Invalid system disk

Does the 16 megs show up good in the test?
Bios set to Quick boot?

"seabat" wrote in message
...
Howdy:

I've got this old Hewitt Rand 'puter that I'm trying to get running.
It has a 120MHz CPU (unknown make), 16MB RAM, Windows 95 (supposed
to
be loaded on drive?). I turn the machine on and it goes through the
POST and then displays all the CPU, hard disk, Plug and Play info
and
some stuff about PCI devices.

It then displays this:
External Cache Type : Pipelined BUrst
EDO in DRAM Row(s) : 0

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

There is no disk in the drives! I've tried starting it up with a
Win95
start-up disk, with Win95 CD in CD-ROM, a combination of the two and
I
still get to this point only. I've been into the BIOS (American) and
everything seems kosher there. The floppy lites up and you can hear
it
accessing the disk, but that's it! If I could get it to a command
promt I would be very happy. Any ideas?

Thanks.

--
The Seabat

Shep© wrote:
The moonlight laughed on the blade's edge when John Doe wrote :
Shep¸ wrote:
The moonlight laughed on the blade's edge when seabat wrote :

....

There is no disk in the drives! I've tried starting it up with a
Win95 start-up disk, with Win95 CD in CD-ROM, a combination of the
two and I still get to this point only. I've been into the BIOS
(American) and everything seems kosher there. The floppy lites up
and you can hear it accessing the disk, but that's it! If I could
get it to a command promt I would be very happy. Any ideas?

Thanks.

From your boot floppy issue the command
sys c: and press Enter and see if remaking the drive a system drive
helps?

He can't "get to a command prompt".

Not even from a boot floppy?

Scroll up.

He said "I've tried starting it up with a Win95 start-up disk".






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From: Shep¸
Newsgroups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt
Subject: Invalid system disk
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2004 02:24:07 +0000
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On Thu, 18 Nov 2004 18:31:21 -0800, "JAD"
wrote:

Does the 16 megs show up good in the test?
Bios set to Quick boot?


Yeah, it showed as good RAM . I didn't see anything in the BIOS about
Quick Boot?

I exchanged the hard drive with another Western DIgital 1.2MB Caviar
21200 that is know to be OK and now I can't even get it to a start up
screen. There's an LED on the front of the case that used to read 120
and now reads 78 when I start it up. I thought it indicated voltage
(just a guess) but now I don't have a clue.

Tried changing out the floppy and reversing all the cables to the
floppy and so forth, still no go. I can hear the hard drive spinning
up, but my screen remains blank now.

I don't hear any beeps upon start-up now, either.


--
The Seabat

seabat wrote:

....

I exchanged the hard drive with another Western DIgital 1.2MB
Caviar 21200 that is know to be OK and now I can't even get it to a
start up screen.

Disconnect the floppy disk drive cable and any other cables you might
have reversed, as you stated below.

After that, I would do this.
.... Remove all hard disk drives, CD-ROM drives, and any other drives
except the floppy disk drive.
.... Remove memory except for one chip, probably keep the one in slot
0.
.... Remove all PCI/ISA/whatever cards except your video card.
.... Disconnect all cables except power, video, and keyboard.
.... In other words, remove everything except what you might need to
get to the boot floppy disk. That is mainboard, CPU, memory, video
card, floppy disk drive, keyboard and monitor.

Figure out how to connect the floppy disk drive cable correctly, and
then reconnect it. Use a permanent marker to write on the FDD cable.

Going into the BIOS might be useful while having problems, like to
check whether disk drives are set up properly. There might be a
setting in the BIOS which needs to read 1.44MB floppy drive, assuming
that is correct for your FDD.

There's an LED on the front of the case that used to read 120
and now reads 78 when I start it up. I thought it indicated voltage
(just a guess) but now I don't have a clue.

You wrote:
"It has a 120MHz CPU"
Apparently, now it's running at 78MHz.

Tried changing out the floppy and reversing all the cables to the
floppy and so forth,

Don't do that.

still no go. I can hear the hard drive spinning
up, but my screen remains blank now.
I don't hear any beeps upon start-up now, either.

Probably at least in part because you reversed the floppy disk drive
cable.

With the floppy cable properly connected, are you sure the floppy
disk drive is working properly?

For your information, not necessarily for right now. There is a key
you have to press during boot up to get to the Windows startup
prompt. It might be the control key or the F8 key.

I wrote:

Disconnect all cables except power...

Sorry, power should be disconnected already.

Your BIOS boot sequence is set to A, C, CD-ROM, so it must looking for boot
from A first.
(that means it has nothing to do with HD, CD-ROM, battery etc.)

You got to the point, it says:
Invalid system disk
Replace the disk, and then press any key
(that means your floppy drive is connected corrected, it is already booting
from A)

So the problem is very obvious, you have a invalid floppy disk, it can not
boot from.
Where did you get your floppy disk?
You can try any Win95 Win98 rescue disk, and use it to boot.

I strongly believe your problem is simply an unbootable floppy disk, or a
bad floppy disk.

"seabat"
...
Howdy:

I've got this old Hewitt Rand 'puter that I'm trying to get running.
It has a 120MHz CPU (unknown make), 16MB RAM, Windows 95 (supposed to
be loaded on drive?). I turn the machine on and it goes through the
POST and then displays all the CPU, hard disk, Plug and Play info and
some stuff about PCI devices.

It then displays this:
External Cache Type : Pipelined BUrst
EDO in DRAM Row(s) : 0

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

There is no disk in the drives! I've tried starting it up with a Win95
start-up disk, with Win95 CD in CD-ROM, a combination of the two and I
still get to this point only. I've been into the BIOS (American) and
everything seems kosher there. The floppy lites up and you can hear it
accessing the disk, but that's it! If I could get it to a command
promt I would be very happy. Any ideas?

