formatting a hard drive properly

format c: /s formats the drive and copies system files to the drive after.

format c: /u does an unconditional format destroying every bit of data on the drive.

So you copy the sys files to the drive then immediately destroy them?

just format c:

then boot from the win98 cdrom and let it do the rest, when setup needs to  reboot it will choose the proper boot media(cdrom or harddrive) let it go. Only remove the cdrom when the setup is finished.

Jatcan

You can manually copy the missing file from the CD to the hard drive and then see if it will boot and finish setup.

Adjusted points to 200

At the command prompt, type: "dir vmm32.vxd /s" (without the quotation marks).   If the Vmm32.vxd file is not found, you must install Windows 95/98 again. If  the Vmm32.vxd file is found, note the folder in which the Vmm32.vxd file islocated, and then continue with step 2.
 
2. At the command prompt, type the following commands, pressing ENTER after each  command
   "cd windows" (without the quotation marks)   "ren <folder> system" (without the quotation marks  where <folder> is the folder you noted in step 1.
 
3. Restart your computer.
or:

Using a text editor (such as Notepad), edit the Autoexec.bat file and add or
modify the PATH line so that it includes the Windows\System folder. For example,
add the following line to your Autoexec.bat file:
 
"path c:\windows\system" (without the quotation marks)
 

Joan, I think the most appropriate question at this point is why you had to format the drive and reinstall in the first place. I ask this as there may be a physical system problem that may need to be dealt with, but there is no way to be sure without asking questions.

My reasoning is simple, the vmm32.vxd file is built during the installation process of Windows, and occurs after the Windows installer collects information from the dynamic portion of the motherboards bios as well as an interrogation of the phyical components making up your system.

Many VMM32 errors occur as the result of various hardware components installed in your PC that are not recognized. As an example, this error will occur with certain scanners being attached, certain network cards, various video cards as well as USB devices attached. If you have a scanner attached, or there is a network card attached, or there is any type of USB device, remove them, re-format the drive and start the install fresh.
Dennis

no. " a:\format c: /s/u "  is not right.

1. Enter your bios/CMOS Setup. Select "Setup Defaults" or "BIOS Defaults" save & exit...

2. Format C: /b    this creats a format with a boot sector.

install DOS (6.0 or above) from a floppy.

install CD rom drivers from floppy if needed.

make sure you can boot, from the HARD DRIVE, to a C: prompt and the CD ROM works before you continue.

install 98 from cd rom.

I left out a step:

to transfer DOS from the floppy to the Hard Drive:

A:\system a: c:

If you have a proper boot sector you should see "system transfered"

Netmon, since you are relatively new to this site, welcome, however we do follow a protocol here unlike the newsgroups, in that we do not post answers unless there is a reasonable certainty that your proposed answer will resolve the issue. This avoids the question from being hidden from other techs who may have input as well as be able to provide an exact answer. In addition, questioners have the ability to accept a comment as the answer, therefore there is no need to block the question with an answer that may not resolve the issue.

What is most important is that the questioner need not go through all of the machinations you have posted as DOS from a dos disk or install need not be installed on a Win98 machine. As a matter of fact, you don't even have to install the system files as this is handled by the installer. Since the questioner also has a win98 boot disk and has noted that information, there are other issues here that may be relevant.

Here are the guidelines for this site and your cooperation would be appreciated.

Dennis

https://www.experts-exchange.com/info/howto.htm#101 

https://www.experts-exchange.com/info/usrcntr.htm

Dennis,

Thank you, and I do apologise if I've trounced on protocol.

I will check out your posted links.

I just posted what has worked for me (like a charm) repeatedly on different machines in the past. and what the guy asked for, "proper and precise istruction on how to go about installing the windows 98 software program properly"

But you're right. I SHOULD NOT have posted it as an answer when other people have already invested time in comments that inferred at least in part to some of my anwer. Very bad form.

However It remains my opinion, especially in circumtances like these, that you be able to boot from the HARD DRIVE to a C: prompt, CD ROM working, before installing the Win98.

