Member Avatar for andresariza83

I tried doing a "format and recovery" on my pc. A hp pavilion 6470z running Win98. I think I made a mistake by deleting the partitions but im not sure. After deleting the partitions I continued the format and recovery process but there was an error in the process and now this is what happens. When I boot up the computer I get a message stating "Invalid system disk, Replace the disk, then press any key". I tried running the recovery disks again. I placed the cd (1 of 2) into the drive and rebooted the computer. The HP Recovery Welcome screen appeared and then I pressed any key to continue. I read the warning and pressed ok. Clicked on recover. Then clicked on format and recover. Clicked yes. The following then appeard. Preparing Hard disk. Warning, all data on non-removable disk Drive C: will be lost. Proceed with format y/n?y. Checking existing disk format. verifying 2,045m. Format complete. It then continued inflating & extracting many files. After a while of this I was then sent to a new screen which read *** Warning*** in red near the top middle of the screen. And in a smaller screen was the following message. Warning! There were errors recovering some files. The recovery cd may be damaged or your cd drive could be malfunctioning. Remove the cd and press ok to reboot your machine. I did and the same message appeared as before "Invalid system disk, Replace the disk, then press any key". I found something on the HP website giving instructions on what to do when you recieve a message stating "invalid system disk". I followed the instructions which were to load the recoverey cd, press any key at the welcome screen to continue, click ok on the next welcome screen, on the recovery options screen click advanced options, click the DOS Shell option, at the A:/>, type SYS A: C:, press enter, a message saying "system transferred" appeared, type EXIT at the A:/>, press enter to return to the recovery options, click exit, remove the cd and click ok when prompted. The pc rebooted after pressing ok. Now when I boot up my computer all that comes up is a blinking underscore in the top left corner. Can someone please help?

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by darsh999

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Brief diagnosis: the symptoms point to a broken boot chain rather than a hardware BIOS fault. Deleting partitions and then stopping or failing during the recovery/extraction phase can leave a drive that is formatted or has a partition table but no usable boot code or core system files. That produces the "invalid system disk" behavior first, and a lone blinking cursor once basic boot code exists but cannot find the OS files to continue.

Practical next steps in priority order: first, pull any removable media and confirm the HDD is the first/only boot device in BIOS. If the HP recovery run fails again while extracting files, the recovery disc or the CD drive is likely at fault; test the disc in another machine or try a clean burn/another copy. If data must be preserved, stop attempts that reformat — instead remove the drive and attach it to a working PC (or boot a rescue CD) to copy off important files. If no salvage is needed, the simplest reliable fix is a full reinstall from known-good media (OEM recovery or a self-install Win98 disc), since an interrupted recovery rarely leaves a stable system.

Repair options and cautions: is correct that repairing the master boot record/partition boot sector can help if the OS files are present; that requires using recovery/diagnostic tools and marking the Windows partition as a primary/active partition. is also right that deleting partitions is fine for a clean install — but only if the install/recovery finishes successfully. and discussed primary vs logical: the primary partition is the one the BIOS/boot code hands off to and must be active to boot; logical partitions live inside an extended partition and are not normally booted.

If you want a step-by-step repair, prioritize data salvage, then either retry recovery with verified media or perform a clean reinstall. If attempting manual repairs, make sure you understand the risk of overwriting partition tables or formatting — when in doubt, use a second PC or a pro service.

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Member Avatar for suRoot

blinking cursor means that the os is curupt, reintsll from scratch tbh

Member Avatar for blacksheepmcse

A blinking cursor is due to corruption but you could get the drive up and going by using fixmbr and or fixboot. I have run into this problem and had sucess with the above.

Thank you for your time,

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Member Avatar for explodinghead75

Also, I could be wrong, but deleting the partitions should not cause errors if doing a clean install.

Member Avatar for Salim9

Hey i have tried using fixmbr .... but just dont understand the technical language such as logical / primary drives .. really confuses alot i ll prefer a re-install rather.

Member Avatar for darsh999

This is simple Primary Drive is the drive where the O.S is ... and logical drives are the rest of drives.

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