'invalid disc error' when theres no disc!

[dilerious]

my computer wont boot. it stops while the screen is black and says 'invalid system disc, replace disc and press any key to continue' there is no disc in the drives and no matter wat i press it wont boot up. DOS and everything else works fine...i just cant get to windows. wats up??!!

[PurestLight]

Hi dilerious :)

The only times this has happened to me is when:
a) I have left a floppy disc in the A drive and
b) more recently, when I dont unplug my external HDD

This sounds like a silly question as I know you said you'd checked, but is there DEFINITELY no disc in your floppy drive???

[dilerious]

yea im sure, and i dont have an external drive...i doint get it

is there some way to bypass the DOS safety and still boot, even if it detects a disc?

[PurestLight]

Could you go into the BIOS (Press 'Delete' key (modern Award and AMI BIOSes) or press 'F2' (modern Phoenix BIOSes) and check your boot sequence? Maybe its been altered somehow. If you set your First boot device as your hard drive and disable the 2nd boot device, then re-start and see if anything different happens. You can always change it back again to how you were :)