invalid system disk/no operating system URGENT!!!

[anesthezea]

The system was running Windows 2000 Pro edition, but the sound card wasn't compatible with it, so I was trying to reformat the computer to put Windows 98 back on, starting with a clean slate, so to speak. I changed the BIOS to make sure that it would boot from the floppy disk, put my universal boot disk into A: with my Windows 98 cd in Drive D, and started the system up in DOS. At the C: prompt, I put in "format c:/q" to reformat the drive. It started to reformat but then stopped, with an error saying it couldn't continue because the disck was locked. something about dismounting the volume. I wasn't sure how to proceed after that so I restarted the system. Got an error of "No operating system found". Restarted. I tried getting MS DOS 7.1 and installing that, but I got an error message of "Invalid system disk. Replace and press any key to continue". I restarted again without anything in any of the drives and get the same message reapeating. I don't even get the c: prompt anymore. I tried getting bootdisks from bootdisks.com, but they wouldn't writer properly to floppy disk. Please, please advise!! Would it help if I went back into BIOS and restore the default settings?

[Murf]

Welcome to CTH

You should not try to format from the C: prompt. Windows 2000 in my opinion is a better operating system then Windows 98. If you tell us the sound card brand/model, we can probably find the drivers for it. However, you now have a busted installation so that needs to be fixed first.

I have used bootdisk.com bootdisk probably 100 times and never had a problem

When you download from bootdisk.com did you download the file to your desktop or hard drive then extrated the files to the floppy? You cannot download the file directly to a floppy and try and boot with it.

Go back to bootdisk.com and download the following file Windows 98 Custom, No Ramdrive HERE

Download it to either your desktop or somewhere on the hard drive. Now put a clean formatted floppy in and double click on the file you downloaded. A window will come up and it will extract the boot files to the floppy disk.

Now boot with this floppy disk, watch the screen as it will tell you what drive letter it assigns to your cdrom, you will end up at the A:> prompt

Now at the A:/> prompt type the following:

format C: - hit <enter>

This starts the format process. WARNING: You lose ALL DATA on the drive when you format it

The format /q is a QUICK FORMAT. Don't use it.

NOW

One of the problems may be that the hard drive was originally formated as a NTFS partition. You cannot format it with the bootdisk. You would have to delete the partition then create a Primary DOS Partition, then format it - I suspect this may be true.

If you wish to continue with this process advise and we can walk you through. If you want to reinstall Windows 2000 and let us help you find the right drivers, we would need to know which sound card you have.

[zack_rage]

HI

i think if you want to format your disk use the boot disk and then fdisk for (windows 98 start up) so that you can delete the primary partition follow each options you see on the fdisk command prompt select delete non dos partition (primary) which is ntfs for w2k and then format it by typing a:\> format c:

thats it i think !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[anesthezea]

Originally Posted by Murf

Welcome to CTH

One of the problems may be that the hard drive was originally formated as a NTFS partition. You cannot format it with the bootdisk. You would have to delete the partition then create a Primary DOS Partition, then format it - I suspect this may be true.

How do I do this?

[BearNunya]

Originally Posted by anesthezea

How do I do this?

Please read message 2 from Murf very carefuly

[Murf]

anesthezea

I see you are here, what do you want to do reference my previous post.

Reinstall Windows 200, we help find the right driver

Install Windows 98 after formatting and getting the hard drive ready?

[anesthezea]

Thank you!

I'd like to get the hard drive ready and then install Win 98. Where do I start?

[Murf]

^^^bump^^^

[bAdWaYz]

Ok I think I am clear on what she wants done here. She wants to get rid of her pooched 2k install and do a clean install of 98? From reading the thread I might be able to point her in the right direction. Given the state that her hard drive is in and the fact that she changed the BIOS settings this is what I would advise. "BTW I have no idea why I'm saying her or she the name just seems like a girls name to me" Now back to the fun at hand....

1. Boot into the BIOS and change it back to the default settings. If you changed anything other than the boot order that is. So use the default settings but you want to keep booting from the floppy for now.

2 Go to the link that Murf gave and download that file to you're desktop. After its on you're desktop stick a blank floppy in the drive and click the icon of the file. It will extract all you need and make a nice little boot disk for you.

