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Thread ID: 25360 2002-10-02 02:42:00 Invalid System Discs myko (2098) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
85248 2002-10-02 02:42:00 After recently upgrading to WinXP, i encountered a problem new to me, my floppy drive failed to read "system discs" which come in handy when installing a new OS. I then Tried my mates FDD and the same thing happened, i ended up using his whole system to put an OS onto my HDD, it worked and now everything is fine, except my "invalid system disc" problem, i wondered if it could have been something in BIOS, if any one has encountered the same problem or has any ideas on how to fix it, it would be a great help, thanks, Mike myko (2098)
85249 2002-10-02 02:51:00 are you sure the floppy disk is ok? scan disk it. tweak'e (174)
85250 2002-10-02 03:39:00 Was it made using the same machine?

I seem to recall having some system disks that would not work on their original source machine because they no longer recognised the configuration of the computer.

If it scans ok, make new disks and try again.
Billy T (70)
85251 2002-10-02 05:48:00 Floppy disks are not very reliable. If your drive won't read a disk, and your friend's drive won't either, I would assume that that disk has been corrupted. That's more likely than anything else. (You can zap a floppy by putting it on top of your monitor, and turning on the monitor. There are lots of ways to do it ;-) ) Graham L (2)
85252 2002-10-02 13:33:00 thanks for the ideas, but they dont help : [

a couple of further points:

1) the disk are fine - i've tried 95, 98, and DOs bootdisks, all with no luck.

2)the FDD and cable are not at fault, i've tested them in other systems
3)once into an OS (currently dual-booting 95/xp), the floppy drive reads discs fine - it's only during bootup that there's a problem....
any ideas?
myko (2098)
85253 2002-10-02 22:06:00 Hi Myko

The one thing that seems to have been missed is the boot sequence in your bios. Check to see that it is set to boot from the A: drive if C: is not accessible. The sequence is usually C:, A:, CD. It can be A: C: but that slows initial boot while the computer looks to see what's in the A: drive and it is also dangerous for floppy carried viruses.

Cheers

Billy 8-{)
Billy T (70)
85254 2002-10-04 00:31:00 i tried that too, same problem, boot sequence was set to A:, CD:, then C. still the same problems, thanks for your time guys. myko (2098)
85255 2002-10-04 02:15:00 Are you sure the BIOS settings for the floppy disk drive are correct? If you have it set to 5 1/4 inch drive (or 720Kb 3 1/2 inch) instead of 1.44Mb 3 1/2 inch (assuming that is what the drives capacity is) it would definitely cause problems at boot time whereas Windows will probably overide the incorrect BIOS setting and so it works in Windows. Rod J (451)
85256 2002-10-04 02:52:00 There is another option called something like "search for boot floppy" in the modern BIOSs. That could stop it looking, and if it doesn't look, it won't find. ;-) And if it can't find, it won't boot. Graham L (2)
85257 2002-10-04 03:25:00 thanks for your help guys, ill try those ideas out. They sound like it could be the problem, thank you for all your help and time.
Mike
myko (2098)
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