiped the hard drive of one of my older computers
and want to reinstall the OS. a task that I am familiar
with but; however, when I turn the computer on I get an
invalid system disk error which you usually see if you
have a non-boot disk in the floppy drive, obviously that
is what I thought the problem was. I get that error when
there is no boot disk in the floppy drive and I get that
error even when I insert the boot disk and reboot the
computer. I cannot get past the invalid system disk error
to install the OS. I appreciate any suggestions. FYI I am
installing Win98SE

brad wrote:

I have wiped the hard drive of one of my older computers
and want to reinstall the OS. a task that I am familiar
with but; however, when I turn the computer on I get an
invalid system disk error which you usually see if you
have a non-boot disk in the floppy drive, obviously that
is what I thought the problem was. I get that error when
there is no boot disk in the floppy drive and I get that
error even when I insert the boot disk and reboot the
computer. I cannot get past the invalid system disk error
to install the OS. I appreciate any suggestions. FYI I am
installing Win98SE

Hi,

Make a new boot disk( www.bootdisk.com is a source ), check the boot
order in BIOS to ensure it is looking for the floppy. Possibly a bad
floppy cable/drive also.

mm

-----Original Message-----
I have wiped the hard drive of one of my older computers
and want to reinstall the OS. a task that I am familiar
with but; however, when I turn the computer on I get an
invalid system disk error which you usually see if you
have a non-boot disk in the floppy drive, obviously that
is what I thought the problem was. I get that error when
there is no boot disk in the floppy drive and I get that
error even when I insert the boot disk and reboot the
computer. I cannot get past the invalid system disk error
to install the OS. I appreciate any suggestions. FYI I am
installing Win98SE
.

It looks as if you haven't partitioned or formatted the
hard drive correctly - or it has died.

Try booting up from a start-up disk, the files for which
can be obtained from http://www.bootdisk.com/ if you don't
have one, and try entering the fdisk command, checking the
partition information, running ScanDisk, finding the
directories, files, etc.

If you can't do any of that, you need to buy a new hard disk.

Eric,
http://www.pcbuyerbeware.co.uk/

brad wrote in message ...
I have wiped the hard drive of one of my older computers
and want to reinstall the OS. a task that I am familiar
with but; however, when I turn the computer on I get an
invalid system disk error which you usually see if you
have a non-boot disk in the floppy drive, obviously that
is what I thought the problem was. I get that error when
there is no boot disk in the floppy drive and I get that
error even when I insert the boot disk and reboot the
computer. I cannot get past the invalid system disk error
to install the OS. I appreciate any suggestions. FYI I am
installing Win98SE

The Boot process isn't looking for the floppy FIRST,
so even if it is inserted, it will make no difference.
The machine will still try to boot from the (wiped) hard drive,
which no longer has the system files to boot from.

Run the BIOS Setup program.

The boot screen will tell you how to do that
[Press DEL or F1, or similar instruction].

Check the Boot options. You need to be set up
so that the floppy precedes the hard drive
in the Boot process priority sequence.

How did you wipe the HD?
If in fact the HD is clean and properly formated? Set
boot to CD-Rom and run win98 install.
-----Original Message-----
I have wiped the hard drive of one of my older computers
and want to reinstall the OS. a task that I am familiar
with but; however, when I turn the computer on I get an
invalid system disk error which you usually see if you
have a non-boot disk in the floppy drive, obviously that
is what I thought the problem was. I get that error when
there is no boot disk in the floppy drive and I get that
error even when I insert the boot disk and reboot the
computer. I cannot get past the invalid system disk error
to install the OS. I appreciate any suggestions. FYI I am
installing Win98SE
.

ppoatt wrote:

Set boot to CD-Rom and run win98 install.

Hi,

Win98 is not on a bootable CD.

mm

The Windows 98 CDs I have seen were bootable.


"Mostly Me (MM)" wrote in message
...
ppoatt wrote:

Set boot to CD-Rom and run win98 install.

Hi,

Win98 is not on a bootable CD.

mm

Yves Leclerc wrote:

The Windows 98 CDs I have seen were bootable.



Well, I do see there are bootable versions out there. Seems I've only
used unbootable. Such a sheltered life I've led...

mm