Invalid System Disk ??!

[Foxy Lady]

Hope someone out there can help me. I formatted the hard drive on my
laptop. That successfully done I was about to load win 98 on when I
lost power (in house) to laptop. When I did get power again this is
where the fun began.

Laptop runs through system memory check - everything okay there - then
I get a message that reads:

Please run SETUP program.
Press F1 key to continue.

Then a message that reads:

Invalid system disk
Replace the disk, and then press any key.

Tried a variety of things, Esc, F1, F2, F3, Ctrl+F1 as my friend and PC
World suggested, but nothing worked. CDROM for 98 did not work and
neither did startup disk.

Cheers.

 

[JAD]

your trying to 'boot' from what?
boot sequence is set to 1 floppy 2 harddrive ect?
If you have no system disk loaded and the harddrive is empty...there is no
system disk to boot from

 

[Michael Hawes]

Hope someone out there can help me. I formatted the hard drive on my
laptop. That successfully done I was about to load win 98 on when I
lost power (in house) to laptop. When I did get power again this is
where the fun began.

Laptop runs through system memory check - everything okay there - then
I get a message that reads:

Please run SETUP program.
Press F1 key to continue.

Then a message that reads:

Invalid system disk
Replace the disk, and then press any key.

Tried a variety of things, Esc, F1, F2, F3, Ctrl+F1 as my friend and PC
World suggested, but nothing worked. CDROM for 98 did not work and
neither did startup disk.

Cheers.

What Laptop? So, what happens if you press F1? You need to get into BIOS
and set floppy or CDROM as first boot, then you can useWin98 CD or startup
diskette. Why was battery not able to power laptop?
Mike.

 

[Pelysma]

Hope someone out there can help me. I formatted the hard drive on my
laptop. That successfully done I was about to load win 98 on when I
lost power (in house) to laptop. When I did get power again this is
where the fun began.

Laptop runs through system memory check - everything okay there - then
I get a message that reads:

Please run SETUP program.
Press F1 key to continue.

Then a message that reads:

Invalid system disk
Replace the disk, and then press any key.

Somewhere in there should be a message something like
press DEL to run SETUP
or
F10 for Setup

Do what it says. Then you have to explore a bit because I don't know how
your setup will be arranged. Look for Advanced BIOS Features or Boot
Options or something of that order. When you find Boot Order or similar,
set it to check the CD-ROM before the HDD. The ideal option, which I notice
isn't present in this box, would be A, CDROM, C.

Boot order is usually changed one of two ways. In some systems you select
Boot Order and use the + and - keys to rotate through a set of optional
presets. In others, you select the items in the list and use the + and -
keys to move them up and down the list, to higher and lower priorities.

One more thing: Is your W98 install CD bootable? If not you need to find a
Win98 Startup Diskette (a floppy) to start the machine, and use the DOS
command line to navigate to and run the Windows SETUP (Not the same thing as
BIOS CMOS SETUP described above).

To explain: CMOS SETUP is a program that writes to a chip on your
motherboard. Windows SETUP is the program that installs Windows 98 onto
your hard drive. Assuming your CD-ROM is drive D: , if you need to boot
from a floppy, your procedure would go something like this:

Insert the W98 emergency startup floppy and the W98 installation CD. Turn
on the computer. It will boot up partway and present you with the prompt:

A:\>

Type there so it says

A:\>C:
and press ENTER.

it will change to

C:\>

Then type so it says

C:\>Setup
and press ENTER.

That should start your installation program.

 

[Foxy Lady]

Mike,

Laptop is a Panasonic CF-25. When I press F1 I get the invalid system
disk message! How can I get into BIOS, and if I can what do I do from
there? Oh, also the battery on laptop is dead. Cheers for help.
Susie

 

[old jon]

Mike,

Laptop is a Panasonic CF-25. When I press F1 I get the invalid system
disk message! How can I get into BIOS, and if I can what do I do from
there? Oh, also the battery on laptop is dead. Cheers for help.
Susie

You haven`t left a floppy disc in, have you ?.

 

[Pelysma]

You haven`t left a floppy disc in, have you ?.

Good heavens, first thing to check!

Nearly all computer problems enter their "solution" phase with a slap to the
forehead.

 

[John]

Hope someone out there can help me. I formatted the hard drive on my
laptop. That successfully done I was about to load win 98 on when I
lost power (in house) to laptop. When I did get power again this is
where the fun began.

Laptop runs through system memory check - everything okay there - then
I get a message that reads:

Please run SETUP program.
Press F1 key to continue.

Then a message that reads:

Invalid system disk
Replace the disk, and then press any key.

Tried a variety of things, Esc, F1, F2, F3, Ctrl+F1 as my friend and PC
World suggested, but nothing worked. CDROM for 98 did not work and
neither did startup disk.