If the WIN 98 set up is asking you if you want to boot from the CD ROM or C:drive it's because WIN98 is not getting proper 'information' from the BIOS/CMOS which means he's got some old stuff. and or it's been played with and needs to have setup defaults reset.

Dennis thanks for your help

but what i think what we need is for someone to provide us with the proper and precise instructions on how to format the drive and to install the windows 98 program properly after the hard drive has been formatted
if a:\ format c: /s/u is not the correct command what is to format a hard drive ??

maybe we are causing the error to happen by us doing somethng wrong

there are no attachments to this computer other than a keyboard and a mouse, no USB devices either

any and all help is greatly appreciated, thank you , Joan

Joan, although the following repeats what has been posted by others, I'll re-post in an effort to determine if there may be a hardware issue somewhere.

1. Boot to the Windows 98 setup disk. It doesn't matter initially if it is with or without cd rom support.

2. Now format the drive using the /S switch, as in:

FORMAT C:/S<enter>

3. When the format is done, pop the floppy and boot to the hard drive to make sure the system boots properly to a "C" prompt. If it does, then go on to #4.

4. Put the floppy back in and boot to it, this time select "With CD Rom Drive Support".

5. Now load windows 98 by running setup from the Win98 cd, as in:

D:\Setup<enter>

Substitute your CD Rom drive letter for "D" above. When you select "With cd rom drive support" during the boot to the floppy, it will assign a cd rom drive letter, just make note of it and use it in place of "D" above.

The win98 cdrom itself is bootable, why make a boot floppy?

Jatcan

Jat, if your dealing with someone relatively new to the procedures, you give them all the tools possible before you teach them the shortcuts!

OH.

Dennis, now we get the following message when we try the
a:\ format c/s

checking existing disk format
Recording current bad clusters
46 per cent completed
Insufficient Memory

Not a clue what this means
would like an explanation as to what it means)

not a clue as to what to do

However, perhaps to be fair here, perhaps i should award the 200 points

and then re-enter my question about Insufficient Memory

I will wait on your advice, joan

Joan, that's not necessary.

First, reopen the question by rejecting the proposed answer.

Next, the proper syntax for the format command is:

FORMAT C:/S<enter>

Note the colon ":"

Boot to the windows 98 boot floppy and at the prompt A:\ type the above. It will look like this:

A:\>FORMAT C:/S

Then touch enter. If you're using the boot floppy, you shouldn't be getting a memory error unless there is a problem or you are using the incorrect syntax.

sorry dennis, i did put the colon in as you first explained, as follows

a:\>format c:/s

could it be there is too many bad sectors on the hard drive
and need a new hard drive ??

not entirely sure what i'm asking about here (sectors ??)

or perhaps i should try formatting again??

if you could please advise on this one last question, i will follow your advice and re-open the question

thanks for your patience (and the others as well) and for all your help
greatly appreciated, joan

Joan, you had the colon or the error message would have been "parameter not correct -c" So you had the correct format command as given you by Dennis.

So dose the error message you got mean?
It means you have a bunch of gook, (lost & leftover data) on your hard-drive. you can attact this two ways. You can delete it.

[ C:\del *.* ]

or you should have SCANDISK on your win98 start-up floppy. Run it.

A:\scandisk  [enter]

select the c:drive and do a "through"

when it's finished scandisk will tell you what was wrong, what it fixed and you'll know if you want to proceed with this particular hard drive.

David

Sectors are Physical.
CLUSTERS are data.

It's possible you have a bad hard drive but lets hope for now the message, (Recording current bad clusters),
 was accurate.  

SCANDISK is your answerman at this point.

Joan, reboot the system to clear the memory, but boot to the floppy again and then try the format.

If the format develops the same error (let me know) and I'll show to a step by step to remove and replace the partition on the drive and then try it again.

dennis, i tried the format again

a:\>format c:/s

got exactly the same message again, joan
so now we remove and replace the partition ????

thanks as well, netmon (david)

Joan, I'll post the procedure to remove and replace the partition for you, but first some questions.

