invalid system disc, flashing cursor with boot floppy

[racerbrownn]

yeah, i'm i trouble now.
great way to ring in the new year.
one of my shops pc's with win98se won't reboot this am.
when i got here, it was displaying invalid system disc, please insert disc.
i copied system files to a new floppy [and checked to see if they were really there] and tried to boot the pc with the floppy.
all i get is a flashing cursor upper left screen.
it's a gateway pc.
i briefly see the hdd listed but haven't hit the right key to get into the bios to check around yet.

this can't be good when even the floppy won't work.

[bailey]

that only means that the system files are not on the floppy eather
the system files are hidden files, how did you make sure that they were on the floppy

[racerbrownn]

this is bs, the boot floppy i just made doesn't work even on a good pc.
i right clicked on the floppy drive in my computer and choose format.
then i did a quick erase and then i copied system files to it.
it shows the command, msdos.sys, io.sys and drvspace.bin files
what more does it need

when i open the floppy in my computer, these files are there
.p.s. my pc is set to show all files.

do i really need to download another bootdisc off the internet to be able to boot to a:\

[bailey]

ok I was just checking to be sure myself.
and that floppy will not boot on a known good system eather.
something is rotten in denmark here.
need to think on this one a bit.

the drivespace.bin files does not sound right
where is that comming from ?
do you have the harddrive compressed in the system that don't boot ?
or a overlay on it ?
what you discribed is not a normal boot floppy
it is just a bootable floppy., except for that .bin file thats not normal

[racerbrownn]

drvspace.bin was copied automatically with the other 3 files. i've read that 4 files are copied and the three necessary are the other 3 listed.

i happened to find another old boot disc with fdisk and format and a few other files on it and tried it in my working pc.
it boots my working pc but when i take it over to the affected win98se pc, the floppy tries to load for a few secs and then stops working and all i get is the flashing cursor.

not good.....

[bailey]

see if you can get into the bios on the not working system
and look around to see if you see anything adnormal in the settings

[racerbrownn]

i choose to open up the pc and vaccumn and lightly air dust it out and then reseated the ram and main power and hdd cables.
i also pulled the battery and jumpered the bios to clear it out.
i reset the jumper back to normal and installed the battery.
rebooted and reset the time and date in the bios.
both the master and slave hdd show up in their places and for the right amount of size.
the floppy controller is enabled and it looks normal.
now when i try to reboot, i get a load error - press any key to reboot.
over and over as i try any key.

nothing like a challenge to start out the new year.

[racerbrownn]

oh well, at least the mystery is over.

now the boot disc will work and i loaded it without cdrom support.
changed to the c drive and ran dir

it listed the c drive as the contents of the slave drive.

unplugged the slave drive and rebooted.

the pc lists the c drive as the ram drive with the diag files loaded from the floppy.

i tried to unplug the c hddrive and rebooted with the same results.

looks like the c drive has gone south.

can't access the drive even though the bios see's it correctly.

any ideas before i sh*tcan the drive and go buy another one

[bailey]

it sounds like a good plan to me

[racerbrownn]

and a happy 2004 to you too.