mnawrath
asked on
Invalid System Disk
Invalid System Disk Error. Can boot to floopy but can't connect to c:. What do I do?
Can you boot to the floppy, and read the C: drive (DIR C:)?
Does your system BIOS recognize the hard disk?
If not, enter your CMOS setup, (F1, Delete, or another key indicated at startup) and check your hard disk settings. If available in your CMOS, Auto Detect the drive. If it recognizes the drive correctly, Save, and exit.
Explain the circumstances leading to the error, and we will try to help more if needed.
Does your system BIOS recognize the hard disk?
If not, enter your CMOS setup, (F1, Delete, or another key indicated at startup) and check your hard disk settings. If available in your CMOS, Auto Detect the drive. If it recognizes the drive correctly, Save, and exit.
Explain the circumstances leading to the error, and we will try to help more if needed.
Is your HD seen in the BIOS settings.
NO: check all your connection and power supply
YES: Can you access your HD by booting from disk
NO: YOu have to fdisk and format your HD
YES: No system on it use sys c: or install a system like Windows 95, Linux, ...
NO: check all your connection and power supply
YES: Can you access your HD by booting from disk
NO: YOu have to fdisk and format your HD
YES: No system on it use sys c: or install a system like Windows 95, Linux, ...
rbr: Gee, thats what I just said! Thanks for repeating it for me with an "Answer".
rbr: all you did was put Jason_s and my comments together and post it as an answer.
Be orginal why don't you.
CJ
Be orginal why don't you.
CJ
ASKER
Adjusted points to 200
mnwrath:
You need to answer the questions above before we can go any farther. The main question that does need to be answered, is if you go into your BIOS, to the drive setup area, is there a hard drive there? Can you autodetect the drive if it isn't?
Also: What happened before you lost your disk? Did you just turn on the computer, or did you reboot? Did you have a power failure? Were you installing hardware or software?
Let me know.
You need to answer the questions above before we can go any farther. The main question that does need to be answered, is if you go into your BIOS, to the drive setup area, is there a hard drive there? Can you autodetect the drive if it isn't?
Also: What happened before you lost your disk? Did you just turn on the computer, or did you reboot? Did you have a power failure? Were you installing hardware or software?
Let me know.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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I have encountered almost the same problem. I tryed to install a second HD but it failed. When I placed everything back to normal I couldn't gain access to my original drive.
I always got the same invalid System Disk Error.
The first thing that came into my mind was that the BIOS didn't recogniced my HD. I checked the BIOS, but the BIOS was properly stating my HD.
Next I tried booting from a floppy disk. Booting from floppy was no problem. Than I tried to look at my c: drive but the system reported Not ready reading drive C
Abort,Retry,Fail
Meening there is no drive!!!
Next I ran fdisk (from floppy) to check the partion information. To my surprice there was no partition information. I tried create partition / primary DOS partition to check if the system was able to detect the drive. But when you invoke the option create primary DOS partition, the partition is immediatly created and not after finishing fdisk, meaning you loose everything on the disk. What appears to be my problem.
With this I want to inform that it's possible that you cannot access your HD even if your BIOS is reporting it and its not only your MBR that's lost.
Hope you get your problem solved.
I always got the same invalid System Disk Error.
The first thing that came into my mind was that the BIOS didn't recogniced my HD. I checked the BIOS, but the BIOS was properly stating my HD.
Next I tried booting from a floppy disk. Booting from floppy was no problem. Than I tried to look at my c: drive but the system reported Not ready reading drive C
Abort,Retry,Fail
Meening there is no drive!!!
Next I ran fdisk (from floppy) to check the partion information. To my surprice there was no partition information. I tried create partition / primary DOS partition to check if the system was able to detect the drive. But when you invoke the option create primary DOS partition, the partition is immediatly created and not after finishing fdisk, meaning you loose everything on the disk. What appears to be my problem.
With this I want to inform that it's possible that you cannot access your HD even if your BIOS is reporting it and its not only your MBR that's lost.
Hope you get your problem solved.
a:\
type
sys c:
That should work.
CJ