Hi Everyone,

I'm experiencing a problem trying to format a hard drive using the FDISK tool. Basically what i've got is a laptop with windows xp on it, the operating system is corrupt; i've tried to repair it but everytime i try it still keeps on coming up with an error while booting. The error says the operating system is missing a .sys file or its corrupt. So basically i've decided to format the hard drive, but i want to install Windows 98 SE on it.

I normally use the FDISK tool to create a new partition, format the hard drive, and install Windows 98 SE on it. I've done this before but i've encountered a problem i haven't dealt with before. When i select the first option when using the FDISK tool (1. Create DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive) and then select the first option on the next set of options (1. Create Primary DOS Partition) it goes to the next screen and displays a message at the bottom saying - "No space to create a DOS partition". I was surprised to learn this hard drive i'm trying to format is filled to the brim with data so i decided to check the status of the partition thats currently on there and it states that it is 100% full. Now how in the world do i create a partition on a hard drive that is 100% full?

I was thinking of selecting the third option on the first screen when using FDISK tool which states - "Delete partition or Logical DOS Drive", but i'm not too sure what will happen if i delete this partition without creating one prior to deleting the initial one thats full of data.

Anyone know what i should do?

I'll appreciate any help .

Thanks

Thats exactly what you need to do. Delete any partitions on the drive (I am assuming you can afford to loose the data, if not then Don't do it). Then you can create the new ones. You can do this during the initial XP setup wizard.

goodluck and welcome to PR. Cheers

So why are you using the Fdisk for the Installation of WinXp?

Keeping in mind that Fdisk is going to create FAT32 or 16 partitions. whereas Xp runs better off NTFS...

If you are just trying to reformat and reinstall. Just boot off the XP disk, press Enter, then F8, then Esc, highlight the partitions on the drive you want to delete Presd D then Enter then L. Show unpartitioned space. highlight that, hit enter, now you should be able to "format this partition using the NTFS file system" one says quick the other does not. I would suggest doing the full, just in case.

Why would you want to go back to Windows 98...........OMG

how many partitions are currently on the drive?...if there are more than one how big are they?...are you wanting to have 98SE ONLY or a dual boot with 98SE and XP?



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Good catch guys, it didn't even register that he wanted to go back to Win 98se

Can't for the life of me imagine why, unless there is something about legitimate copies involved in the equation?

Quote: Originally Posted by Human Traffic Good catch guys, it didn't even register that he wanted to go back to Win 98se Can't for the life of me imagine why, unless there is something about legitimate copies involved in the equation?

Hmmmmmm...........That could be the case........

Quote: Originally Posted by Human Traffic Thats exactly what you need to do. Delete any partitions on the drive (I am assuming you can afford to loose the data, if not then Don't do it). Then you can create the new ones. You can do this during the initial XP setup wizard. goodluck and welcome to PR. Cheers

Wow! I had no idea i would get a response so quickly.... damn i'm impressed! Thanks a million guys.

Basically to answer the question most of you have asked about why i want to revert back to Win 98SE is because it will run faster on the machine that currently has XP on it. I'm doing this for a friend, and when i she came to me with this laptop she told me she has XP on it. I examined its specs in the BIOS and noticed its a 700Mhz machine with a 20gig hard drive. Now i can only imagine how slow her laptop must run with XP on it since XP is a large OS that will certainly run so slow on a machine with only 700Mhz. I then went on to recommending she use Win 98 since it will improve overall speed. She told me she doesn't mind losing all the data on her hard drive.

Now in response to your solution, HumanTraffic, once i delete all partitions by selecting the third option do i simply restart with the windows 98 CD inserted and install 98?

Quote: Originally Posted by mazura how many partitions are currently on the drive?...if there are more than one how big are they?...are you wanting to have 98SE ONLY or a dual boot with 98SE and XP? *************

There is only one partition on it, as far as your second question goes i would answer it by telling you the total capacity is 20Gig (from the info i read provided by the FDISK 'Display partition information' option). To answer your third question - i want Win 98SE ONLY on the machine. I'm reverting like i said previously in my reply to HumanTraffic to Win 98 for performance issues.

