a friend of mine has a computer that was running windows 98se he wanted to switch the monitor and in doing so his computer does not work he tried switching back to the old montor and it still does not work this is what happens when he turns it on it goes through someking of test and then says verifying pool data invalid system disk replace and press any key when ready the boot sequence it set an c only in the bios what can he do to try to fix this i have windows 98 cd and it would not work becuase the windows 98se was on the computer i am not familar with computers can anyone tell me what i should do to help i do not want to open the computer for any reason

you should probably go out and spend the extra dollar and buy vista or xp... you could also reboot the hole system delete everything then reinstal 98 or whatever then it should all go back to normal ..... then restore youre settings ... you could also buy a new computer lol

Is the hard disk recognized during the machines POST (Power On Self Test)?

"Invalid system disk" can be caused by;

1) a non-bootable floppy disk left in the A: drive

2) a hard disk which has had it's MBR/boot files damaged or changed

3) a failed hard disk

4) a failed IDE controller


Enter the machines bios and set the 3.5" floppy drive (A:) as the first boot device.

Boot with a Win98SE Boot Disk* (without CDROM Support) and at the A:\> prompt type in;

fdisk/mbr (hit Enter)

When the A:\> prompt returns, type in;

sys c: (hit Enter) You should see "System Transferred".

Remove the floppy, power down the machine, and then try to start the machine normally.

Post back with your results and any further questions.



*The above bootdisk image file is a self extracting file and has to be executed (run) from a running Windows machine in order to create the actual startup diskette on one of your floppy disks. (This image file produces the same bootdisk which 98SE creates.) This downloaded image file will format the floppy disk to ensure its integrity, write the files to the disk, then verify the file write, so it'll take a minute or three to create the bootdisk.

Ensure the floppy drive is set as the first boot device in the bios.

NOTE: When you boot a machine with this boot floppy, it creates a RAMDRIVE in system memory to contain DOS system tools/drivers. Thus it will move your "normal" CDROM device/drive letter "up" one level. (If your CDROM is normally E: it will be F: when booting with this bootdisk.)

The path to the found CDROM will be set with the bootfiles, so entering A:\>f:\setup is the same as entering A:\>setup at the A:\> prompt. There is no need to include the cdrom drive letter. The CDROM device letter will be assigned near the end of the floppy boot process, right after MSCDEX is loaded.

isn't this when you go into dos mode i can even get it into dos mode the bios version is award bois v4.51 so what do i set everything at to make sure he did not change anything

Did you download/make the Win98SE bootdisk I linked to (in Blue) in my above post and try the SYS C: and FDISK/MBR?

i have to use a pbuic computer to download things which means to save them when it says save and i have to save it to a floppy disk can i just take the floppy put it in the computer turn computer on and bingo it will work

The downloaded file must be executed (run) from a running Windows machine in order to create the actual startup diskette on one of your floppy disks as I stated in my post #3.

You can start in MSDOS mode and run the fdisk/mbr and scandisk/all command, but to use the sys c: command you should have the boot floppy.

To start in MSDOS mode:

When the machine is booting, just after the P.O.S.T. (Power On Self Test) screens finish and you see "Starting Windows 98", start tapping the Ctrl key. (You have to be quick.) This should bring up the MS boot menu. Choose Command Prompt Only.

When the boot completes, at the C:\> prompt, type in fdisk/mbr and hit ENTER. You won't see any messages, it will just return to the C:\> prompt.

Then type in scandisk /all/autofix/nosave/nosummary and hit the Enter key. All of your drives (partitions) will be scanned and fixed if problems exist. When the process is finished, reboot the machine to the MS boot menu again and choose Safe Mode. This will load windows with minimal drivers etc. Defrag in safe mode.

Caveat: The drawback to booting into Safe Mode is that your desktop icons are automatically arranged, and if you had your own arrangement, you will have to recreate that arrangement in normal mode. Windows doesn't provide a save feature for your icons. There are (free) third party programs available which will save your desktop arrangement.

Try these two steps and post back with your results.