1. Have you had any problems with this machine at all?

2. What made you decide to format and reinstall?

3. How much memory does this machine have?, and what processor is being used?

I'm just trying to make sure that we're not dealing with a hardware issue as well as other problems.

hi Dennis

nope, no problems at all with the machine

pentium 2, 266, 128 megs of ram

why did we decide, to format,well, cause a friend suggested we do this in order to completely clean up the hard drive

we haven't lost anything in the process, fouruatley, everything we need has been backed up.

hope this answers, what you asked me for,  thanks, joan.

Okay Joan, that helps.

What I would like you to do is take a new floppy and put it into a Windows 98 PC and go into Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs then click the Startup disk tab and make a new startup disk. You will need the Win98 CD to do this. After the floppy is finished, use Find, Files and Folders on the same machine and locate FORMAT.COM and copy it to the floppy.

When this is done, boot the problem machine to the new floppy and re-run format and tell me what happens.

Dennis,i'm will be a little while, i have to go out for a little while,

i will keep you posted

thanks so very much for the help up until now

will type again shortly, joan

hi dennis ,

2 things, we ran scandisk and detected no errors

and created another boot disk with format.com on it as per your instructions and tried format again and got the same thing
it stopped at 46 per cent again

any ideas ???????

thanks , Joan

Yes, But Dennis has already said it. Re-partitioning is the next logical step.

the application you'll need is called FDISK
I reccomend partition sizes of 1.2 gigs or less.
I'll let Dennis walk you through the specific steps. He seems to understand the situation well so I will leave you in his more than capable hands.

David

Joan I won't feel bad if you reject my answer. Please do. I was out of line to post it the way I did.

David

Yes, But Dennis has already said it. Re-partitioning is the next logical step.

the application you'll need is called FDISK
I reccomend partition sizes of 1.2 gigs or less.
I'll let Dennis walk you through the specific steps. He seems to understand the situation well so I will leave you in his more than capable hands.

David

Joan this will walk you through the entire process. Since I don't know how many partitions the drive has or how many drives you have, I have prepared the following to cover all of the possibilities.

1. Using the new floppy you created (Win98 Startup Boot Disk via add/remove programs). All of the files you need will be on this disk except three, Format.com, Edit.com and EMM386.exe. (Actually format.com is there but I don't want to confuse you with how to access it.) You may need these in the event that you need to edit a file during the process or enable upper memory. Use Find, Files and Folders and copy them to your startup floppy.

2. Next, after booting to the floppy, at the MSDos prompt A:\> type Fdisk<enter>.

The first question asked will be:

"Do you wish to enable large disk support?

Answer YES if you want Fat 32, and NO if you want Fat16. Fat 32 is more efficient and supports drive sizes up to two terrabytes, which Fat 16 has a 2G drive size limitation.

DESCRIPTIONS OF WHAT YOU WILL SEE:
===================================
Answering either "Y" or "N" will bring you to the dos fdisk menu. As you can see, you have several choices, you can:

.. Create a partition or logical drive.
.. Set the active partition.
.. Delete a partition of logical drive.
.. Display partition information.

On systems with multiple hard drives, there will be another choice added to the list:

.. Change current fixed disk drive.

.. Create a partition or logical drive.

This option enables you to set a new partition (including size) on a hard drive that either is new and has never been partitioned or one that has had it's partition removed with the third option noted above.

.. Set the active partition.

Once a drive has been partitioned, this option will enable you to make it active and therefore bootable. As an example, you could partition one hard drive into several partitions, let's say as Drive "C", "D" and "E", after which you would set "C" as the active bootable partition.

.. Delete a partition of logical drive.

This option allows you to remove partition(s) as well as logical drives. In the example above, "C" would be the primary partition and drives "D" and "E" would be logical drives.

.. Display partition information.

This option allows you to see what existing partitions are on a hard drive.

.. Change current fixed disk drive.

In systems with multiple hard drives, this option allows you to choose which hard drive you want to work with, but it will default to the "C" drive.

As noted above, when you first start Fdisk, you will be given a choice whether or not you want enable large hard disk support. If you choose NO or (N), the system will default to Fat 16. If you choose YES (Y), the system will default to Fat 32.

Start Fdisk as noted above, and choose (Y) for LBA and review the partition information.

