Invalid Partition Table

Just passing through...

Brenda, I'm going to assume you have a good boot disk now and probably have used one like it before and perhaps still have that one too. I think this because you indicate that you have reloaded the system a time or two before and likely would have needed one of those boot disks.

With that assumption I will have to say that it is apparent that you have more than one problem. First, the boot drive (C has lost its Partition Table. That renders the drive unbootable until you either replace the Partition Table with a backup copy or else wipe the drive clean and repartition it. The former method will save the data on the disk; the latter will dump it all.

Now, the only way to accomplish either of those goals is to be able to boot to the A: drive. I know you have tried that and keep getting the error message directing you to place a system disk in the drive. That tells me that the order of boot is correct and the CMOS setting do not need changing. If they did, you wouldn't be getting that mesage. That tells me that either your boot disk is bad or the Floppy drive has failed. Based on the facts, I think the Floppy Drive has failed and you will need to replace it before you can do any repairs to the C: drive. If you are sure the boot disk is good and has been used successfully before, such as when you loaded the system last, then get someone to replace the Floppy Drive and allow it to be booted to. They are cheap, often aroung $10 and although that machine is old, it's worth putting that much into. Perhaps the Radio Shack dude will give you a break since he wasn't that helpful before. You could also replace it yourself, it's easy as pie if you have basic tools and skills.

If you decide to hire someone to do it, have them check the old one before removing it just in case there is some other factor we don't understand.

Once you get it bootable to the new Floppy Drive post back and you can get some more guidance on how to proceed. I suggest you install Win98 once you get straightened out since Win95 is going down for the count as far as support is concerned.

HTH Good luck.

 

With the brevity of your response, its hard to determine exactly where we stand. If you set the FDD as the boot device and if you used a good boot disk in the proper manner I would have expected 1) you got an A: prompt, 2) an "invalid system disk" message, 3) no prompt and no message. One would suspect the FDD at this point, but............?

You could open the box and check the ribbon cables to insure that pin one is oriented properly ( would only be misoriented if someone previously removed and then reinstalled them incorrectly). Otherwise, a $10 investment in a new FDD is not extravigant. Spending any more than that on a 486 machine may be throwing good money after bad. You can purchase a used PII machine for around $200.

Tin