Computer formatted, won't read boot disc

[jch216]

I just bought a used computer for my little girl that had been formatted by the previous owner. The original windows boot disk was included. They claimed they couldn't load windows back onto the hard drive....I figured it would be easy with the boot disk. Man was I wrong. I can't figure it out either.

The computer is a 533mhz E-Machine. It has a 40x cd-rom. I put the windows bootable disk into the cd-rom and start the computer. It then displays an error message about an invalid disk and tells me to press any key to try again. I thought the disk was supposed to Auto load upon starting the computer.

I'm open to any suggestions at this point.

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

You may have to change the boot sequence in the Bios, (press del just after you start the computer or if it says a different key to enter setup then press that, or possibly F8 will get you the menu (right after the machine is turned on.)

[jch216]

What is a Bios? Sorry, You'll have to break some things down for me. I'm kinda new to the inner workings of these things.


Please keep the suggestions coming...I'm at work right now and I want a lot of options for when I get home tonight :-)

[swamp-fox]

Are you talking about a boot floppy disk. I would re-format and find another boot disk. Wizards advice should work though.

Swamp

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

The BIOS (Basic Input Output System) is a hardware level system that communicates between the hardware and the user. It controls every aspect of your computers hardware.

In the BIOS there are settings for a boot sequence, usually under advanced options. Here you can set the boot sequence to a choice of types. CDrom, HDD0 (Hard disk 0), Floppy, or other devices I won't get into now.

When you are at this point you will have to change the boot sequence to CDrom, FDD (floppy) then HDD. Save the changes and exit, since you're new to this I wouldn't touch anything else.

[jch216]

It is a windows 98 cd-rom disc. The computer starts, shows a white screen with a big green E (e-machines logo i guess), goes to a black screen with a box that has system information I think, then the last thing it does is dispolay this message:

"Invalid system disk, replace the disk and then press enter"

So at this point I have no control at all over the computer.

[dunbar]

I have a pair of eMachines 633ids, each PC came with 2 CDs, not a single disk. The wrong CD is definately not a bootable CD.

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

Q: How can I enter BIOS set-up? top

A: To enter the system BIOS setup, press the <DEL> key when the eMachines logo screen appears.

Taken from Here

http://www.emachines.com/support/vie...faq=1004998907

[Otaru]

Originally posted by jch216
It is a windows 98 cd-rom disc. The computer starts, shows a white screen with a big green E (e-machines logo i guess), goes to a black screen with a box that has system information I think, then the last thing it does is dispolay this message:

"Invalid system disk, replace the disk and then press enter"

So at this point I have no control at all over the computer.

First of all Welcome to TechIMO


You have to hit DEL in the big e-Machines logo. wait then select boot sequence. (It has been a long time since i been in a e-machines bios) Look for it. Go thru each item. Once you find the BOOT SEQUENCE. Try change it from A,C,CDROM to CDROM,A,C and then hit F10 and save or hit escape 2 times to where it ask you to save and exit dont save and exit or continue. Click on save and exit. Let the system reboot. Make sure the windows disk is in your cd-rom then it should boot to setup for windows 98 startup menu selct START WINDOWS SETUP WITH CDROM SUPPORT and let it go thru the sequence.

If that dont work then I don't know what to tell you. That is running from 4 year old memory.

Good Luck
David

[jch216]

I believe this is the correct disk that I have.