The Oldest Error

You young tech support people probably have never heard of this error, but it has been around since the PC was first invented. I still remember getting phone calls from irate customers who had just purchased that $3000 IBM PC-XT and it would not boot up. Instead they would see this error message:

"Invalid system disk. Replace the disk. Press any key to continue."

99 times out of 100 this error can be fixed by reading the cryptic instructions. Take that non-boot diskette out of the A: drive and then press any key. Of course there is always that dreaded one time when you hear, "There's nothing in the drive." on the receiver. But I will save that discussion for another day.

This simple error message has so much information that it boggles some people's imaginations. It can lead to all sorts of confusing things over the phone like "Where is the 'any' key?" and my favorite, "I just bought this thing and it already wants me to replace the disk?" One of the best calls I had, this poor woman received the error message and we spent a good hour on the phone together. Have you ever tried to describe what a floppy drive looks like to someone with no mechanical experience or even the tiniest shred of electronic knowledge? Comedy gold.