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Invalid system disk
Webplayer doesn't boot from harddrive

New MessageInvalid system disk (modified 0 times) Hari
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Hello,

I just started hacking my webplayer. I bought a 44-pin IDE cable from badflash and bought a Fujitsu 4gb harddrive (MHF2043AT). I have set the IDE bus to Primary in the BIOS and connected the harddrive. When I start webplayer, I get the "Invalid system disk" error. If I go into the bios, I can see that the harddrive is detected correctly (with the model number), but still I get this error. The disk has two partitions, one primary containing DOS and another logical partition with no data, each of 2gb size. I was able to boot off this drive in my laptop. At the same time, I was able to connect the laptop's drive to Webplayer containing Windows 95 and successfully start the boot (aborted the boot, as the drivers will not match). So, out of the four combinations (two hard drives and webplayer and a laptop), only one combination (new harddrive + Webplayer) doesn't work. Can anyone help me solve the problem? Is it anything to do with how the drive is partitioned? Do I possibly have to change any other settings in the bios? I already tried setting the OS to DOS. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Hari

07-09-2002 00:56:40

New MessageRE:Invalid system disk (modified 0 times) Hari
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Just a small update, I tried the "large disk access" and "installed os" settings with all the four combinations (other/win95 and other/dos), and none of them worked.

Thanks,
Hari

07-09-2002 01:20:14

New MessageRE:Invalid system disk (modified 0 times) Hari
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While reading more posts on the forum, I found some posts referring to the Cyl/Sec/Hd count not being detected on webplayer correctly. Tomorrow, I will try to see if I can do something about this setting. But meanwhile, any help will be appreciated.

Thanks,
Hari

07-09-2002 01:31:30

New MessageRE:Invalid system disk (modified 0 times) Samyo
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Use Maxtor's or Seagate's HD installation software to setup your HD. It will install something like a bios which can be removed by fdisk/mbr on your HD. Hope this helps.
07-09-2002 14:25:03

New MessageRE:Invalid system disk (modified 0 times) Hari
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Can you please give more details on how to do this as I have never done this. First of all, it is not a new drive, and it came with dos installed on it. So what do I need to install using Maxtor or Seagate's software? Can you give a pointer to what this software would be (like the name or the url)? Also, about the following:

It will install something like a bios which can be removed by fdisk/mbr on your HD

can you tell me what exactly needs to be done?

Thanks a lot,
Hari

07-09-2002 17:51:29

New MessageRE:Invalid system disk (modified 0 times) Samyo
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http://www.maxtor.com/products/DiamondMax/techsupport/TechnicalProcedures/24023.html
Use it to install the EZ-bios or partition and format your HD.
07-09-2002 22:42:36

New MessageRE:Invalid system disk (modified 0 times) ChocoNutDancer
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It sounds like the partition isn't marked bootable ("active" partition in fdisk).

you already did a "sys c:" to copy (a bootable) DOS to the partition right?

07-10-2002 05:33:41

New MessageRE:Invalid system disk (modified 0 times) Hari
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Yes, I verified that the partition is marked as active (and it gets booted if I install it in my old laptop).

BTW, I wanted to try the suggestion that was given by the other poster (the Maxtor software idea), but I have a weird problem. My laptop doesn't have a floppy drive, so I bought an adapter to connect to a pc (which I have to anyway, to transfer the 98 files). But the 40-pin side is not actually fitting into the IDE connector, because the IDE connector doesn't have a hole at one of the pin locations. Am I supposed to rip that pin off? If I have to rip it off, how do I identify from which side I need to remove it (they are identical on both sides). Any help?

Thanks a lot,
Hari

07-10-2002 22:25:24

New MessageRE:Invalid system disk (modified 0 times) dan6863
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pin one on the cable is where the red wire is, and pin one on the drive is on the side closest to the power plug... that's how it's been on everything i've seen to date... the drive might be labled with where pin one is with a number or an arrow/triangle thingy.

might be a better idea to just get a different cable that doesnt' have to have the pin removed though.

07-11-2002 00:49:41

New MessageRE: It works now, thanks. (modified 1 times) Hari
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I finally was able to install win98se and get the webplayer up and running. To connect the harddrive to pc, I bent the pin-20 so that the 40-pin side of the adaptor can be connected to the IDE cable. The reason that the drive was not recognized was that there was some irrecoverable error in the partion table (reported by the partion magic). So I reformatted the entire drive. After that everything went smoothly. I got the sound, modem and video working well. I installed the 3COM USB NIC and got that working too. Thanks to all who helped and to the message board archive with a wealth of information. I still have three things left now:

- One device didn't get installed because of the lack of drivers. It is "Wave Device for Voice Modem". The standard sound driver didn't have a driver for this.
- Install the harddrive inside the webplayer.
- Though I can ping to my XP PC, I can't seem to get them see each other on the network neighborhood. I have installed the standard services and protocols (file & printer sharing, client for microsoft logon, netbeui). A priliminary search shows XP doesn't come with netbeui installed. The readme in the driver directory says that it is not recommended. Did anyone get WebPlayer running 98SE to connect to a PC running XP professional?

Thanks again for all the help,
Hari

07-14-2002 18:40:02

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