Invalid Boot Diskette

G

Guest

Help!!! I notified Dell and was given instructions on how to delete
partitions and work in dos mode to format my drive. I use to run Windows 98
SE, but for the last three years I have had Windows XP. I got a virus and
the rest is all downhill from there. I wanted to restore my PC to factory
condition and reinstall Windows XP. I did what needed to be done in dos, but
now when my PC starts up it goes to a black screen that says, "Invalid Boot
Diskette- Insert Boot Diskette in A:", but the problem is, I did not make a
back up disc on floppy like I was suppose to. Someone told me to try and
remove the battery from the motherboard and then turn the PC on and it should
boot from my Windows XP CD, but it won't. My Cd-Rom is set up to be my first
boot device so that is not the problem. Does anyone have any suggestions on
how I can fix my PC to get rid of the Invalid Boot Diskette error and to a
regular screen on my PC???? Thank you!!!
 
M

M

I had a similar problem with a Dell that refused to boot from the CD ROM
even the is was set as the first boot drive in the BIOS. The solution was
to disable all other boot devices after which it booted from the CD. XP
then loaded onto the hard drive even though the hard drive was disabled in
the BIOS. Maybe this will work for you.
If this fails I would try removing the floppy disc cable from the
motherboard and replacing it after XP has loaded.
 
P

peterk

http://www.bootdisk.com/
Download the appropriate boot disk and expand to a floppy.
If you use a 98 boot disk you can load the CD drivers from the floppy and
then navigate to the CD drive with XP in the drive and run setup from there.
peterk
 
V

Vic Baron

Kelly Eisenhard said:
Help!!! I notified Dell and was given instructions on how to delete
partitions and work in dos mode to format my drive. I use to run Windows 98
SE, but for the last three years I have had Windows XP. I got a virus and
the rest is all downhill from there. I wanted to restore my PC to factory
condition and reinstall Windows XP. I did what needed to be done in dos, but
now when my PC starts up it goes to a black screen that says, "Invalid Boot
Diskette- Insert Boot Diskette in A:", but the problem is, I did not make a
back up disc on floppy like I was suppose to. Someone told me to try and
remove the battery from the motherboard and then turn the PC on and it should
boot from my Windows XP CD, but it won't. My Cd-Rom is set up to be my first
boot device so that is not the problem. Does anyone have any suggestions on
how I can fix my PC to get rid of the Invalid Boot Diskette error and to a
regular screen on my PC???? Thank you!!!

Did you go into the BIOS and change the setting to boot from the cd?
 
R

Richard

Kelly,

See if you have a friend with a Win98 or WinME boot
disk it should work to get you up.
 

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