cant boot, partition problem

If the  suggested above dose not work.

 Test the hard drive with the tools from the
drive manufacture You can also write 0s (low level format) to the drive that should allow you to run fdisk.

maxtor
http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/powermax.htm 
ibm
http://www.storage.ibm.com/hdd/support/download.htm

seagate
http://www.seagate.com 

western digital
http://www.wdc.com/service/ftp/drives.htm
fujitsu
http://www.fcpa.fujitsu.com/download/hard-drives/#diagnostic

There are disk utilities like BAKTRAK for Maxtor drives and can be downloaded at the Maxtor site,check your drive for the company and download it's proper utility...these utilities are for erasing the whole drive at once...all partitions!How did you install XP,or is it a friends copy you tried for the 30 free days before activation?

Thanks everyone for really good links etc, but I can't do anything that's been suggested as I can't boot up! It's failing before it looks for files to boot from. It is a Maxtor/Quantum HDD. The copy of XP came from work where we get hundreds of PCs that all come with an OS cd that is not installed or used.

Thanks everyone for really good links etc, but I can't do anything that's been suggested as I can't boot up! It's failing before it looks for files to boot from. It is a Maxtor/Quantum HDD. The copy of XP came from work where we get hundreds of PCs that all come with an OS cd that is not installed or used.

Goto http://www.bootdisk.com and download the DOS 6.22 bootdisk maker.
Boot from the floopy you created them use Fdisk on the floopy to check or delete your partitions.
Change your boot sequence to the floopy as the first bootable device.
Reply with results or questions.

"Using a bootable disk I ran fdisk"
You should still be able to boot to a boot disk like before then run fdisk /mbr from the A prompt.
"download the DOS 6.22 bootdisk maker"?
Why not the Win98 bootdisk? Dos6.22 has a 2.1GB limitation and can't set FAT32 partition for larger drives.

Well I HAD been mucking about in setup & have re-checked the boot sequence, so I am now able to boot from floppy and am now running the diagnostic program from Maxtor as advised! It's all passing. Getting there!

If you can boot to a boot disk another to try is to put this file (maxllf.exe)on your boot disk and low level format the drive (works with most drives).
Afterwards you'll need to fdisk and repartition the drive as per usual.

http://www.zenerino.ch/download/index.php

The tools from the drive manufacture allso boot from the floppy drive. You will just need to creat them from a working pc that has a floppy drive.

I didnt see your previos post. I see that you are testing now, good.

"It's all passing. Getting there"
I think it will pass the tests as this is not a physical error purely configuration of partitions.
Waiting for results...

If the drive was originally formatted with NTFS, then neither DOS nor Win98 fdisk will remove the errant info.
You need Novell Dos 7 fdisk or go to http://www.23cc.com/free-fdisk/
Norton's GDISK will also work get it here http://cyberzoo.de/gdisk.exe

As far as I know it is FAT format. It's a 4yo PC which is why I'm going back to Win 98 as it doesn't really have the grunt to run XP. Have a 4 port ADSL modem & I'm going to network it. The fdisk I have did come from the site http://www.23cc.com/free-fdisk/ and is the 1.1.4 Beta version. Is this appropriate? There is only the one partition and absolutely no files on the HDD drive at all.  

"If the drive was originally formatted with NTFS, then neither DOS nor Win98 fdisk will remove the errant info"
Incorrect. Option 4 in fdisk is to delete non-dos partition. Here is a previously accepted correct answer using exactly this procedure.

https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/20267683/remove-ntfs-files-system-on-hard-drive.html#1

Try the maxllf as I suggested. It has resurrected many a drive for me (about 95% success rate). Running that will take out all partitions (visible or not) and leave you with a clean drive to start on.

Can anyone help with the exact syntax for the fdisk command with the mbr switch. I've tried fdisk/mbr c: and fdisk /mbr c:, and without the c. ??

fdisk /mbr need a space between

It may be that the disk you booted from dosent have fdisk.exe on it.

When you run the fdisk /mbr command you dont see any thing. It will just return to the prompt. If you are not getting a bad comand or file name error it has done its job.

No, I have fdisk there including a heap of help txt files with the switches. But the mbr switch won't work. The straight fdisk command works but I'm not sure I should risk it, that's how I ended up in strife in the first place.

Well fdisk apparently went ok. Format is failing: Call to int 0x21, 0x440d, 0x60, failed error0f. Will download format again, but maybe tomorrow! It's 4am in Melbourne so enough for now. Thanks all for all your help. A problem shared.... how does that go?

