trying to reinstall windows on toshiba laptop - HELP!!!

[glitterbuguk2000]

Hi

I have just been given a Toshiba Tecra 740CDT laptop. Decided as it had loads of errors to reformat the hard drive and reinstall win98. I have done this several times on desktops without problems but never on a laptop. Have reformatted ok but when i put the win98 disk in i get "invalid system disk, please replace disk and press any key" error message.

Is there another disk i need that would have come with the machine originally? i didnt get the user guide with the machine but found one online but wasnt much help.

does anyone know where im going wrong??

[embj]

Hello, and welcome to TechIMO, glitterbuguk2000.

I would try to make a new boot disk for it because that one you have might have got corrupted somehow. For that I would check out this page and download which ever one is appropriate to the Windows 98 version that you have.

[glitterbuguk2000]

hi embj

I have tested the win98 disk in another machine and it seems to be fine. any other ideas at all?

[John Prophet]

Go into the bios and see if it is set to boot off of the CD.

If it is set to boot off of floppy and then hard drive but not cd..it would do what you are describing.


So what is it set to boot off of in the bios? What order etc?

JP

[glitterbuguk2000]

ok the settings in bios are -

power - up mode = Boot
boot priority = built in HDD - FDD (other options in this are
1) FDD - second HDD
2) second HDD - FDD
3) FDD - Built in HDD

now i cant claim to really understand bios properly, but i have tried changing it to fdd - built in hdd but that didnt make any difference

[glitterbuguk2000]

dont know if this makes any difference, i am trying to use the win98 cd rather than a 3 1/2 disk,. looking at some posts re toshiba laptops they seem to refer to 3 1/2 drives rather than cd roms? this machine only has a cd rom

[John Prophet]

ok, lets clear up some confusion here....in your first post etc..are you saying you are trying to boot off of a W98 FLOPPY disk or a w98 CD?

From the looks of it your laptop isnt going to boot off of a cd since the bios doesnt mention cd in the boot order.

It looks like you need to set it to "fdd-built in hdd" and then get a w98 boot floppy disk.

usually after you make a change in the bios you hit "esc" to get off of that page and then F10 to save the settings and exit.

JP

[John Prophet]

ahhh, you posted the answer to my question b4 I got it posted, lol.

If you dont see any option for booting off of a CD in the bios, you might just be stuck buying a floppy drive.

JP

[glitterbuguk2000]

jp

i see a section on t oshibas tech support for upgrading the bios for this machine., if i did that would it then enable me to boot from a cd rather than a floppy?

[John Prophet]

I would definitely try it..but usually to upgrade or "flash" a bios, you need a floppy drive! lol.

JP