Invalid system disk

  • Thread starter Thread starter seabat
  • Start date Start date
OK, here's a followup to this adventure into the computer of
yesteryear. :) I took all the RAM out and all the cards except for
the video and then put in just two sticks of RAM. (Ya have to have
pairs in this old puppy), so that gave me a wopping total of 16MB RAM.
But it did post! Relief! Then, in a flurry of drive swapping I
finally got it to a command promt. I'm on my third floppy! Then the
hard disk couldn't be detected. So, back to swapping. Finally got a
hard drive that would let me fdisk and format it. The others would
just site there or stop formatting at around 90%. So I'm on my third
hard drive now. Two bad Western Digitals and a good Seagate, all
1.2GB.

So now I have Windows 95 loaded. I was afraid that with 16MB of RAM
the system wouldn't run worth a damn with Win98. I did have a little
trouble with the CD-ROM drive also, but I think it just needed to get
the cob webs blown out of it.

Now I can haul it up to he local school district and give it to them
for teaching purposes. I want to thank all you guys(girls) for all the
help. It makes a difference when you know you're not alone with a
cranky old machine! Thanks again.
 
seabat said:
OK, here's a followup to this adventure into the computer of
yesteryear. :) I took all the RAM out and all the cards except for
the video and then put in just two sticks of RAM. (Ya have to have
pairs in this old puppy), so that gave me a wopping total of 16MB RAM.
But it did post! Relief! Then, in a flurry of drive swapping I
finally got it to a command promt. I'm on my third floppy! Then the
hard disk couldn't be detected. So, back to swapping. Finally got a
hard drive that would let me fdisk and format it. The others would
just site there or stop formatting at around 90%. So I'm on my third
hard drive now. Two bad Western Digitals and a good Seagate, all
1.2GB.

So now I have Windows 95 loaded. I was afraid that with 16MB of RAM
the system wouldn't run worth a damn with Win98. I did have a little
trouble with the CD-ROM drive also, but I think it just needed to get
the cob webs blown out of it.

Now I can haul it up to he local school district and give it to them
for teaching purposes. I want to thank all you guys(girls) for all the
help. It makes a difference when you know you're not alone with a
cranky old machine! Thanks again.
Click to expand...

Why not put the RAM back in? That had nothing to do with your boot problem.
 
I thought that an indication of bad RAM was not being able to boot? If
one stick of the RAM is bad it messes up the whole thing, true?? Sure
would like to slap some more MB into this puppy.
 
seabat said:
I thought that an indication of bad RAM was not being able to boot? If
one stick of the RAM is bad it messes up the whole thing, true?? Sure
would like to slap some more MB into this puppy.
Click to expand...

"Not being able to boot" can mean a lot if things (doesn't post? can't find
hard drive? invalid system disk? gets part way but hangs? restarts?, and
more) but there's no indication that the RAM had anything whatsoever to do
with the problem you were having.

That doesn't mean it's good but there's no indication that it's bad either.
You'd have to try it to find out and the odds are it's fine.
 
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