3. Now choose ". Delete a partition or logical drive" and follow the prompts to delete the partitions that exist.

4. Now go back to the original menu by touching the ESC key and then choose ". Create a partition or logical drive"

At this point, depending on your hard drive size, you can choose an size for the drive up to its full size. If you want more than one partition, then choose an approximate size for the drive and then follow the procedures. This will default to drive "C" and make sure that you make this partition ACTIVE.

As an example, let's say I had an 8G hard drive and wanted 3 partitions, the small window or choice area will default to the entire drive size of 8G, just change the numbers to what you need for the first partition. In this sample, I could make that partition 4G by typing 4000 and it will default to 4001.

Once this is made active, use the ESC key and create the next partition (logical drive) and make it the size you want, which will be a logical drive (drive "D"). Repeat the procedure for the final partition.

When you are done with the partitioning, reboot the system to the floppy.

5. Now you're ready to format the drive and transfer the basic system files.

At the MSDos prompt A:> type "FORMAT C:/S" without quotes and touch the enter key. It will look like this:

A:\>FORMAT C:/S

A message will come up alerting you to the fact that if you proceed, all existing data on the hard drive will be erased. Acknowledge the message and proceed with the format.

Once the format has completed, you can either format the other partitions or leave them as is and format them later.

Now reboot to the Win98 Startup disk again and choose "With CD Rom support" and your ready to install Win98.

Let me know if there are any questions.

hi again, we have not done any partitioning, so there is just the one drive , c:, on the machine. Don't know if that should make the exercise any easier, will follow your above directions,

again i want to thank you for all your help and patience with this, you and netmon, david, have been so understanding through this, you two have great hearts for doing this.

thanks so much for doing this, Joan

hi Dennis

in your instructions
#3 you say choose Delete a Partition or Logical Drive and follow the prompts to delete the partitions that exist.

the prompts we get are :
Delete Primary DOS Partition
Delete Extended Partition
Delete Logical Drives in the Extended Partition
Delete Non DOS Partition

not sure which to choose
never have done this before, we just want to be sure, as this is a valuable learning experiece for us.

Thanks, Joan

Not a problem Joan, this is the way you learn.

Okay, here's some background on how to make the choices.

If the drive has more than one partition, you will have a primary DOS Partition as well as one or more Extended DOS Partitions. If there are one or more Extended DOS Partitions, then each one will have a Logical Drive assignment. Meaning that in addition to the primary as drive "C", each extended partition will have a logical drive letter such as "D", "E" etc.

Now, since you have told me that your system has only one drive and only one partition, you would choose "Delete Primary DOS Partition".

Dennis, thanks again !!!!!!!
this is amazing info and your instructions are excellent, you can be assured we will keep them in our reference notes for the family

Thanks so very much,

PS : i know what you said about removing hardware cards and any other attachements,
would a sound card, that didn't come with the computer, we installed it after we bought the computer, be a cause for the formatting not to work,
hold on , i've just been told that we've taken the sound card out, and the we got the same error message, 46 per  cent.................

we shall carry on, Joan

Joan, the sound card should be effecting this unless it is somehow bad.

I was referring to scanner connections, network cards, multi-port or multi-function printers and the like.

Hi Dennis,

ok everything went fine, without a hitch, the fdisk, it formatted properly
windows 98 loaded then asked us to reboot the machine from

the hard drive
or
the cd rom

we chose the hard drive and the got the original message
c\windows\system\vmm32.vxd:missing\
unable to load

any ideas ????????, Joan

The fact that the Windows setup is even asking you that question would point me first to question the BIOS/CMOS set up.
This is set of instructions contained in a chip on the motherboard which  instruct all the motherboard hardware, (processor (CPU), ram, hard drive) as to how they should interact, who goes first...  to vastly over-simplify, the CMOS runs a series of checks on the core motherboard components and then if everything checks out, tells the computer to "go find an operating system" (DOS) and where exactly to look for it. This CMOS chip can be written to. There is a whole series of set-up screens for it. It's fairly self-explanitory, but I'll let Dennis, if he concurrs, instruct you as to if/and/how to go there.

