invalid system disk problem at startup

[GhostRecon]

I posted this on the technical support section but I figured I should also post it on OS section.

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.

 

[LS]

Your msdos.sys file probably got replaced by the sys c:. You will need to manually recreate it. Look at Q149110 for instructions. The instructions are for Windows 95 but will work for Windows 98. Good luck.