It's too much of a coincidence to assume the IDE and the floppy cable
are bad. (You said you couldn't boot from a CD).
Something's bad on the motherboard.
If the customer is getting a new computer, I might wait and connect the
old drive to the new computer. In any case, it's unlikely to do any harm
to any computer to connect the old drive.
Be sure you know what files they want. This can be tricky.




Dianne wrote:
> 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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