As for the message: "c\windows\system\vmm32.vxd:missing\"

The easiest thing to try first is simply "lift" the file from another computer and COPY it on to yours.
On the computer I'm sitting at now, it's 693k file which means it will easially fit on a floppy.
It's in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM and should be copied there. Look and see if already have one. If so you have another problem. In which case it's less likely this step will help.

In the intrest of brevity I'm assuming you know how to do certian DOS commands, (COPY, DIR, excet) which you may not. Let us know. they're easy.

good luck
david  

Hi Joan,

This problem can happen for a number of reasons, starting with the Bios for the motherboard all the way through to simple setup problems. Let's clear up some misinformation though before someone here gets into trouble.

First, we can reset the bios without too much difficulty if that is the culprit, although I am concerned as you said there were no previous problems on this system and now there appears to be some. We will deal with clearing the Bios\CMOS shortly, but I need to know if you have a manual for that PC and especially the motherboard.

Second, it isn't uncommon for come later PC's with later motherboards (this is the big circuit board in your PC that everything plugs into) to first ask whether you want to boot to the floppy, then the hard drive and then the CD Rom drive. This is a sequence within the bios structure.

Third, I must disagree with Davids statement above, you cannot copy or move the VMM32.VXD from one computer to another. This virtual device driver is built during the installation of Windows as is unique to the machine. It contains such information as that obtained from both the static as well as dynamic portions of the motherboard bios, as well as CPU speed and parameters and memory type, speed etc, just to name a few.

As a test, try the following to see if this file is present and just not being recognized.

To resolve this, use the appropriate method:
 
Method 1
--------
 
1. At the command prompt, type: "dir vmm32.vxd /s" (without the quotation
   marks).
 
   If the Vmm32.vxd file is not found, you must install Windows 95/98 again. If
   the Vmm32.vxd file is found, note the folder in which the Vmm32.vxd file is
   located, and then continue with step 2.
 
2. At the command prompt, type the following commands, pressing ENTER after each
   command
 
   "cd windows" (without the quotation marks)
   "ren <folder> system" (without the quotation marks)
 
   where <folder> is the folder you noted in step 1.
 
3. Restart your computer.
 
Method 2
--------
 
Using a text editor (such as Notepad), edit the Autoexec.bat file and add or
modify the PATH line so that it includes the Windows\System folder. For example,
add the following line to your Autoexec.bat file:
 
"path c:\windows\system" (without the quotation marks)

very educational........watching.....

hi Dennis

a couple of things

we did as you recommended

at the command prompt we typed
dirvmm32.vxd/s

the vmm32.vxd file was found

or did you mean at the command prompt actually put in
type dirvmm32.vxd /s  ??

and in your second method
for the autoexec.bat

is there an = after the word path or just a space

also , jatcan is right , your help has been amazing,

again thanks for your time and help

Joan

At you option Joan, you can use a space or an equal sign after the word PATH.

As a matter of fact, make your path statement like this:

PATH=C:\;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\Command

Now let me know if the system boots properly.

When you installed Win98, how many reboots occurred?

No.
he meant [ c:\dir vmm32.vxd /s ]
which is what you typed because you found the file. (I like that DOS SEARCH switch on the DIR command.!)

you can try editing the autoexec.bat
the line Dennis gave you was:
path c:\windows\system
normally it's with an =  eg:
path=c:\windows\system
it may work either way nowdays. he knows a lot I don't. It WILL work with the = for sure. you can test it by simply typing the line at the C:\ prompt, this loads the command into memory. then type just "PATH" it should report the path statement back to you, eg: c:\path=c:\windows\system

after you've made this edit, you must reboot. if the problem, still remains, then, like Dennis has said, you'll need to re-load Win98. I would do an "ON TOP OF" re-load first and if that fails to correct the problem you can always do a FORMAT C: "start from scratch" reload second.

Joan, please re-ject my ealier answer. Dennis has well earned this one. I'm just filling in to speed things up.  

Hi Dennis,

before I went to work i went to the
C:\ prompt and typed Path
here's what showed up

Path=c:\windows;c:\windows;c:\windows\command

don't know if this helps at all

haven't typed anything into the autoexec.bat yet

Joan

Okay Joan, you'll need to change the autoexec.bat as that path statement is wrong.