"But the mbr switch won't work"
Like Snowguy said you won't see anything here unless there is an error (any error messages suggesting it won't work?)
At the A prompt type fdisk /mbr then press enter key
should look like this
A:>fdisk /mbr
After pressing enter you'll just get this again
A:>
Run fdisk & select option 4 (show all partitions) then post back what it says.

sur ego ahead you cant permanantly harm your hd using fdisk  go ahead and use fdisk to delete any partions and then create a new partion or partions to your preference

then use format.exe and the following command format C:

ect to reformat your new partions

then reinstall

OK I see you've gone ahead. Did you create a primary dos partition with fdisk then reboot then go to format.
Sounds like you may be trying to format an unpartitioned drive. What type of bootdisk are you using? Did you get an up to date one from www.bootdisk.com ? (preferably Win98 since that's what you're trying to install).
It's 1.15am here in Perth but I don't have your stamina so I'm crashing a bit earlier than 4 o'clock.
Will check tomorrow for updates on progress.

WiZaRd: No nitpicking or anything, but having done this for over 20 years, I have found more than once that trying to remove an NTFS paritition be unsuccessful using either DOS 6.x or Win9x FDISK progs.

On the partition signature =! 55aa error see http://www.storageadmin.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=14575.  Note the deal about a possible virus?

Could try FDISK /CMBR 1 picks up copy of MBR located elsewhere on the disk, as latter OSes don't necessarily store MBR in front of disk.

I think a good old LLF will bring this drive back to a usable state. Use the write disk pack tool on the maxtor boot disk. And then run fdisk

Latecomer's comment:

You need to clean out this drive to prepare it for a proper fdisk session. Use the maxllf as suggested or download the zap utility from IBM website. The zap fits on a normal bootable floppy and cleans out all partitioning info from your hard drive, which probably is what you need here.

Then you must, again, boot from a win9X bootable floppy and run fdisk, without any switches. Choose option #1, create partition. Create a primry DOS partition, set it active and REBOOT. Then you should be able to format your drive.

/RID

1. Make a boot disk for win98.
2. Boot from it and run fdisk again.
3. Delete the existing partitions and reboot the system.
4. run fdisk to make new partitions.
5. format every partition one by one.
6. try installing your OS.

owlsoft90: "No nitpicking or anything, but having done this for over 20 years".
So we both have the same years experience. Your experiences have obviously been different to mine.
You'll note I also suggested using the maxllf program to low level format the drive as it's probably too late for fdisk alone. Removing the non-dos partition does work and in fact we use it frequently at work where we are using a beta version of XP for testing purposes. It seems to have also worked in the EE answered question link I posted.
I have no doubt the utilities you prescribed will also work but I went with what the questioner has to hand and see no reason for additional downloads apart from the maxllf (or similar) type program.
If there is a boot virus there (I doubt it) maxllf will certainly take care of it too.
Good link on the 55aa issue !

have run maxllf, ran fdisk again, still same response when trying to format "Call to int 0x21, 0x440d, 0x60, failed error0f." fdisk partition info reads: "Current fixed disk drive: 1, Partition- c: 1, Status- A, Type- PRI DOS, Mbytes 3063, System- FAT32, Usage 100%. Total disk space is 3067 Mbytes." Is that right? Shouldn't total disk space be the full 2 gig of the HDD?

Looks to me like it is showing 3gb
1000mb=1gb
are you shure this is only a 2gb hard drive?

yes you're right Snowguy, it is 3gig...

Check the bios again. What size does the bios say the drive is? Is it set to LBA mode? Maybe run Auto Detect Hard Disks from the bios to be sure it reads it correctly. Had a look at the Killdisk web page and according to them it should be pretty straighforward to fdisk, format & reload an OS after running their program.
Couldn't hurt to email them a link to this page either.

support@killdisk.com

Another option would be to attach the drive to another computer and see if it will format in windows.
After maxllf you should have had "no partitions defined" in fdisk and from there create a primary dos partition, reboot then format the drive. Anything differ from that?

Yes it should be very straightforward in theory. Have run auto detect hdd, is ok, is set to LBA. All good except the fomat command. Tried downloading different boot disk & now get NTLDR is missing. The only sensible explanation I have for that is that the disk I downloaded the boot info to was formatted in a laptop on NT, but I did specify FAT file system. Although another cause of that message is BIOS incorrectly reading specs of HDD. But I only get that message with one particular boot disk from Waterwheel.com.The format command now gives me incorrect DO
S version. The boot disks are said to be straight Win 98. I also copied the format file from the 98 cd it also returns incorrect DOS version. Looks like my boot stuff not compatible with the format command.  

". Tried downloading different boot disk & now get NTLDR is missing. The only sensible explanation I have for that is that the disk I downloaded the boot info to was formatted in a laptop on NT, but I did specify FAT file system. "

Sounds very complicated. Also the thing about wrong DOS version seems odd. If you download a boot disk from www.bootdisk.com perhaps you get another result? Wrong DOS version shouldn't be an issue if you run the format program from the boot floppy. It almost seems like there is something wrong with the boot disks.

