ScuzzBlog: Diaries April 2026
Entry 21st April 2026: Post 1: RM PC - Invalid System Disk.
RM PC - Invalid System Disk.
The light bulb blew in the kitchen this morning. Bulbs seem to last
for ever these days. The fact I have to change the bulb is a gentle
reminder that nothing lasts for ever. Something that dogs you day
in and day out when dealing with older kit.
Why do I share this ? Well I would much prefer to be changing a
light bulb than installing a Windows 98 OS to a replacement hard
drive. A few days ago I fired up the RM tower in my little cluster
of PCs I use to file manage the Amiga and got an error message that
basically advised that the system hard drive in the machine has
fallen over. It is a pretty common problem with older PC 3.5" hard
drives to get the drive sticking or simply failing. Like my kitchen
light bulb they don't last for ever.
This computer has been in service since the late 1990s. It was quite
amusing when I pulled a floppy to test from the machines disk box
it had the Year 2000 BIOS test disk. If you recall there was this
scare in 1999 that computers would fail as we entered the year 2000.
In the end very little came of this and certainly none of my
machines had any problems.
Anyhoo the BIOS and settings show the two active disks, the CD,
floppy and the IOMEGA ZIP disk all being active on boot. Sadly the
process halts when it should kick into the hard drive giving out
a gentle click and flashing red light. So that is that. I
could extract the drive and give it a 'wallop' with a hammer but
I fear this would only be a short fix if anything.
I now have to sort out a replacement and reinstall the Win98 OS.
I do need this machine cus it has the ZIP drive that I use with
the Amiga. The second drive also has a large section of the Amiga
repository.
Here is to making sure everything is working if you get the chance
to check. I don't use this machine very often as I have ZIP drives
on two other PCs, but I do need it for the odd copy of stuff. I
also cannot abide having a PC not working. Fortunately Win98 requires
no validation so I'm good to go.
The RM machine did use to be one of our main AutoCAD computers in
the office. She has taken a good hammering over the years and survived
in the office until the turn of the new Millennium. She was replaced
by a Windows Millennium machine that got upgraded pretty quickly
to XP. The Millennium/XP machine is but two feet away from this
computer and works just fine... I did check today. I have five PCs
in a small cluster.
I am AWOL at the moment as the forces of Azeroth need my mage in
the fight for the 'Light' in Midnight in Warcraft. Leveling does
take a long time if you challenge yourself with all the quests. I
leveled one of my mages to 90 (cap) a couple of weeks ago and now
I'm on my second at Level 87. Its what I do. I also have been heavy
into AI and published a couple of dozen pics this last week. And
I am still in deep cleaning mode. Does get tricky finding time for
the website... Shame I can't use my mage forces to fight to save
the kitchen 'light'.. Get it ? That's an insider joke. Never mind.
PS: This is interesting. I found this blog from 2019 about the PC
that had failed and when I dragged her to the bench she sprang
back into life....
And so to Rose Marie who for some reason decided not to work. And
when I say not work I mean not work. So I dragged this very tall
tin box which is a RM PC-5200 Professional from around 1997 to the
bench and lay the poor girl on her back and guess what... she booted
first time. Talk about annoying.
~ Previously on scuzzblog ~
October19 1101: scuzzblog: RM PC-5200 Professional or just Rosie.
RM PC - Invalid System Disk.
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