At 12:13 AM 02/21/2000 , Doug White wrote:
>         I have a strange problem.  I have an old 486-100.  I was changing out the
>hard drives in it and when I went to reboot I got this error message:
>
>         "Invalid system disk. Remove disk and press any key to continue."
>
>         The only problem is.......there isn't any disk in the floppy drive.
>
>         The computer and I have argued extensively over this.  I keep telling it
>there IS NO DISK IN THERE!!
>
>         And the computer answers back, "Yes there is.....Invalid system disk.
>Remove disk and press any key to continue."
>
>         We seem to be at an impasse.
>
>         Anybody encountered this problem before?

The problem you report suggests that although there is a hard drive
in the system, it is not bootable.  That can be the result of a lack of a
valid partition, a valid partition not set to ACTIVE, the partition is not
properly formatted and/or there is no operating system on the drive, which
only requires COMMAND.COM to exist.

In other words:
    The hard drive must be recognized by the BIOS
    The hard drive must have a proper partition and be set to "active"
    The hard drive must be formatted, (or at least the primary partition)
    The hard drive must have an operating system or at least the command
        operator:  Command.com on the drive, (this is done by using a bootable
        MS Dos or Windows floppy, then using the command  SYS C:\

I hope this explains your possible problem.

     Bob Wright
The NOSPIN Group

                         PCBUILD's List Owner's:
                      Bob Wright<[log in to unmask]>
                       Drew Dunn<[log in to unmask]>