Quote: Originally Posted by Zer0s So why are you using the Fdisk for the Installation of WinXp? Keeping in mind that Fdisk is going to create FAT32 or 16 partitions. whereas Xp runs better off NTFS... If you are just trying to reformat and reinstall. Just boot off the XP disk, press Enter, then F8, then Esc, highlight the partitions on the drive you want to delete Presd D then Enter then L. Show unpartitioned space. highlight that, hit enter, now you should be able to "format this partition using the NTFS file system" one says quick the other does not. I would suggest doing the full, just in case.

I really wish i was installing XP on this machine, i've done it a million times on my computers and damn a kid could do it. Win 98 installation is a little more difficult compared to XP installation.

Thanks for the help

Xp can be quite happy on a 700mhz machine, you just need plenty of RAM. 128 is the minimum. I ran XP on a 333 laptop with 256 megs and it did okay. As an alternative you could consider 2000 pro. It would be nice and stable and would fly on that thing with a little tweaking. As far as FDisk goes, depending on the version you are using it might not have NTFS support.

Quote: Originally Posted by Clark_Kent Now in response to your solution, HumanTraffic, once i delete all partitions by selecting the third option do i simply restart with the windows 98 CD inserted and install 98?

After you delete the partition, you will need to Format the drive, in DOS it looks something like this:

Quote: Originally Posted by thedemonxanth Xp can be quite happy on a 700mhz machine, you just need plenty of RAM. 128 is the minimum. I ran XP on a 333 laptop with 256 megs and it did okay. As an alternative you could consider 2000 pro. It would be nice and stable and would fly on that thing with a little tweaking. As far as FDisk goes, depending on the version you are using it might not have NTFS support.

I'm not too sure how much RAM this laptop has, i've tried checking in the setup utility, which i think is referred to as the cmos? anyway the only information on there that it displays to me is the cpu type(P3), the cpu speed(750Mhz), the system memory (640kb), and the extended memory (319kb). I'm guessing this machine has at max around 64mb RAM judging from the age of this laptop. I would put 2000 pro if i had it but unfortunately i don't. I've only got two OS's at my disposal, namely - XP pro and 98SE.

I'm not too sure what version of FDISK i'm using, but i know it supports NTFS since i've used it before to place Win 98 on a machine that had XP on it.... once again there, i reverted to 98 for performance issues.

Yos should be able to install XP on it and just switch the menus to the classic view(takes up less resources). I ran WinXP on a 600mhz amd with 256mb of ram and a 20 gig hdd. Matter of fact it's stll running downstairs. Well anyways it shouldn't be too slow. Give it a try and see how it runs.

PS I've seen winXP run on 333 systems and it wasn't that bad considering the speed of the cpu.

Quote: Originally Posted by $SOLID$ Necro After you delete the partition, you will need to Format the drive, in DOS it looks something like this: /FORMAT C: (Scuze me if I'm wrong...it's been along time, and I'm a bit rusty ) Oh..and if you can get it, WIN ME is much easier to set up, especially networking! it shouldn't bog down the CPU either like XP, it's just a bloated version of 98

Thanks Necro ,

I'll give that a shot now. I believe the command to format is 'format c: /s' ... the forward slash before 'format', and you forgot the '/s' - but then again your command would work if you want to format any other partitions. It's good to know Win ME would run nicely on this machine, i'll definitely make a note of what you said about it being a 'bloated version of 98' . I'd put it on if i have it but unfortunately i don't .

I'm going to go give the formatting a shot.

Thanks for the help guys

Quote: Originally Posted by Romeo21779 Yos should be able to install XP on it and just switch the menus to the classic view(takes up less resources). I ran WinXP on a 600mhz amd with 256mb of ram and a 20 gig hdd. Matter of fact it's stll running downstairs. Well anyways it shouldn't be too slow. Give it a try and see how it runs. PS I've seen winXP run on 333 systems and it wasn't that bad considering the speed of the cpu.

Hi Romeo,

In response to your post - i think maybe i should give that a shot first. If what you say is the case then i suppose using XP in classic view would be the logical choice to make. I'll give that a shot and monitor the speed. If it runs hectically slow i'll put 98SE on it. However, won't Win 98SE still run quicker than XP even if i change XP to classic view?

While Windows XP will run with 256MB of RAM, 512 is recommended. When I first got to PR, I had a 600MHz Slot A Athlon with 256MB of generic RAM running XP, but after I added another 256MB it ran much smoother.
When you do an XP install, it can do the format for you as well during the install.
If you format manually, leave off the backslash and just type:

format c:

You do not have to use the /s if you don't want to, but it won't hurt by any means. There are also a few other switches you can use as well.

