HELP; replace system disk

Hi all,
Just cleaning c drive of files i do not need anymore on a dell latitude cptv and i resarted the laptop after i had deleted several files and it came up with "invalid system disk, replace disk and then press any key" i tried replacing cd rom as i had a cd in when i restarted it because it froze on me after files had been deleted, is this just a case of inserting the windows 98 disk and reinstalling it or is it a new c drive.
Please reply as soon as.
thanks
Gower

 

Do this and make sure your CD drive and floppy drive are EMPTY when booting.

 

When the computer froze it did have a cd in the cd rom dirve and i did take it out and it still didn't work, thanks for the advice but is there anyway of accessing BIOS without the computer booting up to home page?

 

The BIOS is accessed before windows even begins to load. Right after you turn on your PC, you should start to tap your BIOS access key. Which key that is depends on your BIOS. Consult your manual.
More Info

 

Did exactly what you said changed BIOS to Internal HDD then Diskette drive A then cd rom/ dvd and then rebooted and it still said invalid system disk .... Is there a reason for this? Will most likely be corrupted files and windows having to be reinstalled?
Thanks

 

Your HD boot sector may have been corrupted. Try to repair it using the fixboot command from the Windows XP recovery console.

 

thanks very much for all your help, is all sorted now had to use windows startup disk to repair corrupted files.