formatting a hd

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.soyo (More info?)

I havent been here in awhile because my soyo board has been working
fine now for two and half years and numerous upgrades. Overall I have
been very pleased with it. It has been severely abused, but when set up
correctly, it has been an excellent platform.

My question: I have an old hard disc. It was working when I pulled it.
I need to erase whats on it, and install in an old HP computer that I
want to donate to an elderly neighbor who wants to use it to
communicate with her younger relatives in Austria. (I know long story).
How can I partition it so I can slap it in the old HP and use the HP
recovery discs to get it running?
It is currently formatted for NTFS but will need to be Fat32 cause of
windows 98 os? Or can I just put it in, hook it up and hope the bios
boots from cd first?
I know I am putting the cart before the horse, because I should just
try it, but any help beforehand would be appreciated.
Perhaps just the info about which key to hit to get to the bios would
allow me to boot from cdrom would solve the hypothetical problem.
Thanks and best wishes.

 

[student]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.soyo (More info?)

colonpal wrote:
>
> My question: I have an old hard disc. It was working when I pulled it.
> I need to erase whats on it, and install in an old HP computer that I
> want to donate to an elderly neighbor who wants to use it to
> communicate with her younger relatives in Austria. (I know long story).

> How can I partition it so I can slap it in the old HP and use the HP
> recovery discs to get it running?

> It is currently formatted for NTFS but will need to be Fat32 cause of
> windows 98 os? Or can I just put it in, hook it up and hope the bios
> boots from cd first?

> I know I am putting the cart before the horse, because I should just
> try it, but any help beforehand would be appreciated.
> Perhaps just the info about which key to hit to get to the bios would
> allow me to boot from cdrom would solve the hypothetical problem.
> Thanks and best wishes.
>

Hi,

I would make a Win98 startup (floppy) disk.

The startup disk will contain various programs that you
can use to (re)partition and format the hard drive after it has been
installed in its new home.

After you have finished installing the hard drive in its new home,
just insert the startup disk in the floppy drive and power up.

If the BIOS on the new machine is set to boot from drive A: (which
it normally is)
the machine should boot and you can then proceed to partition the new
hard drive,
format the new partition(s), and install Win98 (or whatever).

If you have to get into the BIOS to change any settings, this is
usually done
by pressing the DEL key shortly after the machine starts to boot. A message
to that effect usually appears on the screen. If you miss it it the
first time,
just press CTRL+ALT+DEL (at the same time) and reboot (it doesn't hurt to
reboot in the middle of a boot).

I am running Linux at the moment and I can't remember exactly what you
have to
click on to make a Win98 startup disk but I am pretty sure that
information exists under
Start|Help.

Best of luck!

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.soyo (More info?)

You don't say how old the HP is, but some of the older machines can't handle
the really large HDs out there today. If that's the case, you may need to
install what's known as a Bios overlay that tricks the old Bios into seeing
the large HD. Hopefully, that won't be necessary though..
"student" <nospam@a.b.c.dINVALID> wrote in message
news:laa8e.14913$m31.141597@typhoon.sonic.net...
> colonpal wrote:
>>
>> My question: I have an old hard disc. It was working when I pulled it.
>> I need to erase whats on it, and install in an old HP computer that I
>> want to donate to an elderly neighbor who wants to use it to
>> communicate with her younger relatives in Austria. (I know long story).
>
>> How can I partition it so I can slap it in the old HP and use the HP
>> recovery discs to get it running?
>
>> It is currently formatted for NTFS but will need to be Fat32 cause of
>> windows 98 os? Or can I just put it in, hook it up and hope the bios
>> boots from cd first?
>
>> I know I am putting the cart before the horse, because I should just
>> try it, but any help beforehand would be appreciated.
>> Perhaps just the info about which key to hit to get to the bios would
>> allow me to boot from cdrom would solve the hypothetical problem.
>> Thanks and best wishes.
>>
>
> Hi,
>
> I would make a Win98 startup (floppy) disk.
>
> The startup disk will contain various programs that you
> can use to (re)partition and format the hard drive after it has been
> installed in its new home.
>
> After you have finished installing the hard drive in its new home,
> just insert the startup disk in the floppy drive and power up.
>
> If the BIOS on the new machine is set to boot from drive A: (which it
> normally is)
> the machine should boot and you can then proceed to partition the new hard
> drive,
> format the new partition(s), and install Win98 (or whatever).
>
> If you have to get into the BIOS to change any settings, this is usually
> done
> by pressing the DEL key shortly after the machine starts to boot. A
> message
> to that effect usually appears on the screen. If you miss it it the first
> time,
> just press CTRL+ALT+DEL (at the same time) and reboot (it doesn't hurt to
> reboot in the middle of a boot).
>
> I am running Linux at the moment and I can't remember exactly what you
> have to
> click on to make a Win98 startup disk but I am pretty sure that
> information exists under
> Start|Help.
>
> Best of luck!
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.soyo (More info?)

Fantabulum wrote:
> Once a disc is formatted in NTFS, it can never be reverted to NTFS.
> The win98 startup disk won't help you to much in this instance, b/c
> it cannot read an NTFS partition.

This is not true at all. With the Win98 startup disk you simply run
FDISK and deleate the non-dos partion. This will eliminate NTFS
partition, then you set up a new dos partition save reboot and format
the disk.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.soyo (More info?)

Once a disc is formatted in NTFS, it can never be reverted to NTFS.
The win98 startup disk won't help you to much in this instance, b/c
it cannot read an NTFS partition.