System Disk Error

I have a Packard Bell Pentium One computer and whenever I start it up, it goes through its hardware and software check then it goes to start up windows 95 and instead a black screen appears that says "System Disk Error."

There are no disks accidentally left in the A:\\ drive or the ROM drive. If anyone has any idea I'd appreciate the information.

 

Your operating system is corrupted or your hard drive has crashed. Turn the machine off, insert your startup disk, and reboot the system. If that doesn't work, then you need to buy a new hard drive.

Len2
A+ Certified Technician

 

You may have only lost your system boot files, use your startup floppy or get one (with the same operating system boot) , out in the boot floppy and after it boots up on the floppy and you have a dos prompt which is
a:/ or c:/ some systems display a:> or c:>
type in this DIR C: (enter) doesn't have to be capital letters. Does the directory of the c drive come up ?
If it does. Then do this... type a: (enter)
now you will a:/ or a:>
now type in SYS C: (enter)
system boot files should now be transfered to the c drive, now remove the floppy and reboot the computer. Does the system come up ? If the system you are using is windows 95, then the boot floppy must also be windows 95 boot, you cannot transfer a system files from a windows 98 start up floppy if windows 95 is on the c drive. Any boot floppy will allow you to see the directory of the c drive, but you must have the correct boot floppy to transfer system files (and have them work)

Under no circumstances give up on your hard drive too easily, if you can see the directory , your hard drive is most likely ok. I assume that your bios is set to A then c for booking, I wouldn't think that is an issue as you likely haven't tocuh it, and the error message you see means that is not the case.

Even in the worse case situation that you cannot get the directory to appear after booting up a floppy, don't yet throw the hard drive out , do the above first , if you can display the directory , after booting up on the floppy, then there is a high chance the hard drive is ok. As I stated transfer the system to the C drive from the A drive, remove the floppy and reboot, post your findings. My email is dkerr@ottawa.com
If the system comes up ok after doing this procedure , run a full system scan with a good antivirus program with up to date virus definition if you have on or can get one. If you don't have one, can't get one, or can't afford one, don't worry about it, the worst that can happen to any home computer is that you have to spend 1/2 a day redoing the system (easy for me to say right ??? ha , ha ) Allways try to get kept (backup) never can replace documents or data files off the system, you can easily re-install applications but its the personal files, letters, etc that you lose is redoing a system, hopefully it will never come to that.
I beleive there is some antivirus programs on the web that are available for free also.

I would never give up on a hard drive until it simply cannot be fromatted , can't blow or reinstate partitions, and my dianostic software won't make it work or find a bad track that I can simpty set it up and instruct it to bypass the bad track. However there is a boot block at the the head of drive, and if this boot sector is gone, the drive is likely gone, it doesn't matter how good the rest of the drive is, as long as the boot sector is ok, and depending on the severty of the damage , bad track scan be patched around.

Hopefully you only lost your system files on you c drive, do as I said, and see what happens.

 

Yes it is possible the operating system is corrupted. But I would never give up on the hard drive too easily. I have lost one hard myself, starting blocks failed. Another drive that I felt sure was garbaged , I got back up and working reliable, mind you I played with for quite some time, trying fat 32 and fat 16 partitions, and using dianostic software to blow and patch around a bad track. If it doesn't boot up on the startup disk , I would question rather or not the boot floppy is ok. With most hard drive problems , a valid boot floppy will still work as long as the bios is set to look for a system on the a drive.

 

Thanks to all for the replies. I checked every thing that you all have posted but no luck. I do beleive that it is the hard drive because it is making a grinding noise . you can hear it speed up and the grind to a halt. Again thanks for the replies

 

You never mentioned before,"it is making a grinding noise . you can hear it speed up and the grind to a halt." If that is the case , you could very well have ome to the right conclusion.