Good Afternoon All,

I need some help with something. Last Tuesday was a very bad day for me and it was made worse by the following issue with my computer. First, it is old very old, I know, I need a new one, but I hate buying new when old still works (well up until now anyway). Example, the TV in my bedroom I have had since I as 14, I am almost 30 now. Although now it permanently has these programming type numbers on the bottom of the screen I can’t get rid of…

I have a PC that was built for me by a guy that my Mom’s Ex BF knew for my Birthday in 1999 I think or was it 2001…. It has a P3, and hardly any RAM. The operating system is Millennium Edition. When built it was supposed to be top of the line… blah blah blah….

The PC’s performance has been slowing little by little over time, I had downloaded AOL 9.0 security edition for example to get the free virus and spyware stuff… and running AOL 9.0 takes a lot of memory from the RAM. So much so that I was having trouble using Party Poker

Last Tuesday I really needed an outlet for some emotions and turned on the PC. Opened and logged into AOL, then opened an Internet Explorer window to go to a website I like, and I got an error message that flashed too quickly to explain and the PC froze. So I “Control-Alt-Deleted” to the Task Manager and got rid of the Internet Explorer window and also AOL, because whenever this happens re-booting seems to clear the issue.

I powered down the correct way, and when powering back up before booting the PC was going through the “BIOS” screens were you can see what kind of hardware you have and stuff, and it gets to the part just before the ME screens pop up and the PC Makes a funny noise and it says: “INVALID system disk, hit any key to continue.“

Hitting keys just prompts it to make the noise again and the same message displays. “invalid system disk, hit any key to continue.“

I don’t want to get ripped off again like I did when I paid to have my cd burner installed.

Friends think that my operating software got hit by a virus or something that isn’t afraid of dialup modems, and my OS needs to be re-installed or updated.

Does it sound like that to you?
Or does it sound like an equipment issue with the floppy drive, if so I got $30 to buy a new one?
What are your thoughts on what happened?

General Questions that are rolling AROUND in my mind:

Can my "my documents" be retrieved by getting new operating software?
Can another pc or a flash drive retrieve the docs without me doing anything to the current pc?

I know I need a new pc I have for some time, because I really like online poker, and want to be able to use my MP3 player for more than a radio that I have had for over a YEAR.

I am of course able to get onto this wonderful looking site from work.

Thoughts?

Your time is appreciated thank you in advance.

Nicole.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that there are no disks at all in the Floppy, CDROM, nor the Burner Drives....

Thank You...

NicIt sounds to me like a bad/failing hard drive.

You need to download the bootable software
to test the hard drive from the hard drive
manufacturer.One at the below site should work.

http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287And if you want to save your data put that HDD in a known working machine as a slave drive and burn the contents to a CD/DVD...Thank You for the advice both of you. Looks like I will need to wait to do that HDD trick until I have a replacement PC, My Mom's PC has a bad vidio card but, I could put MINE in hers... hmmmm .... Wish this had happened before my ExBF left on Tuesday and he could have taken the HDD home. Not sure when I will see him again. I think I will try cleaning the inside of the PC too and ensuring that it is connected properly. Maybe the cat bumped into the tower too many times and it is dirty I am sure....... Make sure to remove all power to the case and don't use a vaccuum in there...compressed air works well.

Be forewarned also if that HDD is having problems the more you use it the less chance you have for data recovery.Not sure if it makes a difference but I played on PP too up until last week...I had two nics with over 200 mil in them and they will not let me sign in to either of them...I think that site is spending so much time trying to stop chippers that it's messing with our computers. :-/

Jeri<---X-PP-Player So I should stop turning it on just to see that it still says "invalid system disk" huh? I have to tell you that night I was sooooooo pissed off....

Forwarning taken..... years and years of my IM logs gone.... and short stories I wrote... pffft, not acceptible....

NicGirlysmiles.... I liked party poker because I could learn poker and the art of a well skills feminine distraction got me lots of fake money.... Got to be my naughty self the other sites are more serious less fun.... That happened to one of my hard drives... it would make a funny noise and then give an error message (not exactly the same but they differ from BIOS to BIOS) and it was a FAILED HD.

-John