"Invalid System Disk" is due to there being a floppy in the drive or an issue with the floppy drive. A CD ROM will not likely give you this error. I would Unplug the Floppy from the MB - and make sure your boot order was - CDROM - Hard Drive then boot up to your re-install CD.
That scenario will only work with W2k and W-XP CDs, and also W98 Dell Recovery CDs. A standard W-Me CD is not selfbooting and Air_wolf is right on with his recommendation for either acquiring a Parallel cable for the floppy, so both drives can be in use together, or else make a BIOS Image copy of a W98 Boot Disk with a CD burner and Roxio/Adaptec or Nero software . The latter will boot the CD and allow a hotswap of the W-Me CD for the boot CD. It also has all the DOS tools available that are on a W98 Boot Disk. There is one other way, but you need a Dell Resource CD for your model with the Drivers, Docs, Utilities and a self booting Diagnostic Program which starts in DOS. You can trick this Diagnostics program into acting as a Boot CD for W98/Me OS CDs, but not drive prep with DOS/Fdisk and format; you still need the floppy drive and a Boot Disk for that, but you do not need both drives in use together for that. If you have one of these CDs, come back and I'll teach you the trick.
I finally resolved the problem by taking it to a friendly local laptop shop where they removed the hard drive, used another computer to transfer all the Windows ME info from the CD-ROM onto my CPx hard drive, reinstalled the hard drive in my CPx booted the computer and pulled up the Windows "set up" file...and away it went, loading up Windows ME like a champ. The technician/hero didn't charge me a thing - and at a normal $75/hour fee, that was a pleasant surprise!
Apparently, if one has access to a "bootable CD-ROM" (whatever the heck that is), that might be a solution too. I thought all Windows CD-ROMs were supposed to be "bootable". You learn something new every day!
A Bootable CD is a disk with the Boot files and drivers for the CD drive self contained, and does not require a separate Boot Diskette or Boot CDR to supply them to boot the CDROM.
The standard retail versions of W95, W98, and W-Me-both full and upgrade- were not selfbooting. W-NT4.0, W2k and W-XP are all selfbooting and do not need the floppy or Boot CDR for installation. In addition, some computer companies like Dell, Compaq, H-P etc.made OEM CDs for W-95 and W98 that were selfbooting and perhaps W-Me, but I have never heard of one. I once used the technique of copying a W98 OS CD to a smallish upper partition on the harddrive of an old Dell XP4100 that did not come with a CDROM, and then running the install from one partition to another. It worked fine, but it meant leaving that copy on that upper partition for hardware installs etc., but it still left the owner with 5+gb and a superior OS to the W95 or W3.1 he would have had to use otherwise.
airwolf_1984
138 Posts
0
May 21st, 2004 22:00
Since it sounds like you don't have the floppy cable (to attach the floppy drive to the parallel port), you will probably need to create a boot CD.
You can google for a "Boot CD FAQ" or go to a site like: http://www.bootdisk.com/
You will need access to a CD-R burner to create a Boot CD.
j_stone
5 Posts
0
May 21st, 2004 23:00
"Invalid System Disk" is due to there being a floppy in the drive or an issue with the floppy drive. A CD ROM will not likely give you this error. I would Unplug the Floppy from the MB - and make sure your boot order was - CDROM - Hard Drive then boot up to your re-install CD.
Hope this helps a little...
leduke30
2 Intern
•
4K Posts
0
May 24th, 2004 04:00
Message Edited by leduke30 on 05-24-2004 12:45 AM
skyborg321
6 Posts
0
May 24th, 2004 11:00
Thanks for "feeling my pain", gang....
I finally resolved the problem by taking it to a friendly local laptop shop where they removed the hard drive, used another computer to transfer all the Windows ME info from the CD-ROM onto my CPx hard drive, reinstalled the hard drive in my CPx booted the computer and pulled up the Windows "set up" file...and away it went, loading up Windows ME like a champ. The technician/hero didn't charge me a thing - and at a normal $75/hour fee, that was a pleasant surprise!
Apparently, if one has access to a "bootable CD-ROM" (whatever the heck that is), that might be a solution too. I thought all Windows CD-ROMs were supposed to be "bootable". You learn something new every day!
Thanks again and best of luck!
leduke30
2 Intern
•
4K Posts
0
May 24th, 2004 14:00
The standard retail versions of W95, W98, and W-Me-both full and upgrade- were not selfbooting. W-NT4.0, W2k and W-XP are all selfbooting and do not need the floppy or Boot CDR for installation. In addition, some computer companies like Dell, Compaq, H-P etc.made OEM CDs for W-95 and W98 that were selfbooting and perhaps W-Me, but I have never heard of one. I once used the technique of copying a W98 OS CD to a smallish upper partition on the harddrive of an old Dell XP4100 that did not come with a CDROM, and then running the install from one partition to another. It worked fine, but it meant leaving that copy on that upper partition for hardware installs etc., but it still left the owner with 5+gb and a superior OS to the W95 or W3.1 he would have had to use otherwise.
Message Edited by leduke30 on 05-24-2004 11:13 AM