need help with old laptop

[pbowie]

Help !

I was given an old winbook Si laptop, but it was all messed up

the OS has been wiped out and the disk formatted along with the MBR.

the active logical partition was deleted.

so. I created a new partition

but I cant boot from a floppy or Cd it says operating system missing (of course)

I can hit F8 and get the menu to boot from floppy or cd but it still says

missing OS system

Its been years since I messed with DOS, anyone can help me ?

[rightcoast]

Missing OS means there is no operating system installed to boot too. If the drive was formatted, whatever OS was there is gone and a new one must be installed. Any install disk from an OS will install onto the partiton you've created. (provided the system requirements for RAM, Processor speed etc. are all up to snuff.) You just have to choose which OS you want to install.

[glc]

You need to get into the bios setup and make the floppy or CD (whatever you are trying to use) the first device in the boot order. It's prolly set to boot first to the hard drive now.