Problems with booting after formatting

[chad7989]

I was messing around with an old computer that had 98 and I wanted to format the hard drive and this is what I did.

1) It wouldn't let me format while running 98 because it said the C: was in use so I restarted in DOS
2) I typed in Format C:
3) I approved the formatting and it started formatting.

Now this is what is troubling me, it finished the formatting and I turned off the computer then inserted the 98 boot disk into the floppy drive. Once I did that, it is telling me I have an invalid system disk. I'm not quite sure as to what to do. A friend of mine said it might have to do with it being a HP computer, but I don't know what that would do. If anyone can help me out I'd appreciate it.

[Sylvander]

Are you saying you rebooted to an MS-DOS prompt = C:\>
Then
C:\>format c: and that worked?

Go into the BIOS Setup and make sure it is set to boot 1st from the Floppy Disk Drive.

If it's set to boot 1st from the HDD [and your HDD has just been formatted, so has no OS on it], then you're bound to get the "invalid system disk" warning.

You should have booted to a Startup floppy and used...
a:\>format c:

[chad7989]

What do I do if I can't get into the BIOS :( I've hit pretty much any key I can think of to get to it but it doesn't go to it.

[Sylvander]

Doesn't it display on screen the key combination to enter the BIOS Setup?

If there's a splash screen hiding the white text on black background, then hit "Esc" to shut down the splash screen.

My old PC used "Delete" and this one uses "F2" to enter the BIOS Setup.

[Paul Komski]

What make of PC?

Could you just have a bad floppy diskette maybe? Do you get the same message if you try to boot with no diskette in the drive?

Have you tried booting to the installation CD?

[chad7989]

I think my floppy drive might be broken, I don't know, but I got a XP Pro. CD from a friend and it booted up correctly (Sylvander's ESC & F2 to get to the BIOS worked), but when I left school today it was stuck on "Configuring devices" for about 20 minutes before I left my school and I left it running so hopefully it will be finished when I go to school tommorow. The hard drive LED was still flashing, but I don't know if it will finish up. If it is frozen there, is it safe to turn the computer off?

Edit: It's an HP Pavillion, not sure what model, made around 2000.

[Sylvander]

"The hard drive LED was still flashing, but I don't know if it will finish up"
You'll be lucky if it does.
WinXP isn't backward compatible with "legacy" [older] hardware.
You should have used Windows XP Upgrade Advisor (www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/upgrading/advisor.mspx) before you attempted the upgrade, to read its report on likely problems with hardware and/or software.
If WinXP does manage to install, run the advisor afterward.
This PC I'm using is a HP Brio BA, made about 1999, and I ran XP advisor on it and it reported enough problems to make me decide not to attempt to install XP.

"If it is frozen there, is it safe to turn the computer off?"
Yes, just don't attempt to boot from the HDD.
If it's frozen during hardware initialisation, then you should switch off, then switch back on and continue with the installation of WinXP.
That by-passes the setup of that troublesome item of hardware.
Repeat that switch off/on every time that happens to by-pass each troublesome hardware item.
If you're lucky there may be enough hardware set up for use to allow a successful boot into winXP.
Once in, go to device manager to see which items have been skipped.
You'll probably discover there are so many problems you need to re-format and install Win98 instead.

"I think my floppy drive might be broken"
What makes you think that?
Have you tried booting with a [known good] Win98 startup floppy in the FDD and the BIOS set to boot 1st from the FDD?

[chad7989]

It finished installing and is working fine, but I downloaded a 98 SE disk from bootdisk.com before I installed XP and it wouldn't boot from that, so I'm not sure what to do about the floppy, but other than that the computer is up and running fine, thanks for the help.

[Sylvander]

To test your FDD, set the BIOS to boot 1st from a floppy and use any bootable floppy that you KNOW works.
e.g.
Tuff-Test Lite = http://www.tufftest.com/free.htm [free]
Make this floppy, boot from it and watch your hardware being tested.
Or download your HDD manufacturers utility for testing your HDD.