Invalid System Disk Replace The Disk

[zayde]

operating an HP computer pentium III Windows ME, when re booting, I keep getting told invalid disk replacedisc. It does not recognize my recovery boot disk when I tried it. My son suggested putting in the Norton AV CD and having it boot and scan for a virus. I have done this 2x and each time, it freezes on "Windows\system\OOBE\MSOBSHEL.HTM? anyone have a suggestion? Also note that the computer normally runs Macafee anti virus and firewall. THe system 'froze' while my wife was on AOL and had just downloaded an excel file to 'my documents'. I do not want to take the 'drastic' step of using the HP system recovery system disks as it warns that it will reformat the hard drive, and i am feaful of loosing everything. Please help!

[AnnMarie]

Welcome to CTH zayde, have you tried booting into Safe Mode? If not, give it a try. Restart your PC and tap F8 as it restarts. If you can boot into Safe Mode, you can run System Restore. Let us know how you get on.

[zayde]

When i tried to reboot using F8 i kept getting the invalid disk message. when i booted using a win98 recovery disk it loads dos, and I cannot get into windows. I was finally able to have my circa 2002 norton anti virus cd (corp edition 8)to run/scan, but it (not having virus definitions updated found nothing) it did hang up for hours on "windows\system\oobe\msobshell.htm" . I also noted the following files 'changed' at the time the system crashed last nite alll in the windows directory:(FILE NAME AND SIZE LISTED BELOW)
WAVEMIX.INI 54
WAISERVC.LOG 50
WIN386.SWP 134,217,728
SCHEDLOG.TXT 32,525
WINPOE~3.TXT 4,611
SYSTEM.INI 2,606
POWRPNT.INNI 60
NDSILOG.TXT 0
SETUPAPI.LOG 2,105,456
MCAFEE~1.COM <DIR>
note: they system runs mcafee anti virus (internet version) and also mcafee personal firewall . I got a message when running the Norton, that there was insufficient disk space to create a temp file so it did not scan compressed files. It also failed to create a scan log due to insufficient space. the disk has 39,868,512 total of which 28,161,472 kb is available.

[AnnMarie]

OK, if you can get a dos prompt, you should be able to run scanreg /restore. Try this:

Power up again with the bootdisk in the drive.

At the a:\> prompt enter the following and press enter after each line:

c:
cd windows\command
scanreg /restore

Remove bootdisk and use your arrow keys to select a started registry from the list displayed that is dated prior to the installation from one of the first 4 displayed. The oldest, or 5th may not restore. Press enter.

NB Any software or hardware that was installed after the date selected will have to be reinstalled.

[zayde]

I got to windows command and did the scanreg /restore from the date immediately prior to the date of the problem. Got a message that errors were found and that a restore was done. I then tried to reboot without the boot up disk and got the doomed "Invalid system disk Replace the disk, and then press any key. I re loaded, and tried again, this time from the day immediately proceeding the last date chosen (system prob was on 11.14 I originally choose 11.13 then i even tried 11.11 with same doomed message.

There is also an 11.9 and an 11.7 which I have not tried. I do appreciate your time and patience with this. Please advise, thank you.

[Strider]

Zayde, I fear you have a bad hard drive. When you boot with a floppy disk, can you access your hard drive at all? When you get to the A:> prompt, if you type C: <enter> do you get C:> after a second or so, or do you get an error?