Invalid system disk problem at startup

[GhostRecon]

Hi,

I have an older PC a Compaq Presario 5220 running Windows 98. On Sunday the computer crashed and when I rebooted I kept getting an "Invalid system disk, please remove the disk" message. I removed all the disks on the computer and tried to continue but nothing happened. I made a boot disk and ran "Syst X:" (where X is the hard drive letter) and I then ran Scandisk and made it run a surface scan twice. Scandisk corrected all the errors and when I try rebooting all I get is a black screen with the letters: "C:\" showing.

Now my question is, is there anyway that I can get to my desktop and backup some files?
I do not want to re-format my hard drive because I will lose the files.

Any help will be apprecited.

Thanks in advance.

 

[AKA]

Your only getting a c:\ prompt because you sys the drive.
This is normal.

All you need to do is setup Win98 again. No need to format yet.

If this is the original install on this computer then from the c:\ prompt change to c:\windows\options\cabs
Then run setup from there to reinstall Windows.