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I have two coumputers in my home and one is an hp 6630 running 98se. Now i have reinstalled this computer at least 500 times and never had a problem. I tried to do it again the other day and after the hp logo pops up and it reads the cd rom drive and goes to the a drive it pops up an invaild disk error msg. I went to bootdisk and d/l a 98se bootdisk ver and put it into the puter. I will now pull up the a prompt and allow me to do limited dos commands and will also allow me to f8. Problem is it only offers normal start up after an f8. It shows that win98 is there but will not allow it to load or even let me open it. I can change to c: in dos but still cant get the cd to install the factory secs. can some please help me out. I thought i knew what i was doing but i guess i dont and i really need that system back up and running. It almost seems to me like the hd has been wiped but if that was the case it wouldnt give the hp logo...or am i wrong...thank u so much for the help.

Hi dragonrebel and a warm welcome to PCHF
Can you, once again sorry for that, reinstall win98, after formatting the c-drive, using the cd?
Then, after installation enter the bios (pressing del/f1/f2) and go to 'boot devices' There set harddtive or c: to primary boot device and save settings & exit.
See if that works,
Good luck, Bram
ps. the hp logo is 'burned' into the bios so even when the computer cannot boot it will still show the logo

i can do anything. It will read the cdrom but pops up and says invaild disk. I went to bios like you said but it would not let me change anything under the boot section

Hmmmz, darn, and there isn't any option which looks like a boot section? there should be, and I think that's causing the problem.
When you can't find it, I'll be standig by offcourse (but not for the coming few hours LOL, 02.23 over here, so a goodnight for now)
Bram

ok so i got a bootdisk from a friend and i can now get all the 1-5 start up lines. I hit anything and if takes me right to c: from there i can get the dir and execute a few files but still no 98se. At one point it was going to let me format c but now i cant get back to it. I have tried changing the boots around to everything i can think of and still no 98

Try downloading a bootdisk from bootdisk.com they have bootdisks which install a driver so you cana ccess your cdrom drive by typing d: at the c prompt. (when you haven't tried entering d: at the prompt with the current disk, see if it works)
Good luck, Bram

thanks alot for the help so far btalman. It seems each time i get a step or two further than i was. I just let me format c: but now even with the bootdisk i got it says invaild disk. However i refuse to give up because now it seems like a contest of wills to me...lol..