Hi Dennis


i'm a little confused,

first i went into the autoexec.bat
by typing edit at the c: prompt
to see if i could find a line similar to the one you suggest i enter.
couldn't find any line starting with Path=
in the autoexec.bat

or

did you mean type the following at the c: prompt
path=c:\;c:\windows;c:\windows\command
and enter

should this line appear in the autoexec.bat    ??

Joan.

Joan, in most cases an autoexec.bat file is not required, however there is some strangeness going on with that PC, so in an effort to get the machine up to where we can work on it.

Given that the vmm32.vxd file exists according to you, we need to have Windows be able to find it. Why it can't at this moment I don't know, but we'll find out.

So, given the above, you need to enter the path line I gave you into the autoexec.bat file.

If you wish, after doing so, write down everything in the autoexec.bat file and post it here so we can see what may be happening.

hi Dennis

i have entered the path=
line into the autoexec.bat

here is what's listed in the autoexec.bat

SET SOUND=C:\PROGRA~1\CREATIVE\CTSND
SET MIDI=SYNTH: 1 MAP:E
PATH=C:\;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND
REM [Header]
@ECHO OFF


REM [CD-ROM DRIVE]
REM MSCDEX.EXE /D:OEMCDOO1 /L:Z
REM [Display]
REM MODE CON: COLS=80 LINES=25
REM [Sound, MIDI, or Video Capture Card]
REM SOUNDTST.COM
REM [Mouse]
REM MOUSE.COM
REM [Miscellaneous]
REM FACTORY.COM
mode con codepage prepare=((850) c:\windows\COMMAND\ega.cpi)
mode con codepage select=850

as you probably can tell there's not very much loaded on this machine right now, because we haven't loaded anything back on since the last format.

Hope this helps, Joan

Joan, are you sure you formatted the drive. The autoexec.bat you just posted is not the one Windows 98 builds during an install. Further, you said that you haven't loaded anything on this system since the format, therefore Windows 98 should be the only thing on it.

However.....

This line indicates that some for of Creative Labs Sound Blaster software was or is loading.

SET SOUND=C:\PROGRA~1\CREATIVE\CTSND
SET MIDI=SYNTH: 1 MAP:E

Would you be so kind as to tell me what is going on?
Dennis

Hi Dennis

we have loaded the restore disks to get the computer working, when i say restore disks, it's compaq restore disks, in order to get it working, we use these disks which have windows 95 on them, all we ever wanted to do was to be able to load windows 98 onto the system, and that is when we started having the trouble, it seemed as though the windows would go through its intallation, saying all files where copied, and to reboot, then we'd reboot, and get the vmm32 message, unable to load etc...

so we tried the fdisk and formatting again , hoping that would resovle the issue, and in the simplest terms, allows us to load windows 98, nothing more , nothing less.

as far as a sound card , yes a creative labs, 64, i believe is installed, if you remember i asked you if it might be causing the problem and you said no unless it is somehow bad.

there is no one here trying to mislesd anyone , and if i have , then i am truly sorry, Joan

Hope this anwers any concerns you may have, if need more info from me, then i will glady provide it willingly

Joan, your having to first use the restore disk is a very important factor here. If you read through this thread you'll see no mention of first having loaded Windows 95 and then load Windows 98.

Our earlier discussion regarding the sound card was relative to components that may make Win98 not load correctly because of a component that it might not recogonize. My comments earlier were relative to drivers that I knew that Win98 does not use during the initial installation phase.

Compaqs, for whatever reason, have difficulty in performing an upgrade with anything other than an upgrade purchased through Compaq. Don't ask why, as I haven't a clue.

What we need to do now is start over from scratch, but before we do, I need you to provide some information regarding what CD's you have available.

1. Do you have a Windows 95 CD aside from the restore disk?

2. Is the Win98 CD an upgrade or a full version?

hi Dennis

no other windows 95 disk, other than the restore disk

as for the windows 98 disk, it is the full version, and the packaging says second edition, whatever that means

Joan

Okay, this explains much of what is happening. By using the restore disk, the settings we made were changed by those stored on the restore disk. When you tried to complete an upgrade, you were using a full version as opposed to an upgrade version, which cannot be done. I want you to verify that this is a full version please, as this time we're going to do this right the first time around.

