Once again, I want to thank all you guys for your time and effort on this
one....
Here is what I tried:  I disconnected all the connectors to all the drives
and rebooted.  I got the message "Invalid boot diskette, Insert Boot
diskette in A:".  Then I went to the BIOS and made sure all the drives were
not being indicated, and changed the A drive to "none installed", when I
rebooted I got "Invalid Boot disk, Insert Boot diskette in A:".  I
reconnected and tried another data cable, it made no difference.  The light
on the a drive is on all the time when it is connected.
OK, if I concede that it IS the Mother board, and therefore the computer
itself (an older model anyway-P3, Windows Me, etc.  How can I get the info
off the hard drive, or have I lost it already?  Will it hurt my computer to
connect this hard drive to it, and try to create a disk of the file info on
it?
Dianne

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Mayer" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, September 08, 2005 1:58 AM
Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] WIN Me invalid system disk


> It sounds like you may have a motherboard problem. With all the drives
> disconnected you should not be getting that message. Next thing I would
> try,
> still with all the drives disconnected, I would go into the BIOS while the
> computer is starting up and make sure that no drives were being indicated.
> You may have to manually change the floppy ( "a" drive )to "none
> installed".
> Then let the computer start. It should not have any message about an "a"
> drive since it doesn't know that there is one. If there is a message about
> "a" drive, the motherboard is suspect.
>
> If  there is NO message, for the next start, connect only the "a" drive.
> If
> you have a data cable with two floppy drive connectors, use the one at the
> end of the cable. While starting, enter the BIOS and "install" the
> appropriate "a" drive and set the boot order to have the floppy drive
> first.
> Let the computer start and you should get a message asking to insert a
> disk
> into "a" drive. Insert the boot disk and press "enter". If the next
> message
> is about an "invalid system disk", there is a problem with the disk such
> as
> bad sectors, corrupted files, missing system files, etc.  In that case
> obtain a new boot disk for Windows ME. You might also want to try this
> with
> the other floppy drive you mentioned to assure that the drive is OK and
> that
> the disk is the problem. Also the floppy drive data cable could have a
> problem and, if you have a spare, you may want to try it.
>
> Also you mentioned that the floppy drive LED was on. If the light is
> staying
> on, you may have the data cable reversed at the connection to the drive or
> it could be another indication of a faulty data cable.
>
> Once you can boot the computer through "a" drive, you can start
> reconnecting
> the other drives (one at a time might be less frustrating but take more
> time). Make sure the BIOS correctly acknowledges each drive as you
> proceed.
> Good luck.
>
> Tom Mayer
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Dianne" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Wednesday, September 07, 2005 11:36 AM
> Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] WIN Me invalid system disk
>
>
> Hmmm,
> I am getting very frustrated, and don't quite know what to do next.  I
> removed all the connectors, the cd, hard drive and floppy and dvd.  The
> computer gave me the message that I should "insert the boot diskette into
> a:"  So I reconnected the a: drive, and put the boot disk in, back to same
> old Invalid system disk message.  So I got another a drive from another
> computer and got the same message.  The lights were on on both the a:
> drives, by the way.
> I cant get into safe mode because the computer will not take me to an A:
> prompt.
> I then disconnected the HD and connected it into an old computer.  Nothing
> happens, not even an error message.  BUT.....I am not sure about the
> mother
> board in the machine I tested it in.  The HD is a Samsung SpinPoint
> SV0484H.
> I am afraid of trying the hard drive in my own computer, as I don't want
> to
> mess around with it, it has all my work in it.  Any suggestions.  Would I
> be
> better to take it in and have it diagnosed somewhere?
> Dianne
>
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