"Invalid System Disk"

[LunaNox]

My friend is trying to boot up an old Compaq computer. Everytime it boots up it says, "Invalid System Disk. Remove and press any key to continue." Problem is, there is no disk in there.

We have tried totally disconnecting the A drive (totally taking it out of the computer) and it still says it. We have a Windows 98 disk that we are trying to have it boot up from ad it does, but then it says a whole bunch of error messages saying that the config.sys file is corrupted.

Is there any way to fix this? I would be very grateful for any ideas!

 

[Cherubimon_3.20]

See, What that means is that there is no operating system on the harddrive, and it have nothing to do with the disk or A: drive.
The system disk is your OS on the HD. If you have the Win98 CD, then you can boot the computer again!! And you can also try formatting the hard drive.

Hope that helps!

 

[LunaNox]

We have tried loading the win98 CD. There are two options when it boots up reading from the CDROM drive:

1) Boot from CD
2) Boot from Hard Drive

When I select one, it gives the whole list of errors dealing with the config.sys file.

And when I select two, it gives me the "invalid system disk" error again.

 

[ADZ]

try making another booty and givin' it a try

 

[LunaNox]

Using the A drive?

How would I go about doing that? (make another boot copy)

 

[ekÆsine]

you would have to go to another computer running windows millenium or windows 98/95 and make a startup disk. it sounds like you have quite a problem though. i wouldn't be surprised if a new startup disk doesn't solve your problem.

 

[LunaNox]

Yea, I think we tried making a new boot up disk, or taking one that I already had, and it didn't work.

So am I basically screwed? I don't really wanna hear that...

 

[ADZ]

thats a little negative. so when u put the floppy in, and u try booting, and u select, start computer without CD rom support, wait...do u even get that far?

 

[LunaNox]

The system is halting right after it gives a listing of all the drivers and such when the computer starts loading. We can't get to the OS.

I went into the setup and changed it so that the loadup reads the CDROM drive first (*where the WIN 98 CD is*) and then it gives me those two options that I explained earlier.

Now with the boot disk. I see there are two different options for Win 98.
1) Win 98 OEM
2) Win 98 Custom, No Ramdrive

??? Which one should I choose? (What does OEM stand for?)

 

[LunaNox]

Ok... so wait.

I make this boot disk using a floppy disk. I enter it into the computer and then start it.

Why would I have to have it boot to the CD? Is is supposed to boot to the WIN98 CD that we already have or the boot disk I'm about to make?