Invalid System Disk Error

Soundman

Sorry if this has been asked before but the search won't work for some reason.

Basically: I'm trying to fix my Dad's computer which is a reasonably old Dell Omniplex which was bought as refurbished. Up until about a week ago no problems but suddenly it refused to boot up just coming up with the message:

"Invalid System Disk"
"Please reinsert Disk and press any key"

Managed to solve the problem by reinstalling Windows 98SE which was the original OS on it. But this morning it has happened again so I'm baffled as to what is causing it. The Anti-virus is a decent program and found nothing after the last incident, computer has been checked for spyware and adware but nothing has been found.

I usually have a fair idea about fixing computer problems but this one has me lost.
Any help but would be appreciated.

Baldie

This is probably a dumb question, but, did you check if there was a floppy disk in the drive??

seamus

Could be one of a couple of problems;
Dodgy IDE Controller;
Dodgy IDE Cable;
Dodgy HDD;

Try download a Win98 boot disk (if you don't already have one) from www.bootdisk.com, then boot from that, and run
fdisk /mbr and reboot. If it boots fine, then I suspect something is messing with your boot block.

If it's a constant and sudden problem (i.e. it continues to occur no matter how many times you reboot), then that suggests a dodgy HDD or some dodgy software. On the other hand, if it works sometimes, but not every time, it suggests a dodgy cable, controller or HDD.

Baldie

This might help

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;128730

Zapho

Baldie wrote:

This is probably a dumb question, but, did you check if there was a floppy disk in the drive??

I was just going to ask that!
Apart from that I can think of 3 things. The first being that
the harddrive is either faulty or the IDE cable is loose.
The other being a faulty bios whereby it can't read
IDE properly so try reflashing the bios. Or simply something
happened to autoexe.bat or io.sys or another system file
and now the system won't boot up.

Esel

Baldie wrote:

This is probably a dumb question, but, did you check if there was a floppy disk in the drive??

I second this suggestion! :eek:

Soundman

No there is no disk in the floppy drive. I'm not that stupid, though thanks for the suggestion. Will give the rest of those suggestions a go when I get home.

smeggle

change your bios battery. If it's an old comp as you say that will be your problem. Battery runs out and the bios can't mount your drive on boot and shows an invalid system disk error.

bios battery is more than likely the cause...

Hagar

Th floppy disk sensor may be stuck making the Pc think there is a disk in the drive.
Try disabling/uplugging the floppy drive.

Ruu_Old

id check the cmos battery, it holds all the bootup settings. could be a number of things as the guys have said.

Soundman

This battery you speak of. Would this be a 3v(?) lithium battery mounted in a circular mount on the mobo? If so then it isn't a dead battery as I changed it a few months ago. Might try the floppy suggestion aswell. Cheers guys.

Ruu_Old

thats the one alright try using a boot disk to get to the c:\ and see if its accessible from there. best of luck anyway