I have created 9X boot floppies on an NT machine no prob. The file system on the floppy is no different - FAT12 or something - and the files are extracted and put on floppy in a manner that the disk-creating .exe determines.

A win9X boot floppy will only work with FAT file system and fdisk may have problems deleting NTFS partitions. Do check that fdisk option #4, Show partition info, reports an empty disk before you start creating new partitions. If there is a non-DOS partition left, that cannot be deleted, you need other tools (delpart, zap, LLF) to clean out the drive. Make sure there is no "hard drive protection" active in the computer BIOS.

Follow fdisk instructions about REBOOTING strictly, and verify that there is a primary partition set active.

I guess that I am repeating a few things already said here. I will not accept credit for anything already said...

Regards
/RID

I tried every combination of boot disk + format commands with various error messages. So I Downloaded boot & 98 startup disk from www.dx21.com/BACKOFFICE/RECOVERY/BOOTDISK.ASP. I have action! Format is well underway. It has created various drives, all tools like format on d:, and there's an e: as well. This is not clear to me yet but I'm hoping it will become clearer. Hopefully the end is in sight.

D: is probably a RAM drive, like the 98 original boot floppies create. E:, maybe a CD unit in the machine?

/RID

All is well, Windows is halfway thru install. Cant see the wood for the trees at times, always more than one thing & mostly red herrings. As everyone has said, straightforward enough, but you need the correct files for it to work. Well everyone gave good advice & some great links. I can vouch for www.dx21.com/BACKOFFICE/RECOVERY/BOOTDISK.ASP. So what was the right answer? There were a few different right answers along the way. The correct answer for the original problem was "Change your boot sequence to the floopy as the first bootable device" from skyfreedomdotnet. But the Win 98 bootdisk was what I needed, not Dos 6.22. What's the etiquette with selecting an answer when there was no one all encompassing answer and numerous issues? Thanks everyone.

"Incorrect DOS version" suggests to me the disk is partitioned with a different version to the boot disk you are using.
Have come across this before where you have to remove or change partitions using the same DOS version but you said you ran maxllf? Did you tell it to low level format the drive and then get a completed with no errors message?
There is some sense in your symptoms but I thought maxllf ran independent of the OS and left no traces.
"I also copied the format file from the 98 cd it also returns incorrect DOS version"
It would if you are not booting to a disk of the same Dos version. For example if you create a Win98 bootdisk from the early version then copy the format command from 2nd edition on to the disk you will get this error.

Have requested split of points
Cheers all

Sorry I missed you weren't using a Win98 bootdisk to start with. I suppose I assumed you were and just went from there. Therefore your boot disk being Dos 6.22 was unable to see past the 2.1GB limitation.

HOW TO SPLIT POINTS ON EXPERTS-EXCHANGE QUESTIONS
You can split points on questions, however you need the help of Community Support to do so. What you
need to do is post a zero point question in the Community Support area by clicking on the link for Community
Support near the top left of the Experts-Exchange web page, in the EE Community section.  In the question
you need to reference this question number, who you wish to split the points among, and what point values
to assign, then Community Support staff will do the rest, normally by reducing the original point value
of this question to allow you to post new questions for the other experts.
These questions would be titled points for whomever and paste the question's  url in the comment block
so the expert would know what it was about.

Hey WiZaRd you did'nt miss anything, I was "apparently" using Win 98 boot disks, so the download sites said. When I said "Change your boot sequence to the floopy as the first bootable device" from skyfreedomdotnet. But the Win 98 bootdisk was what I needed, not Dos 6.22" I was actually questioning the advice given. The first part was totally & obviously correct but the second bit "dos 6.22" was not, and I had never done this. I had poss a Win 98 version problem, but I was only ever using (supposedly according to download sites)the straight 1st retail version of Win98. Thanks for all your help.
 
I'm clearly a newcomer, have never been interested in so much as a chat over the net, but am amazed and impressed with the amount of knowledge out there going back to DOS days. Something not a lot of people these days in the real ordinary world can appreciate. What a fantastic learning experience. Even if I sus'd most of it out myself I had the support & confirmation of people who clearly know what they're on about, and I picked up a bit along the way! What a great site, I might have to add this to my long list of dangerous addictions...

Dear amanda_j

I've refunded 140 points to enable you to accept the comment for one expert and to post "Points for <expertname>" Q's for the other experts in the same topic area.

Please:
1) Post the link to the original Q in the "Points for <expertname>" and
2) Add in the original Q a comment with the link to the "Points for <expertname>", thus the email notif will warn the expert.

modulo

Community Support Moderator
Experts Exchange

Finalized as proposed

Snowguy points at:
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/20492534/Points-for-Snowguy.html
skyfreedomdotnet points at:
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/20492535/Points-for-skyfreedomdotnet.html

modulo

Community Support Moderator
Experts Exchange