Help! My husband bought a computer from Goodwill that has no operating system and no accompanying software. When we boot it up, we get an "invalid system disk" message. We DO have an old Win98 startup disk - would inserting this help, or do we need professionals? We can't install the operating system until this is cleared up!

Try installing the floppy into the A; drive and boot up , if this dont work , open the case and make sure the ribbon cables are securely attached to the hard drive etc. " You're only as safe as your last update "

http://www.windowsreinstall.com/

Is there a hard disk identified in the POST screen (Power On Self Test) when you first power up? If so, boot with the 98 boot floppy, and at the A:\> prompt type in fdisk/status and hit Enter. This will list any hard disks which are in the system along with any partitions which may be on the disks. Post back with this info. OK, to go a bit farther, if you have a hard disk, and it lists a C partition, at the A:\> prompt, type in dir/a/o/p c: and hit Enter. This will list any directories and files on this drive. Post that info if present. It's a good day when you learn something

If you do need to reinstall you'll need the installation cd and not just the floppy bootdisk. I've gotten a few good computers at goodwill. I picked up an Athlon 1.something with a 40 gig HD and 512 RAM for $20. Usually you have to assume you'll need to do a fresh installation. Even if the OS is still on the drive there's going to be a lot of other software that a new owner will not need.