Hi,

I recently formatted the hard disk on my girlfriend's compaq armada m700, in order to clear things out and reinstall windows 98.

Problem is, after the format, when I boot I just get to a screen saying 'Invalid system disk, Replace the disk and then press any key'

This laptop has an on board CD rom drive and a USB floppy drive. I have a boot floppy disk but presumably it can't access this as the external drivers haven't been installed. So how do I boot into DOS, so that I can install windows from the CD drive? Putting a CD into the drive has it spin up but it does not seem to access the disc and it spins down after about 10 secs, so I don't think a bootable CD is the answer. I've had a look in the boot options in the BIOS but the options are: Notebook Multibay, Notebook hard drive and Notebook ethernet. Mixing the boot order around doesn't seem to make any difference, I've connected the ethernet to my desktop but that doesn't seem to do anything.

Please help me to fix this and restore my masculine pride!

Steff.

Hi Steff,

Sorry about the delay in replying to you.
We have a staff of techs who have a wide variety of skills and will be able to help you with your problem, this is not my area of expertise, one of the folks who can help you should be along shortly.

Thank you

Cart

Your getting that msg steff because the machine can't find the boot files.
Is this disk 98 or 98SE?
Some 98se disks have the boot files on them so you need to alter the boot option in the bios to cdrom first.

Obtain a cd boot disk here.

Bootdisk.Com

Hi Guys,

Many thanks for the reply. I believe that the disc is second edition but I'll visit that site to download boot drivers anyway.

One problem though- which is the boot option for the cdrom in BIOS- is it the multibay?

TIA.

Regards,

Steff.

Have a look at this pic Steff, do you see the boot order?
1st
2nd
3rd
etc
Change the boot to cdrom as first boot option, you may need to use the Page Up/Down keys or the +/- keys.

This has now been resolved, many thanks!

Steff.