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Power 2100 |
Power 4000 |
Power 4100 |
Power 4300 |
Power 6000 |
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Power 6100 |
Power 8000 |
Power 8600 |
Power Se |
Power Sn |
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What can I do when I get an Invalid System Disk error? |
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Description: During the power up or after rebooting, you receive the following error message:
Invalid system disk Replace the disk, and then press any key
This error message may be caused by one of the following situations: |
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- There is a floppy disk in the A drive that does not have system files on it.
- The computer BIOS has lost the hard disk information.
- The system is infected with a boot-sector virus.
- The system is running virus-protection software.
- The system is using hard disk management software (such as Disk Manager, EZ-Drive, or DrivePro) for hard disk geometry translation. These tools provide support for hard disks larger than the computer BIOS was designed to utilize.
- Security software has disabled access to drive C.
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Floppy disk in Drive A during boot
Remove the floppy disk; press any key to continue boot sequence. |
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Computer BIOS lost information on the hard disk drive
Load the BIOS defaults. |
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- Power down the system.
- From the powered down state, power the system on, and press and hold the <Ctrl> and <Alt> keys down and tap the <Esc> key once. Release all keys. NOTE: It may be necessary to perform the three keystrokes more than once to enter the system setup.
- Use the keyboard arrow keys to scroll down to "Load Default Settings", and press the <Enter> key. When asked if you want to load the default settings, choose the Yes option and press <Enter>
- Press <Esc> to exit the BIOS and select YES to save the changes. Allow system to boot.
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If the problem persists, you will need to rebuild the hard drive with the Acer recovery software. |
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Systems Infected with a Virus
Use an anti-virus program to detect and remove the virus. Try and reboot to see if the problem has been fixed. If not, you will need to reinstall Windows. Boot-sector viruses infect computer systems by copying their code to the boot sector on a floppy disk or to the partition table on a hard disk. During system startup, the virus is loaded into memory. Once in memory, the virus will infect any non-protected disks accessed by the system. |
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Systems Running Virus-Protection Software
Sometimes virus protection software can either incorrectly identify virus signatures in the system startup files or attempt to clean infected files and corrupt them. When this happens, boot the system using the Windows startup disk created during Windows Setup. Use the SYS command from the startup disk to restore the system files to the hard disk. From the A:\ command line, type:
SYS C: <Enter>
After the command has finished running, reboot the computer. If the computer only boots to a C:\ prompt, you will need to reinstall Windows. You may be able to recover some of your files off the hard disk by using DOS commands to copy the files onto floppy diskettes. |
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Systems Using Disk Management Software
NOTE: This fix applies only if you have installed in your system an upgrade or replacement drive that required special software from the manufacturer for your system to recognize and utilize the drive. Windows may not in some cases detect the disk management software for the drive and may overwrite the master boot record (MBR) information. You will need to refer to the documentation for the disk management software you are using for information about restoring the MBR. Reinstall the Windows system files as shown above. You may need to rebuild the hard drive with the Acer recovery software.
CAUTION: If you are using disk management software on a hard disk, make sure that the overlay driver is loaded before you use the SYS command on that hard disk. If the overlay driver is not loaded and you use the SYS command on the hard disk, the drive may not be recognized as being partitioned by the disk drive overlay program and you could experience data loss or an inability to boot from the drive. Acer recommends that you contact the drive manufacturer for support for this process. The drive manufacturer will be able to provide you with the best instructions concerning their hardware. |
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Security Software Enabled
There is third-party software available that locks access to one or more hard disks. If you have this type of software installed, contact the program manufacturer about how to remove it and safely restart Windows 95 or 98. |
