Install Operating system

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Charlie

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Feb 9, 2005
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Hi
I have inherited a computer that has had it's hard disc wiped for security purposes or it's previous owner. I thought that I would be able to put a boot up disc in the A: drive and navigate my way to the CD drive and download a copy of Windows 98 that I have. Unfortunately when I boot up on all I get is a message saying "Invalid System Disc replace the disc and press any key". The floppy drive is looking at the boot disc. The boot disc is an MS official disc so I don't suspect any problem with that. Am I doing the right thing or am I going about this the wrong way can you suggest how I can get a formatted hard disc to load an operating system.
Thanks
Charlie
 
The error you are getting is because you have no OS installed on the hd.
Go into bios and make sure the floppy is set as the first option to boot from. I would bet the hd is set first. If floppy is set first then make sure the floppy you are using is bootable.
 
Thanks you have got it in one. I have now loaded Windows but this leads me to the next problem. I can't do anything because non of the drivers are loaded. How can I find out which drivers I need. I can load them on this machine and transfer them if I can I can indentiy my needs. Another problem encountered in the the display resolution is not high enough to support some of the sofware I have. I have tried to change this to a high res but the slider will not move. It is stuck on low. I know that this machine is capable of a higher performance as it is comparatively modern. I am running some of these applications on an older machine without problems. Thanks again
Charlie
 
You will have to download the drivers that you need. If you know the make and model of the computer go to the manufacturer site and download the driver disk. If you don't know the make and model check device manager to see what hardware it has and download drivers from manufacturer sites.
Each computer comes with a driver disk and if yours didn't then you need to download it.
 
Thanks Bob It is a Dell computer XPS R450so I will go to the Dell site with the Dimension number and try to get the complete set of drivers. Otherwise I will try to get the individual drivers from the cards. it is hard though because I have looked carefully at the modem card and can see that it is a US Robotics but the model is not obvious. There are lots of letters and numbers but the Robotics site does not relate to any of them. e.g. PCI DFVJP does that mean anything to you?
I have been playing again and I find that I cannot load the drivers from device manager because the CD drive will not operate unless you put a disc in that self drives. I cannot navigate my way there with the D:\. This machine used to have a Zip drive which has been removed. It seems that the Zip drive was the primary drive? I think I need to do something in the BIOS to activate the D:\ but am loathe to mess about without instruction. Can you put me on the right track? Otherwise even if I download the drivers from Dell I cannot load them!
Thanks again
Charlie
 
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