Can`t boot up:invalid disc. But NO disc!

[art miller]

I`m using Windows 98.
PC will not boot.
Message: `Invalid system disc/remove/any key to continue`

But NO disc in PC!

Can`t start in Safe Mode.
System floppy and Boot up floppy won`t get passed `invalid disc` message.
Please help if you can.
Is it a BIOS or Registry problem? How do I fix it?

Thought back to what I did prior to problem. Shut down and removed a CD from drive just as power was going off. Would this have caused problem?

Any help much appreciated. Urgent!
Thanks, Art

 

[Bryan]

First you need to get it to boot to the W98 Boot Diskette. Insert a W98 Boot Diskette in the PC and power it on. Watch the floppy drive and be sure you literally hear it trying to read the floppy and boot to it. It sounds like you may need to change the "Boot Sequence" in the BIOS to A,C,D to get it to look to the floppy first before the harddrive or the W98 Boot Diskette you have is no good.

 

[Linkmaster]

Hi art miller,
You may have a Boot Sector Virus. Try going into the BIOS and set the boot sequence to boot from floppy. It may have been changed.

 

[Linkmaster]

Sorry Brian, posted together.

 

[Bryan]

That's ok, I may not be around later so feel free to jump in an help if you have time. First I was going to get him booting to the floppy and then have him run Scandisk. If it still doesn't boot to the hardrive after running scandisk, I was going to have him do a SYS C:

 

[Dafunkone]

That happened to me once. The error message could be an alert that IO.SYS and/or MSDOS.SYS are corrupt or missing. Reboot with a boot disk and reinstall Windows over it and it will rewrite the hidden files.

 

[art miller]

Thanks for your efforts -- but no go this end.

System set to read A then C.

With Boot Up floppy in A I get a message on the black screen that says it is going to boot from hard drive files......

Then I get the dreaded`invalid disc etc....`

Earlier I`d had a mail warning about the sulfnbk.exe virus.
Like an idiot I removed the file thinking it was the virus. Once I realised it was a hoax I restored the file.

The PC failed to boot after this. Is this a clue?

The only other thing I did which was a bit different: as I shut down I ejected a (magazine free) CD from the C drive just as he power was going off.
Any of this help??

Soooo frustrated without my PC working!!

Cheers, from England, Art

 

[art miller]

Another site just advised to reinstall win98 and not lose any data.

Is this possible considering I can`t get it to boot up???

Will I lose data and files??

Advice much appreciated, Art

 

[Bryan]

But your not going to be able to reinstall Windows if you can't get it to boot to the floppy drive. It's one of three things at this point. The boot diskette is bad, the floppy drive is bad or it's still trying to boot to the hardrive first.

First try making a new boot floppy and eliminate that as the cause,

Go <a href=http://www.user-friendly.net/download/download.htm> here</a> on any functioning Windows PC and download Boot98.exe to the harddrive. It doesn't matter what version of Windows it's running. Once it’s downloaded to the harddrive, you need to execute the program to build the new W98 boot diskette. Insert a blank floppy diskette and double left click on Boot98.exe to create a W98 boot diskette.

Now insert the New bootdisk in your bad PC and power on the PC. Does it boot to a 3 option Boot Menu now?

If not and it still gives you an "Invalid disk message", open the case and unplug the hardrive. Now power on the PC with the boot floppy in it. What happens now?

Let us know what happens.

 

[art miller]

Does this help find the reason I can`t boot my PC?

I disconnected the drives and got the following results.

Hard disc disconnected.
Boot floppy in A.
Start sequence: A,C,SCSI
"No system disc. Booting from hard disc"
"Cannot load from hard disc."
"Insert system disc, press any key."
Removed boot disc.
Insert system disc.
"Invalid system disc. Replace and press any key"
Removed floppy.
Pressed key.
"DISC BOOT FAILURE. INSERT SYSTEM DISC AND PRESS ANY KEY"
CTRL,ALT,DELETE with boot floppy in.
Same error message.

---------------

With floppy disconnected.
"Floppy disc(s) fail (40)"
"Press F1 to continue, DEL to setup"
DEL/setup
BIOS sequence changed to C,CDROM,A
save and exit
Restarts.
"Floppy disc(s) fail (40)"
F1 = "Invalid disc etc......"

-----------------

Anyone got any ideas??

Thanks, Art

PS: Tried creating a new boot disc from your net link. But every floppy I tried to write to failed. "Bad sector 0 etc" Weird

Is it OK to make a boot disc using this (my daughter`s) PC?

 

[Gnosisless]

If I might put my two-cents' worth in on a boot disk...

I suggest the Ultimate Boot Disk, available at cnet.com. It has all sorts of troubleshooting tools, including the ability to restore msdos.sys files.

http://download.cnet.com/downloads/0-10106-100-5211181.html?tag=st.dl.10001-103-1.lst-7-1.5211181

Remember also that it could be a bad/disconnected (at the system board) IDE cable, loose power supply cable, etc, etc. Sometimes the simplest things are the ones that get ya.

 

[Gnosisless]

I should probably mention that for the Ultimate Boot Disk, you just download the exe, and then run it on any PC. Have a clean floppy available, and it will create the disk in a few minutes.

There is a version for Windows 98 and a version for Windows ME

 

[Bryan]

http://forums.techguy.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=63654