reformating the harddrive

[apache_33177]

i started to reinstall win98 but it appears to have frozen and them booted me of, i have tried to restart the system using the cdroom with win98 disk but it will not let me continue and reboots or locks itself up again, how do i reformat the C: drive without entering win itself and then installing a new operating system

 

[Codesmith]

You can create a window 98 Starup disk from a PC running 98 or from a downloaded floppy image. Boot from the floppy and use the fdisk utility to format the drive.

Or you can use a partion magic CD/floppy and many other partioning tool.

I think there is a website called something like "www.bootdisks.com" that provieds boot disks for all Windows OSes.

 

[Guest]

<A HREF="http://www.bootdisk.com/" target="_new">bootdisk.com</A>

_________________________
Your arrogance is boring!

 

[Crashman]

When you say it rebooted, you mean it started to boot off the hard drive again, right?

1.) First thing you do is set it to boot off the CD-ROM FIRST in BIOS. The next thing you do is restart your system. When you do that you'll see a message that ask if you want to boot off the Hard Drive or CD, choose CD. THIS MESSAGE HAS A TIMER AND THE DEFAULT IS TO BOOT OFF HARD DRIVE, SO LOOK FOR THE MESSAGE!!!

2.) After choosing to boot from CD, you'll get a menue that ask if you want to boot to 98 setup, to a command prompt with CD support, or to a command prompt without CD support. Choose the second option.

When it gets to the command prompt the top of the screen will say the CD drive letter. I'll use "D" as an example.

3.) Type fdisk, you'll see a message that says "do you want to enable large disk support" and it's (Y) by default, so hit enter. New menue, option 4 allows you to see what partitions are on your drive, I'll assume you only have 1 partition and it's primary DOS.

4.) Escape key takes you back to the menue. Option 3 allows you to delete your partition. Do that, when it ask to enter drive label type the name of the partition from the list, if there is no label just hit enter.

5.) Escape takes you back to the menue. Option 1 allows you to create a new partition. The next screen ask what kind of partition you're creating, just hit the enter key. In fact, just hit the enter key every time it ask you a question, it will set up 1 partition and make it active (ie, bootable) by default.

You'll get to a point where it says you need to reboot your system.

6.) Follow steps 1 and 2 to get back to a command prompt with CD support. Assuming the CD drive is labled "D" at the top of the screen, type "D:"

7.) Type "cd-win98"

8.) Type "Format C:"

9.) Follow the command prompt, I just hit "enter" at each message.

10.) Now you're ready to install Windows 98 to your fresh formatted partition. I normally put Windows 98 on the hard drive first and run installation from there so I won't need the CD for a long time. If that sounds good to you, follow steps 10a, 10b, 10c and 10d. Otherwise skip to 10e.

10a.) Your current command prompt says "D:\WIN98", type "cd.." which will take you back to the "D:\" prompt
10b.) Type "md c:\win98" to make a directory on your C: drive called Win98. You should still see the "D:" prompt.
10c.) Type "copy win98 c:\win98" and all your setup files will be copied.
10d.) Type "c:", then type "cd win98". The command prompt should read "C:\WIN98".

10e.) Type "setup" and follow the on-screen display.

If you don't want to make a boot floppy, when asked, hit "cancel".

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<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[Crashman]

LMAO@U! Win98 CD is BOOTABLE, no need for a floppy.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[Crashman]

lol, klutz

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>