3. Now that you have the bootdisk just restart the computer with the floppy disk in the drive. "Note that in the BIOS you left it to boot to floppy". The disk will boot and you should come to an A: At this point type fdisk and hit the enter key. You will see a message telling you that you're computer has a disk lager than 512MB's and it asks if you want to enable large disk support. I would go ahead and enable it unless you plan to use some really old disk util's and or old operating systems. Just hit the enter key to keep going. You should then see another message telling you that you're computer has NTFS partitions and they too require large drive support. This is just telling you that the Windows 2k install that you had is using the NTFS partition. Since that is the partition that we want to get rid of just hit Y then the enter key. Now you are at the fdisk options menu. From there you can do alot of things. It may be a good idea to hit the number 4 then the enter key here. This will display the partition info for you. That way you can get a good idea of what partition's you have and what you will be getting rid of. When you have seen this and are done looking hit the ESC key to get back to the fdisk options menu. Now you want to press the 3 key and hit the enter key. This will take you to the "Delete DOS partition or logical DOS drive menu" What we want to do is press the 4 key then hit enter. This will allow you to delete the non DOS partition that Windows 2k was using. Just pick the number that matches the NTFS partition. If you have more than one then delete them one at a time. After your NTFS partition is gone it will tell you that you will have to format the drive and such, don't worry about that. Just hit the ESC key untill you are back at the A: promt. Now take the boot floppy out of the drive and restart you're computer. Go back into the BIOS once more and change the boot device to boot to the cd rom first. When that is done stick in you're Windows 98 install cd and restart.

4. When the computer starts up it should boot to the cd-rom drive with the 98 cd in it. You should get the nice Windows 98 install going from there its cake.

If you run into trouble or have questions post back, we are here to help.

[anesthezea]

Originally Posted by bAdWaYz

If you run into trouble or have questions post back, we are here to help.

First off, thank you for your help and the instructions!

I made the bootdisk and booted the computer into BIOS and reset the default settings and then checked to make sure that it would boot from the floppy disk, then saved/exit. I restarted with the bootdisk and got this message again: "Invalid system disk. Please replace and press any key to continue". I restarted the system again with the same result. The only change from my last post is that I get the Hewlett Packard splash screen now. lol.

[anesthezea]

I went back into the computer and tried bAdWaYz's instructions again. This time round a few things worked, but ultimately there's still a problem.

First off, I reset the BIOS to its default settings and rebooted with the bootdisk in drive A. It didn't work with the one I made from bootdisk.com, but worked with the Universal Boot Disk that I have. At the A: prompt, I typed FDISK and followed the notes I'd made from bAdWaYz and deleted the NTFS partition. I restarted and changed the BIOS to boot from the CD-Rom and put the Windows 98 cd in. I rebooted with the cd and it went into a sort of setup that gave me the option to format or exit the setup. I chose format but got this message: "Please insert the following disk in Drive D: Windows 98 Boot Disk (or CD-Rom)".

I pressed F3 to exit the setup and got this message: "General Failure Reading Drive D".

I restarted.

And got the "Starting Windows 95...." bit.

And then "Drive C: is not a FAT16 or FAT32 partition".

I repeated the FDISK and partition deletion the same way I'd done it the first time and found myself with an A: prompt again.

I changed to C: drive and typed DIR and got the following:

Volume of drive C has no label.
Volume serial number etc...
Dir of C:\
File not found.
7,716,864 bytes free.

With the Windows 98 cd still in the CD-ROM, I changed to drive D: and typed DIR to see if it was reading the cd. I tried D: SETUP and got "Setup is now going to perform a routine check of your system. To continue, press ENTER. To quit SETUP, press ESC. I hit enter and got the Windows 98 setup. The real one. Then it dashed all my hopes by saying: "Setup cannot find enough disk space to install Windows 98. Setup will quit. Free some disk space and then run Setup again. You will need atleast 205 MB of free space to install Windows 98".

So...

I think I'm going to hit my head on my desk a few times and see if anyone here can make heads or tails out of all that.

[bAdWaYz]

Don't get too down just yet. I have to eat dinner but when I get back I'll post

[smurfy]

anesthezea, I believe we have missed an important step. You have managed to remove the NTFS partition but we don't appear to have replaced it with a new FAT32 partition to put Windows onto.

Reboot with the Floppy bootdisk that works.
From the A:> prompt typr FDISK again.
See out Tutorials page here:
http://www.cybertechhelp.com/html/tu...rial.php/id/37

Once the partition is created and formatted, you will be able to boot from the Win98 Cd and run setup (hopefully successfully).