Thanks.

--
The Seabat

???? wrote:

Your BIOS boot sequence is set to A, C, CD-ROM, so it must looking for boot
from A first.
(that means it has nothing to do with HD, CD-ROM, battery etc.)

You got to the point, it says:
Invalid system disk
Replace the disk, and then press any key
(that means your floppy drive is connected corrected, it is already booting
from A)

So the problem is very obvious, you have a invalid floppy disk, it can not
boot from.

How does he have an invalid floppy disk when he said "There is no disk in
the drives!"?

Where did you get your floppy disk?
You can try any Win95 Win98 rescue disk, and use it to boot.

I strongly believe your problem is simply an unbootable floppy disk, or a
bad floppy disk.

"seabat"
...

Howdy:

I've got this old Hewitt Rand 'puter that I'm trying to get running.
It has a 120MHz CPU (unknown make), 16MB RAM, Windows 95 (supposed to
be loaded on drive?). I turn the machine on and it goes through the
POST and then displays all the CPU, hard disk, Plug and Play info and
some stuff about PCI devices.

It then displays this:
External Cache Type : Pipelined BUrst
EDO in DRAM Row(s) : 0

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

There is no disk in the drives! I've tried starting it up with a Win95
start-up disk, with Win95 CD in CD-ROM, a combination of the two and I
still get to this point only. I've been into the BIOS (American) and
everything seems kosher there. The floppy lites up and you can hear it
accessing the disk, but that's it! If I could get it to a command
promt I would be very happy. Any ideas?

Thanks.

--
The Seabat

"David Maynard"
...
???? wrote:

Your BIOS boot sequence is set to A, C, CD-ROM, so it must looking for
boot
from A first.
(that means it has nothing to do with HD, CD-ROM, battery etc.)

You got to the point, it says:
Invalid system disk
Replace the disk, and then press any key
(that means your floppy drive is connected corrected, it is already
booting
from A)

So the problem is very obvious, you have a invalid floppy disk, it can
not
boot from.

How does he have an invalid floppy disk when he said "There is no disk in
the drives!"?

I believe, and strongly believe, "There is no disk in the drive" means no
floppy disk in the drive, if it says "Invalid system disk" which menas you
do have a floppy disk but it is either not a bootable disk, or a bad floppy
disk. It is pretty easy for any machine to detect whether there is a floppy
disk set in the drive.

???? wrote:
"David Maynard"
...

???? wrote:


Your BIOS boot sequence is set to A, C, CD-ROM, so it must looking
for

boot

from A first. (that means it has nothing to do with HD, CD-ROM,
battery etc.)

You got to the point, it says: Invalid system disk Replace the disk,
and then press any key (that means your floppy drive is connected
corrected, it is already

booting

from A)

So the problem is very obvious, you have a invalid floppy disk, it
can

not

boot from.

How does he have an invalid floppy disk when he said "There is no disk
in the drives!"?


I believe, and strongly believe, "There is no disk in the drive" means
no floppy disk in the drive,

"There is no disk in the drives!" (note, plural) was his statement that
there were no disks in either the CD or the floppy.

if it says "Invalid system disk" which menas you do have a floppy disk
but it is either not a bootable disk, or a bad floppy disk. It is pretty
easy for any machine to detect whether there is a floppy disk set in the
drive.

"Invalid system disk" is for any drive that fails to boot and if it tries
to boot from a hard drive with an invalid boot sector it will say "invalid
system disk" because, well, it's invalid.

Now, if he has an invalid hard drive boot sector, for whatever reason, it's
no surprise that he can't boot from the his Win95 CD as it'll never get to
trying it since, with his boot sequence being A, C, CDROM, it'll fail on
the hard drive with "invalid system disk" (Newer system will sometimes
continue trying other boot devices but old systems invariably 'stop' on the
first thing in the sequence that has a disk. I.E. start checking in order
of boot sequence. Ah, found a disk. Rats, failed. "invalid system disk").
So, he might be able to get up and running if he simply changed the boot
sequence to CDROM, A, C, or CDROM, C, A and booted from the Win95 install
CD, assuming it's bootable (and not all are).

As for failing to boot from the startup floppy (the time he put it in the
drive), it's an old system and the floppy drive, and/or the floppy disk
he's trying to use, may simply be bad. You'll get the same "invalid system
disk". (I've seen bad floppy drives that appear to work, from the LED
blinking, but won't read and, worse yet, insist they have a floppy in them
whether they do or not. And if they're the first boot device then that will
prevent anything from booting)

It is also possible for a failed device on one port to prevent the others
from booting and, in that case, the most effective way to narrow it down is
to remove them all and then try them one by one, alone, with the boot
sequence set to boot first from the one installed device. And, for the
floppy, find some way to obtain a known good, bootable, floppy disk to test
with, as well as finding a known bootable CD if one is going to try booting
from that. (Since he found a way to post I would imagine he could find
something).

The least likely failure is the motherboard.

"????" wrote:

I believe, and strongly believe, "There is no disk in the drive"
means no floppy disk in the drive, if it says "Invalid system disk"
which menas you do have a floppy disk but it is either not a
bootable disk, or a bad floppy disk. It is pretty easy for any
machine to detect whether there is a floppy disk set in the drive.

.... Remove all of the drives except the floppy.
.... Try booting with or without a floppy disk inserted.

I think you are right if the hard disk drive and the floppy disk
both were invalid.

Have a great day (or night) anyway.