Cheers.

By the way 'Delete' is pretty popular too.

Since the contents of the hard drive are obviously toast (no readable
boot files) you then *again* tried to re-format and re-install W98 in
exactly the same manner as you did before? Not sure with what you
posted, but if you did and had no luck, then the power outage may have
included a surge that damaged the comp. Laptops are usually proprietary
designs so a pro is probably your best bet to open the case and reset
the BIOS defaults as just 'a first step' in finding out what is wrong
with your comp.

Sorry to bring bad news,
John

 

[John]

By the way 'Delete' is pretty popular too.

Since the contents of the hard drive are obviously toast (no
readable boot files) you then *again* tried to re-format and re-install
W98 in exactly the same manner as you did before? Not sure with what you
posted, but if you did and had no luck, then the power outage may have
included a surge that damaged the comp. Laptops are usually proprietary
designs so a pro is probably your best bet to open the case and reset
the BIOS defaults as just 'a first step' in finding out what is wrong
with your comp.

Sorry to bring bad news,
John

You can look here also ...

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q128730/

 

[Foxy Lady]

Somewhere in there should be a message something like

press DEL to run SETUP
or
F10 for Setup

Do what it says. Then you have to explore a bit because I don't know how
your setup will be arranged. Look for Advanced BIOS Features or Boot
Options or something of that order. When you find Boot Order or similar,
set it to check the CD-ROM before the HDD. The ideal option, which I notice
isn't present in this box, would be A, CDROM, C.

Boot order is usually changed one of two ways. In some systems you select
Boot Order and use the + and - keys to rotate through a set of optional
presets. In others, you select the items in the list and use the + and -
keys to move them up and down the list, to higher and lower priorities.

One more thing: Is your W98 install CD bootable? If not you need to find a
Win98 Startup Diskette (a floppy) to start the machine, and use the DOS
command line to navigate to and run the Windows SETUP (Not the same thing as
BIOS CMOS SETUP described above).

To explain: CMOS SETUP is a program that writes to a chip on your
motherboard. Windows SETUP is the program that installs Windows 98 onto
your hard drive. Assuming your CD-ROM is drive D: , if you need to boot
from a floppy, your procedure would go something like this:

Insert the W98 emergency startup floppy and the W98 installation CD. Turn
on the computer. It will boot up partway and present you with the prompt:

A:\>

Type there so it says

A:\>C:
and press ENTER.

it will change to

C:\>

Then type so it says

C:\>Setup
and press ENTER.

That should start your installation program.

It reads F1 for SETUP. When I press F1 I get the same message "invalid
system disk". Can you tell me how to get into BIOS and try to resolve
this??

Cheers.

 

[JAD]

Delete key

Somewhere in there should be a message something like
press DEL to run SETUP
or
F10 for Setup

Do what it says. Then you have to explore a bit because I don't know how
your setup will be arranged. Look for Advanced BIOS Features or Boot
Options or something of that order. When you find Boot Order or similar,
set it to check the CD-ROM before the HDD. The ideal option, which I notice
isn't present in this box, would be A, CDROM, C.

Boot order is usually changed one of two ways. In some systems you select
Boot Order and use the + and - keys to rotate through a set of optional
presets. In others, you select the items in the list and use the + and -
keys to move them up and down the list, to higher and lower priorities.

One more thing: Is your W98 install CD bootable? If not you need to find a
Win98 Startup Diskette (a floppy) to start the machine, and use the DOS
command line to navigate to and run the Windows SETUP (Not the same thing as
BIOS CMOS SETUP described above).

To explain: CMOS SETUP is a program that writes to a chip on your
motherboard. Windows SETUP is the program that installs Windows 98 onto
your hard drive. Assuming your CD-ROM is drive D: , if you need to boot
from a floppy, your procedure would go something like this:

Insert the W98 emergency startup floppy and the W98 installation CD. Turn

 

[Foxy Lady]

Jad,

Tried this also - not a dicky bird just same message again!!
Susan

 

[Dude]

Tried this also - not a dicky bird just same message again!!
Susan

unplug the machine, then plug it back in, turn it on...

rake the keyboard, hit every key you can
sweeping from left to right

use you're whole hand, left to right...

try it a couple times...

and/or
goto mfg site
and see what they say

 

[juanpa909]

Press the delete key just after the memory counting
ends, and keep it pressed until you get access to
BIOS; (sometimes because a low battery or keyboard
problem,it ask you to press the f1 key before access
the BIOS)
Once in the bios, go to the advanced tab (sometimes
another one) and look for something like Sistem boot
sequency, or First Boot ...
Set Floppy as first boot device, then go to

http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.ht

and download a Win98 bootdisk. Then run the .exe and
it will create a system boot disk
Try to boot from this dis