You'll need your windows 98 setup boot disk (floppy). If you have the full version of Windows 98SE, you should have received a setup boot disk with it as well.

Here's what is to be done.

1. Run Fdisk, remove the present partitions and then reinstall one and make it active.

2. Now format that partition using the Windows 98 startup boot disk using the /S switch, as in:

FORMAT C:/S

3. After the format has completed, pop the floppy and boot to the hard drive to make sure that you can boot to the hard drive. It should boot to a "C" prompt, as in: C:\>

4. Now boot back to the Windows 98 setup boot disk and choose "With CD Rom Drive Support". Take note of the drive letter assigned to the CD Rom drive as you did before.

5. Put the Windows 98 CD into the drive and run setup.

You do this by typing the following:

X:\SETUP<enter>

"X" is your cd rom drive letter that you noted earlier.

Let me know how it works out for you.

Dew,

Very professional. Not dissing the competition. You are to be applauded for that. However, I hold no such worries about that since I don't own my own business and don't plan to in the near future.

Joan,

Compaq Sucks. Plain and simple. You can't upgrade the OS because( and I don't know the exact reasons why either)Compaq likes it that way. If you wanna upgrade they have done something with the proprietory configuration of their machines which require you to either a: use software purchased from them for that specific purpose or B: they will tell you you can't upgrade it and proceed to try and sell you a whole new PC. Some really good advice here is this: don't ever buy a Compaq again. These machines are infamous in the tech world for just the kinds of problems you are experienceing and much, much more. If Dew there sells machines to the public and not just wholesalers(resellers) I would suggest buying a PC(when the time comes) from his company. Or look in your local yellow pages for a technician and have them build you one. It may cost a little more to begin with but it will be more than worth it when it comes time to upgrade.

If you don't beleive it go to this website(when your back up and running):

www.compaqsucks.com

yes it's the actual name of the site and I think what you read there will be quite informative.To be fair I have read some good replies about Compaq on this site but, they are few and far between and their source is suspect. Two of my work buddies are previous compaq tech support agents and they said they left that company because they were being told to lie to the customer about problems and all that stuff. They gave an instance were one particular model of compaq was being sold as a 300 or a 350(can't remember which) and it was actually an overclocked 266, this was well known to compaq techs. The PC in question had all kinds of problems.

Anyway, I'm done. Sorry for the rude awakening. Beleive it or not I am trying to save you future headaches.

Jatcan

hi Dennis, i gotta go off to work again, for a few hours anyway, but...

i thought this is what you had me do initially, when you asked me to do the fdisk, and then format, everything worked fine, windows 98 said everything installed 100% (you that menu where it says it will take 30-60minutes to install windows 98) At that point it said to restart the computer, which i did, and then i got that vmm 32 and unable to load message.

however, i will fdisk and format again as per your instructions.

Just don't use the restore disk at all this time Joan!

hi Dennis

i must've goofed somewhere along the line with the fdisk steps

cause i seemed to have wiped out the c:
drive

when i tried the format c:/s command at the a: prompt
all i could get was bad command

could you please give me the proper steps again for a proper fdisk

sorry about this, never have done it before, but am willing to try again

by the way the windows 98 disk label says , for PCs without windows, so i would think this is the full version as the upgrade, besides that's what the packaging says as well.

Thanks Joan.

hi Dennis


don't know if you saw the above message, when i chose to submit, something happened here, don't know if the submission worked

anyway, it seems i goofed. lost the hard drive, c prompt during my fdisk attempt, could you please give me the proper steps for doing the fdisk exercise again

sorry about this , but i've never done this before, but will try again

Thanks, Joan

1. Boot to the Win98 Startup Boot Disk.

2. Next, after booting to the floppy, at the MSDos prompt A:\> type Fdisk<enter>.

The first question asked will be:

"Do you wish to enable large disk support?

