Originally Posted by secret amish tekkie

Thanks for the tip. The one problem I have, however, is that (right now) the computer won't even boot from the CD-ROM. When first turned on, I get the Dell screen (without the bar that "fills up" underneath), then it goes straight to the black screen with the "Invalid Boot Diskette" message. I've tried tapping/holding down both the F8 and F12 buttons on start up, and that doesn't work.

As I mentioned, when it sits in this state, the LED lights in the back are all green -- which supposedly indicates no hardware problem. When I go into Setup, however, the LED lights are G-G-G-Y, which is weird. After reading several hours of similar forum-reported problems, a myriad of suggestions are running around my info-jammed brain, including:

1. Reset the Bios to "Load Setup Defaults."
2. Make the Cd-ROM the first BIOS Boot Device.
3. Relace the motherboard battery.
4. Check/disconnect/reconnect all internal wiring.
5. Disconnect the floppy drive.
6. Clear the NAVRAM (as soon as I learn what that is).

I've never backed up a hard drive using another computer. Any suggestions in terms of a link that could walk me through the process?

Thanks again.