Resolved Windows ME "Invalid System Disk...." on bootup

I have an old Sony Vaio C1VMT Palmtop/Notebook that came preinstalled with Windows ME. It has no built-in floppy drive or CD-Rom drive. But I have these as USB external devices.

It was working fine until I tried to make a clone of the C drive using xxClone software and somehow messed it up.

Now on booting, I receive the following message:
"Invalid system disk
Insert the correct disk and press any key to continue "

When I use ME boot diskette to bootup, I can get as far as inputting fdisk at the A prompty and can see
partitions C 1 PRI DOS which have a FAT32 system
Partition 2, has EXT DOS, and have no system type stated but have some % memory usage and on displaying the
Logical Drive, it has Partiton D with a FAT32 system displayed.

Going back to the A prompt and doing Sys C: I get the following
"Cannot find the system file in the standard locations on drive C:. SYS can only be used on drive C: to attempt a repair of the already existing installation of Windows. Use Windows SETUP to make C: bootable. "

What should I do next to try and get back what is already on the existing Hard Disk ? Ideally, I would not like to lose what is already there on the HDD. But if I have no choice, then ......

I have also tried hooking up my USB CD-ROM drive with a copy of ME disk in it (I do not have the original disk or a Recovery disk. I got this copy from a friend). But on boot up with the diskette and the CD in the drives, I get the message
"Device driver not found. MSCD001 "

Then it proceeds with the usual bootup from the diskette until the A prompt appears.

I assume this means my CD-ROM does not work at this stage which means if I need to reinstall ME, I will need WinME os on diskkettes. Is there any in existence or how can I make them with my CD copy ?

To sum up (and sorry for this long post):
first option is try to recover and get it working again what is already on my hard disk and if not possible, then the
second option is to reinstall ME, but need ME system on a diskette to do so unless there is a way to install my external CD-ROM driver from A prompt ??

Any help and suggestions will be greatly appreciated and many thanks in advanced. Please don't hesitate to ask if any questions.

 

These are the commands to repair the boot record, and transfer system files to the hard drive.
fdisk /mbr < appears to do nothing if things go right
sys a: c:

When this happened, did you have 'boot with CD-ROM support' highlighted at the beginning of the floppy booting? Perhaps your floppy is corrupted, that does happen with them.
http://bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm
At the link above, download the file for Windows ME OEM. Insert a floppy into the drive, then run the file, and a new boot floppy will be created for you.
Note: when booting off of the floppy, the CD drive does not have the usual drive letter. At the end of the boot up process there is a message giving the drive letter(s). If you have just the C: drive and CD drive, in most cases this letter is E instead of the normal D.

 

Doing the fdisk/mbr at the A: prompt came back with just the A: prompt again.
I have done Sys C: before and usiong fdisk to view the partitions, the result of each partitons are as I have stated in my post earlier here. This I believe also indicates that my floppy boot diskette is the correct one and is working properly (?)

Yes, of course I boot up with CD suport. The MSCD001 error message came after booting up from the floppy diskette

If I boot directly from ME CD, all I get is the same "Invalid System Disk....." message, even when I use a CD disk that I know is bootable, such as my bootable WinXP CD.

 

There is a chance simply blowing the dust out of the CD drive may cause it to read the disks. If not, you will need a working drive.

 

I wish it's as simple as cleaning the CD drive. You missed the basic problem, which is not able to boot up the palmtop with the CD containing Windows programs becuase at bootup, it is not reading the CD-ROM drive - and my CD-ROM drive is working since it works when connected to my other laptops.

 

Have you changed the boot order? You can try changing the boot order to read from the CD first.
Turn on the computer, when the Sony logo appears press F2, that should get you into the BIOS settings. If not, use F3 instead.
Change to CD first. If you do not see where to change it at first, select Advance Bios Features. Be sure to save the settings.
II did some research on your palmtop, and there are some issues about booting from an external PCMIA CD drive. I am not sure believe your model supports booting from a USB external drive

 

A great user on another forum wrote for me a program on a floppy disk that enables the boot up to read a USB CD drive so that I can install Windows ME from the ME disk I have. So this is resolved.

The only problem now is for me to find the driver for the C1VMT model built in Motion Eye/Camera that can run on Windows ME. Sony does not support this model anymore and so the driver can't be found on their site. I have googled without any success.

If anyone knows where I can get this, I'd be most grateful. Many thanks in advance

 

I didn't mark my thread as Resolved as I was hoping for some response from anyone who may know where I can get the driver I was looking for in relation to this thread. I was thinking I'll mark it as resolved after a few days if I hear nothing.

Sometimes it is not that easy as to decide when it is or is not resolved.

But let me know if you consider this should be marked as Resolved now and not wait for further response and I will glady do so. Thanks.

 

ok, done. Thanks