I'm having some problems with my computer, and am not sure which board this should go in, but i thought this one related to my problems most.

A couple months ago i attempted to totally reformat my harddrive. I run Win 98 SE, and was simply going to reinstall that OS. I had done this before, and it went smooth. I had a bootupdisk, and after everything was wiped out, I attempted to start it up again. But at the screen just before the Windows logo normally pops up, it stopped and said "Invalid System Disk, please remove..." It was a differant message than the "Non-system disk" message which meens there is a disk in the A drive. I took out the disk anyway, and it gave me the "Non-system disk" message.

I thought maybe something was wrong with the bootdisk, so i made another on a differant computer off of www.bootdisks.com, and attempted that, but it did the same thing.

Is there anyway to get to the point that i can reinstall my OS without having to buy a new hard drive? Which is the only thing i can see that would fix this problem right now.

The computer causing my problems is an AMD 450, 192 ram, with a soltek motherboard, and a Diamond Stealth III video card, if that helps.

Sounds more like a floppy problem rather than the HD.

What is the boot order in BIOS? Was the floppy drive working OK before you wiped the disk?

Can you try the new bootdisk in another machine to see if it works. If it does then try swapping the floppy drives between machines.

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David

not sure on the bootup order, i will check in a minute. This computer causing problems is my parents, and this computer is my brothers, so swapping floppy drives wouldnt go over with him too well ;)

The floppy drive worked fine i think, i barely ever used it. Ill post back in a few minutes when i check on the bootup order.

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I am guessing that it may be a boot order issue as david said, but if changing that doesn't work, I would try making sure the floppy drive connections are all good. It is possible that they are just loose and you haven't noticed because you haven't been using the drive. Also, it may be worthwhile to try cleaning the floppy drive with a kit.

When you decided to refomat and reinstall, did you have a virus or similar problem? Did you do a zero fill of the hard drive?

The computer was causing no serious problems, but it was running very slowly, and my modem was causing problems (turned out to be my ISP).

Not sure what a Zero fill is, but i do remember during the reformat process it asked for a number between 0-11. I wasnt sure what it was for, but i picked 0 or 11,dont remember which. I figured that it wasnt anything big, but that could have cause the problem.

I checked the boot up sequence and it was A,C,SCSI

I changed it to C,A,SCSI, but got the same results "Invalid system disk"

i didnt check the A drive connections yet. The green light does come on and it makes the sound like it is reading a disk.

Zero fill is when you overwrite the disk in zeros so that you completely wipe out whatever was there. This is a way to make sure you eliminate a virus, but if that isn't why you reformatted, it probably isn't necessary.

I can't think of any reason the format process would ask you for a number, but I may simply not be remembering.

If your drive is lighting and trying to read, I am guessing it is just dirty. Floppy drives can accumulate dust by air being drawn through them by fans inside the case so that even if you don't use it, it can cake over with dust.

Thanks for your help so far guys (right now im 3 blocks away from the computer im talking about. (On my moms computer at her flower shop).

I need to get going now, ill open up the case tonight and take a peak, ill get back to you all tomarrow.

I hope you saw my last post before you left since I think a dirty drive is one of the most likely possibilities at this point....;)

OK, problem solved! I ended up switching my bootup sequence to CDROM,C,SCSI.

This way i got windows 98 reinstalled with the CD :)

Now i have another problem though. My modem, i installed the drives with the disk. (Creative Labs Modem blaster V.92)

Yah yah, i have dial up yet. I got my connection all set up, and it wont connect. I went to "Modems" under the control pannel, and tried to set it up in there. But it wants me to install modem drivers yet. I can select to select from a list, but it isnt listed, and when i select "Have disk" it tells me that the required files arent on my CD.

I remember having this problem when we got the new modem, but i dont remember how i got around it.

Boot into SafeMode go to the Device Manager and remove the modem from the list and then Reboot normally.

When the OS finds the new Hardware insert the installation CD and click the next button.

