Hello, I just recently formated my computers hard drive. Now when I try to boot from the windows CD, it says the message: invalid system disk, please remove and press any key. I have restarted it with no disks in it at all, and it still says the same thing. anybody know whats going on? cause I don't have the slightest clue.
Thank You.
Matt
p.s. is there a way to boot straight from the restore disk I have?
Are there any scratches on the disc. When I first got my XP Pro disc it came with scratches on it and that happened. Does your BIOS reconize your cd-rom and is it set to boot from the cd-rom first?
Sounds to me like your bios is set to boot from your Hard Drive.
Go into the bios setup and change the 'boot first drive' to either 'Floppy Drive' or 'CD-ROM Drive', depending whether you want to boot from a 3 1/2" floppy or a CD.
Reboot the PC and press F2. It should enter the BIOS then. When your are there look for the boot seqeunce option.When you find it set it to boot from CD first.
I have a older model compaq.
I tried holding F2 when rebooting and there were no options to change the bootup. I will try holding delete though. anyother suggestions would be appreciated.
Acer - Ctrl+Alt+Esc
Compaq - F10
Compaq Presario - Press <Alt> <Ctrl> <Esc> at boot when you see the "Compaq" log in big letters
Dell - F1 or Del.
Gateway 2000 - F1
Hewlett Packard - F1
IBM
Older Models - In order to get into the configuration of the IBM setup screen (CMOS) screen you need to hold down both mouse buttons during boot-up.
Aptiva - Press F1
Leading Edge
Fortiva 5000 - <Cntrl> <Alt> <A> or <Cntrl> <Alt> <S>
NEC - F2
Packard Bell - F1 or F2
Sharp Laptop 9020 - F2
Sony - F3, then F2, or F1
Tandon computers - Hold down the <Esc> key after turning on power
Toshiba Laptops - Toshiba Utility
If you have an older Compaq, my guess is that there is no option to boot from the CD. You'll need a startup floppy with CD support to access the CD drive and re-install. You can visit Bootdisk for boot disks of all flavors.
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