'Invalid system disk' error message

Question

I believe my hard drive crashed. My 8300 stopped booting immediately after a defrag. I swapped HD's and now I get this 'invalid system disk message. I have rechecked connections numerous times and tried other hd's (I have a few). Any suggestions?

x_lab rat · Answer

'Invalid system disk' means that the boot sector cannot be read in a way that makes sense.  Unfortunately, in what I think is a giant step backwards, Intel made images written with one chipset 'invalid' when read by another chipset.  So if your substitute drives were written with an earlier motherboard, there may be nothing wrong with them except that the 8300 won't read them because Intel and their marketing partners determined they would rather force you into an entire new system than allow interchangeability.   I have not known defrag to incapacitate a drive, but anything is possible.  It locks my OS when it exits, and it's not supposed to do that either.  Put the original drive back in, F12 and run HDD diagnostic.  If it returns any error at all, the drive is toast.  Replace and re-image. Message Edited by x_lab rat on 12-16-2007 10:05 PM

chferg1 · Answer

Explain 're-image'

shesagordie · Answer

@chferg1 wrote: Explain 're-image' Reinstall XP, drivers, utilities and applications. Bev. =================================================== Please don't send me questions about your system by DCF Messenger. Post the issue in the appropriate Board, where they will be answered.

Locked Topics – Desktops General

"Invalid system disk" error message

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