Invalid System Disk error after formatting HD

[celeron]

I have a computer that gives an Invalid System Disk error when I try to start the computer with a startup floppy disk. I've tried several disks, some of which have been tested to work in another computer. The harddrive was just formatted, and the CD drive isn't working, so I'm unable to get anything working on the computer now.



Here's everything I did so far, in case it helps:

I was trying to fix a computer that has been gradually messed up by viruses and spyware over the past year or so. The computer was running Windows 98 SE, and it was completely messed up so I decided to format the harddrive and install Windows again.

I had some trouble formatting the drive because the computer was apparently corrupting the startup disks somehow. Once a startup disk was put in the computer, it couldn't be used again because the boot record would not be found. I used the write protection switch on another startup disk and got the drive formatted. I restarted the computer and it detected the CD drive, and installed the drivers from the startup disk, but they must have been messed up. Now the computer thinks it has a working CD drive but it can't read any data from it. I guess I accidently used CD drivers from when the computer was messed up.

I would just start over, format the drive again and install good CD drivers, but I can't get ANY startup disks to work now. So far I've tried using downloaded startup disk files put onto write-protected disks that had never been in that computer, still no good. I removed the CD drive in case it was messing up the system somehow, same error.



Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks

[Ob1]

http://dban.sourceforge.net/

[glc]

Try a different floppy drive and cable.

[Marke522]

You might want to try putting that harddrive into a different computer as a storage device and then format the drive through windows. Be sure to put it into FAT 32 of you're going to reinstall 98SE.

You might even want to install the OS while the drive is in the working pc, then move the drive after you know it works, then if there is still a problem you'll know it's with the hardware.

[celeron]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I tried a floppy drive and cable that worked in another computer, and I tried using a dban disk. Both times I got the same error.

I think putting the hard drive into another computer is more of a last resort. I'd be worried about messing up the other computer somehow, especially since I think the computer may have been corrupting startup disks a few days ago. I guess if I haven't got this solved in a few days I'll try that. For now, does anyone have any more suggestions? I'm still hoping there may be a simpler way to solve this that I've missed.

[Marke522]

You could put the harddrive in another computer and take out the other C: drive. That way you know nothing will get messed up. Just put in back in when you are done.

This method will help let you know if the hardware is at fault or if it is the drive. After you install windows just move the drive back and install the new drivers for the motherboard and any other pci cards.

[celeron]

I cleared the CMOS and for some reason it's now reading floppy disks again. I managed to get it to boot from a startup disk which I think has good CD drivers on it. I'm going to be more careful this time so it doesn't get messed up again. I tried

format c: /s

and it said there wasn't enough memory for the system files (its a 40 GB drive ). Is it ok for me to just format the C drive without putting the system files on it? Also, do the CD drivers load automatically on a restart? The computer is not able to read any data from the CD drive yet.

I'm sorry if some of these questions are basic/dumb, but I want to make sure I'm not going to mess it up again before I start formatting stuff or restarting it.