With going through and doing a fdisk, you will lose all in the info on the hdd. Another thing to keep in mind about FAT16 is the partition size. Win9x doesn't like a C: drive that is over 2 gig if it's FAT16. FAT32 is more forgiving for partition size (I don't remember exactly, but 4 to 6 gig pop into my mind).

You may also need to run FDISK/MBR to destory the master boot record.

In the past, these are the steps I use to take.
FDISK/MBR
reboot
FDISK
reboot
FORMAT x:
reboot
Install OS.

From time to time, ext partitions use to give me a problem when formatting. For that (prior to XP), I would throw in a linux disk and use it's partitioning/format tool (without installing the OS) to create a single partition, then I would use a win98 boot fix and FDISK the drive as needed.

Quote: Originally Posted by godfoot While Windows XP will run with 256MB of RAM, 512 is recommended. When I first got to PR, I had a 600MHz Slot A Athlon with 256MB of generic RAM running XP, but after I added another 256MB it ran much smoother. When you do an XP install, it can do the format for you as well during the install. If you format manually, leave off the backslash and just type: format c: You do not have to use the /s if you don't want to, but it won't hurt by any means. There are also a few other switches you can use as well.

Hi Godfoot,

Basically what i've decided to do to is give installing Windows XP running in Classic mode a shot, i'm formatting right now and once it's done i'll test the speed because i haven't had a chance to test how this laptop works with XP being in Classic mode. If it's slow then i'll just reformat and install 98SE on it. Another reason why i've decided to take that route is because when i tried formatting all partitions using FDISK on this laptop it gave me an error telling me the partition i'm trying to delete doesn't exist. That just put me off completely and chose to take the route i explained above.

Thanks for the help, i'll let you guys know how it turns out .

Hi Everyone,

So far my attempt at reinstalling Windows XP as well as trying to install Windows 98SE has failed. Basically what i did to install XP was i, as expected, inserted the XP CD and rebooted the computer, i ran setup and obviously before i install XP i have to format the hard drive. I am successful up to the point where i want to format, when it's formatting it takes so long, long as in - 2 days to reach 20%. I just left it running until it hit 100%, but unfortunately it doesn't exactly turn out how i want it to.... what it does is it takes forever to get to 20%, then a few hours later it shoots up to 78%, then to 100% and it gives me an error message informing me that it couldn't complete the format because the hard drive appears to be damaged.

I then decided to try install 98SE to see if i get any luck installing that OS on this laptop. I start up the computer as normal by booting it from the CD-ROM, then i select "Start computer with CD-ROM support." It takes me to command prompt with the "A:" drive (floppy drive) being active. I've run FDISK and i've created a partition already, my next step is to format the hard drive. When i try formatting by keying in the following command "format c: /s" i get an error saying its a bad command (i also tried 'format c:' and still got the same error message). I then try extracting the format.com tool from my startup disk, but whenever i try that it displays an error saying it can't write to the A: drive.

I then decided to restart the laptop with ONLY the startup disk inserted (without the Win 98SE disk in the CD-ROM), it takes me to command prompt with the A: drive being active, and i again type out the format command. Finally it warns me all data will be lost and it asks if i want to continue, i key in 'Y' and it starts.... i wait a little while and it then gives me a message saying the following - "Invalid media or Track 0 bad - disk unusable. /n Format terminated."

Now what to do? I've run out of things to try because the only conclusion i've come to is that this hard drive must be damaged or like the irratating error message states... 'unusable'.

What do you guys think? Any ideas as to maybe taking another route in order to install either XP or 98SE on this laptop? I've kinda run out of different ways of installing an OS.

Thanks for the help guys .

uh, i think you seriously have a fubar'ed hard drive, or your IDE controller is damaged...

edit: you could try fdisk'ing the existing partition and attempting to format again, you did run FDISK, right?

other than that, i would make VERY sure you have the drives paramaters set correctly in the BIOS (heads, cylinders, etc) or just try to autodetect the media in the bios...it might not be set correctly and that can create hellacious issues...some permanent....

EDIT: this whole post is most likely redundant, i just realized that there is a wholllleee ton of posts before mine, and when i was typing this, i thought i was the first reply...