Please bear with me -- I am a self-educated computer novice (hey, I'm trying) so keep that in mind if/when responding. Yesterday, while online I got this screen indicating that my computer detected a problem. I tried rebooting and now keep getting this black screen with the ever so lovely phrase "Invalid Boot Diskette" "Insert Boot Diskette in A:" (just FYI - there is no disk in A
. I reconnected some cables in the back, and thought that may have been the problem because I at one point I was able to get back to the Windows start up screen -- then it went back to the black screen.
Here's some info about my system (bought in 2001):
Dell Dimension 4100
BIOS Version - A06
Intel Pentium III Processor
Speed 933 MHz
System Bus freq - 133 MHz
Cache RAM - 256 kb
Total memory - 128 MB
Memory bank - 128 MB (PC133)
My processer serial number is [Disabled].
I (somehow) managed to get into Setup, and found the following BOOT info:
Quiet Boot - Enabled
Quick Boot - Disabled (should this be enabled?)
My boot device options are: Floppy, ARMD-FDD, ARMD-HDD, IDE-HDD, ATAPI-CDROM, DISABLED. [Can someone tell me the difference between the acronyms?]
Here's how my boot devices were listed:
1st Boot device - Floppy
2nd Boot device - ARMD-FDD
3rd Boot device - IDE-HDD
4th Boot device - ATAPI-CDROM
5th Boot device - DISABLED
[NOTE: someone suggested I change the 1st Boot to IDE-HDD; I tried that, it didn't work. Plus, I now only have 4 Boot devices listed instead of 5.]
The IDE Drive Configuration is:
Primary Master - 1st IDE
Primary slave - 2nd IDE
Secondary Master - 3rd IDE
Secondary slave - 4th IDE (I have no idea what all this means)
The bottom line question is this: am I screwed? I just want to be able to get back to the point where I can recover data (pictures, emails, resumes, etc.), then we're getting a new computer (this one is painfully slow). Is the boot device order correct? If I just click on Restore System Defaults, will everything get back to order without me losing data? If I change the 1st Boot drive to CD-ROM and try the repair/re-install CD's, will I lose everything?
I appreciate any and all help,...and thank everyone in advance for taking the time out in your busy day.