Invalid System Disk?

[SufferWell1396]

So last night in Win Me i ran Diskeeper Lite to defragment my drive.
I wake up to see that Diskeeper Lite had frozen the computer.
So i turned it off.
Turned it back on
Tried to boot to Me and this is what it said
"Starting Up ...

INVALID SYSTEM DISK
REPLACE THE DISK THEN PRESS ANY KEY"

:eek:
what happened!?
i really want to save this Me installation. its probably the best one ive ever had.
so what can i do now?

[mjc]

Not good...not good at all...

Sounds like a corrupted MBR or partition table...that can sometimes happen when defragging and there is a power glitch or other non drive related cause, but it can also happen if the drive is about to depart for that next great adventure. You can try using a bootdisk an running fdisk...just to look and see if the hard drive is still showing the correct partition structure. If it is you can then try fdisk /mbr...

[123456]

I'd try to boot from your Me startup floppy and sys C:.

[Sylvander]

"So i turned it off"
You switched off the switch on the front of the unit?
Which would probably cause at least SOME file system corruption.
Was the file system then scanned for errors?
Any lost folder/file clusters or chains?
Any recovered?
Vital boot files disconnected from the file table?
Even with the files recovered they're not functional.
You'd need to use methods such as given by MJC and 123456 suggested to put back missing files.

Or else...
"i really want to save this Me installation. its probably the best one ive ever had"
If [in the past, present, or the future] you really wanted/want to save your Windows installation...
Restoring a good image fixes ALL folder/file problems without having to know what they are.
Restores a working [treasured] Windows system.
Then...
Running something like SyncBack...
[the paid-for version can backup/restore/synchronise the complete Windows partition, the free version can backup all but certain running Windows files]
will display any "differences" between the present [restored image] working set of Windows files on the "source" and the last and latest 2nd "destination" copy of the files [on Windows or data partitions].
Restoring those brings you in line with the latest SyncBack'd copies.

[SufferWell1396]

mjc,
i used the recovery console to fix my mbr.
and heres the worst of it.
whats happening now:
Windows Me is selectable on the boot menu
if it is selected, it gives the specified error as given above
Windows 2000, which worked in the past, is selectable also.
if it is selected, it will boot up, and give a System Shutdown message saying Lsass.exe terminated wrong. It doesnt even let me log in.
Windows XP, which worked in the past, is selectable at the boot menu.
If it is selected. It is the only one that works. It boots up, gives some error about bad app or something.

Overall.
I think it is safe to say that my HDD is in a really bad situation.

123456,
I will sys c: as soon as i get a working floppy disk.

Syl,
Well, if Me crashed, turning off from the front panel would be the only plausable solution.
I have scanned for error's with chkdsk in Win XP and its found a boatload of errors, but it said it had repaired all of them.

[SufferWell1396]

comon guys.
i really want to fix compy here
i cant do it without you

[123456]

Have some patience. People have jobs, unlike us two who are teens. :P

[Paul Komski]

Need more information about your partitioning and drive geometry. Could you post the output from PartInNT (ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/tools/pq/utilities/) (if running from WinXP)

If you can boot to WinXP without a boot manager the MBR must be OK and the PBS on the system drive but if you can first select and then have problems with ME and 2K more specifics are needed.