System disk or disk error

[keats]

Hello all
A friend called me last night to see if i could help with a pc problem.
After trying to install a game they recieved a message that the pc was short of disk space, After deleting files which they can now not recall The pc will not start up. They now get .
Non -system disk or disk error
Replace and strike any key when ready

All the disks where empty so i figured they must have deleted some windows files so they asked if i would reformat for them which i have done before when they first got the P-11 compaq pc win98.
Problem is
It will not start with the cd rom on boot up, The bios is set boot 1st cd rom, 2nd floppy, 3rd Hard drive,
I can start it with a boot disk go to the cd-rom \ windows \setup
but get the message cannot run in dos mode
The pc has a cd-burnner and cd rom have tried disconnecting each individually and rebooting but stil get the error message about
Non-system disk or disk error.
I'm stuck run out off ideas any suggestions out there
Someone must have the answer

[Dan Penny]

If the hard disk(s) have not been formatted yet, boot with the startup floppy and when you get the A:\> prompt, type in;

dir/a/o/p c:

and hit enter. If there are any files on the hard disk they should show up. (You can stop the dir listing by hitting Ctrl+C.) If the windows directory is there, type in;

edit c:\msdos.sys

and hit enter. If there is only one or two lines in this file then it has been replaced somehow. This file contains path (and other) information for your main startup files. It should look something like this;

[Paths]
WinDir=C:\WINDOWS
WinBootDir=C:\WINDOWS
HostWinBootDrv=C

[Options]
drvspace=0
dblspace=0
BootMulti=0
BootGUI=0
BootWarn=0
Network=0
LOGO=0
DoubleBuffer=1
AutoScan=1
WinVer=4.10.2222
Bootkeys=1
BootMenu=0
BootMenuDelay=30
;
;The following lines are required for compatibility with other programs.
;Do not remove them (MSDOS.SYS needs to be >1024 bytes).
;xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxa
;xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxb
;xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxc
;xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxd

(I've removed some lines similar to the above for space reasons. They usually go down to the letter "s".) You can use the arrow keys to move around while in EDIT. To exit the EDIT utility, hit Alt, then F, then X, then enter. (NOTE: this is a copy of ~MY~ file. The one on the problem machine will have some different settings, but it should look similar.)

If this file appears to be OK, type in;

fdisk/mbr

You won't see any messages for this action. Pull the bootdisk and try starting normally. If windows starts you're half way there. Any error messages can be dealt with from this point.

Post back with your findings.

[keats]

Thanks for the reply Dan
Sorry but at their request i reformatted and am still getting the same error message.
as i said earlier i can not get the system to boot fo the cd now like i said in my first post.
Thanks again Dan

[Dan Penny]

Not all 98SE cd's are bootable. Check the root directory of the cd for these files;

Command.com
IO.sys
MSDOS.sys

Drvspace.bin may be there also, but this file is not really required for booting, but the other three are.

"I can start it with a boot disk go to the cd-rom \ windows \setup..."

What bootdisk are you using? If required, you can get a 98SE bootdisk image file here or here. You click on the downloaded file to create a bootdisk on one of your floppy disks.

Did you mean %CDROM%:\win98\setup.exe by the above path statement?

"...... but get the message cannot run in dos mode"

Exactly what does it say on the CD label that you're attempting to use? Any of the MS O/S's up to 9x/ME use DOS for the setup execution.