Click Search for the best Driver for your device (Recommended) and then the next button.

Click "Specify a location" and then Browse to E:\Drivers\Win95-98 (for W98) or to E:\Drivers\Win98 SE (for W98se), where E is your CD Drive Letter.

When you are prompted that windows has found the driver click "The updated driver (recommended)" option and then the next button. Follow the remaining steps and reboot.

Tried that just now and it didnt work.

It said it was unable to find the right software. Even if i install the drivers my self off the CD, i have no way of setting it up under "Modems"

Anyone else have any ideas?

I have had similar driver problems in the past and the only way I was able to solve them was:-

When using 'specify a location' I had to search through and give it the exact and full path for the location of the specific driver file it was looking for.

Do you actually have the driver somewhere handy? If not, do you have a CDRW you can use to copy it after you download it off the web? If you have it on a CD, you can direct Windoze to it and install it.

Yes i have the CD with the drivers on it (i think).

This is our 3rd modem in this computer, the first was fine, but the comp shop put in a new one, which was louder, slower, and caused the computer to freeze.

The disk i have simply says V.92 on it, and the modem turned out to be a 56k v.92 Fax something, no brandname was on the box.

When i try to use the "Have disk" option, i select D:/, but it says that the required files are not on the cd. I tried using my Win98 CD too.

Its not the CD drive, i was playing music earlier, and loaded a game just fine.

This computer does have a CD-RW, but i dont have a clue where to find the drivers. I think the box said "Award Technowlegy" on it, but it wasnt listed when i tried to set up my modem.

Also, if this helps, i now have my modem in the second PCI slot, with my soundcard in the 4th.

When it asks for the CD, it should give you a browse option, use that to find the files on the CD...they may not be in the root folder and the driver install will not search subfolders.

OR

The files on the CD are in some other format.....either a zip or a self extracint installer. Look at the CD under Windows Explorer and see what exactly is on the disk.

thanks, i tried browse, but there werent any .inf files, ill check around, and get back to you if it works.

My modem, i installed the drives with the disk. (Creative Labs Modem blaster V.92)
Are you sure you have the right disk or that this is a V92 CL Modem-Blaster. The instructions I posted were copied from the manual.

You can check-out at http://www.americas.creative.com/support/ (which includes how to tell which CL modem you have) and download the correct drivers from there.

European stocks have different models and use different chipsets, so it can be worth viewing the European support if your model is not listed in the Americas section.

FYI, the (European) Win98 Driver Files for the CLMB V92 PCI are:-
41,456 ccport.sys
9,798 dsicat.cat
2,082 dsimdm98.inf
450,892 es56tpi.sys
49,152 essspk.exe
19,045 mdmv90.inf
1,597 mdmvoice.inf
45,056 remvdsi.exe
7,789 wdmmdmld.vxd

i said this earlier, but maybe not.

It turned out that it wasnt a creative labs modem blaster, its a no-name 56k V.92 Voice modem. THe name on the box was award technowledgy, but that wasnt listed when i tried to select my drivers from a list.

I looked through the files in win explorer, but i dont have a clue what to look for.

Your modem should have a FCC number on it and you can find out what modem it is by checking the FCC ID site. (http://www.fcc.gov/oet/fccid/)

Ok, found out why it wasnt finding the modem when i booted up.

(Prepare to laugh at me)

I wasnt pushing the modem in all the way. It wasnt fitting right, but then tried pushing it a bit harder and it went all the way in.

Now it loaded the drivers, and it starts to dial, but my modem starts clicking really load. And it disconnects and says "The computer you were dialing to has been disconnected"

I have tried moving it to a differant slot, but it was in com port 4 to start, and even if i remove all the drivers, it still loads as it is in com 4, and it wont dial at all.

Do you have the correct driver??

Even if you do, you may have to mess around with the COM port settings to get it to work. I once had to disable one of the COM ports in BIOS to get the modem to work.

The modem clicking is odd, hard drives click, modem usually scream. Are you sure it is coming from the modem?