Answer YES if you want Fat 32, and NO if you want Fat16. Fat 32 is more efficient and supports drive sizes up to two terrabytes, which Fat 16 has a 2G drive size limitation.

DESCRIPTIONS OF WHAT YOU WILL SEE:
===================================
Answering either "Y" or "N" will bring you to the dos fdisk menu. As you can see, you have several choices, you can:

... Create a partition or logical drive.
... Set the active partition.
... Delete a partition of logical drive.
... Display partition information.

On systems with multiple hard drives, there will be another choice added to the list:

... Change current fixed disk drive.

... Create a partition or logical drive.

This option enables you to set a new partition (including size) on a hard drive that either is new and has never been partitioned or one that has had it's partition removed with the third option noted above.

... Set the active partition.

Once a drive has been partitioned, this option will enable you to make it active and therefore bootable. As an example, you could partition one hard drive into several partitions, let's say as Drive "C", "D" and "E", after which you would set "C" as the active bootable partition.

... Delete a partition of logical drive.

This option allows you to remove partition(s) as well as logical drives. In the example above, "C" would be the primary partition and drives "D" and "E" would be logical drives.

... Display partition information.

This option allows you to see what existing partitions are on a hard drive.

... Change current fixed disk drive.

In systems with multiple hard drives, this option allows you to choose which hard drive you want to work with, but it will default to the "C" drive.

As noted above, when you first start Fdisk, you will be given a choice whether or not you want enable large hard disk support. If you choose NO or (N), the system will default to Fat 16. If you choose YES (Y), the system will default to Fat 32.

Start Fdisk as noted above, and choose (Y) for LBA and review the partition information.

3. Now choose ". Delete a partition or logical drive" and follow the prompts to delete the partitions that exist.

4. Now go back to the original menu by touching the ESC key and then choose ". Create a partition or logical drive"

Now choose a drive size for the drive up to its full size. This will default to drive "C" and make sure that you make this partition ACTIVE.

As an example, let's say I had an 4G hard drive and wanted 1 partition, the small window or choice area will default to the entire drive size of 4G.

Now make this partition active.

When you are done with the partitioning, reboot the system to the floppy.

5. Now you're ready to format the drive and transfer the basic system files.

Hi Dennis,

first off happy new year and all the best

but the fdisk exercise doesn't seem to  work properly

here's what we do
type fisk
choose yes for fat 32
then we choose
3.Delete Partition or Logical Dos Drive
then we get the following
Delete Primary Dos Partition
Delete Extended Partition
Delete Logical Drives in the Extended Partition
Delete Non Dos Partition
we chose Delete Primary Dos Partition
then we get the Warning about all data being lost
we chose yes
then it says something like primary partion has been removed
then we hit the Esc Key to go back to the Fdisk menu and choose Create Dos Partition or Logical Dos Drive then next we choose Create Primary Dos Partition

then it goes off building the partition up to 100% then it asks if we want to make it an active partition , we chose yes
aks to us enter a volume label, we just hit enter

then we type format c:/s
and we get the message bad command
we rebooted from the startup disk
came to a: prompt and typed in
format c:/s and
got the same message , bad command

i should mention at no time during the fdisk were we asked to choose a size for the hard drive, at this point it just build the partition size itself to 100%

we have tried this a couple of times
obviously there only a number of ways you can do the fdisk.

why for example, as you outline in your notes , step 4, we chose Create a partition or logical drive, where we never offered the choice of deciding what size we wanted to make the drive,
like i say it just started to build itself, building up to 100% automatically. Any thoughs on this  ??

thanks Joan

the comand is

format(space)c:(space)/s

you must hit the space bar where I typed space.

it asks "Do you want to use the maximum partition size?" If you say yes to this it will not prompt for more partitions( extended, logical etc.) it will just give you one big partition of the whole drive. Check the partition size, if it's the same as the size of your drive, then try the install again.

Jatcan

Hi jatcan

thanks, but it's not what i'm referring too, it's during the fdisk,that at one point, i thought, see Dennis's notes above that it asks you what size you want your drive to be, see just below point 4 in the notes above

regards Joan

No problems Joan, I know exactly what you're going through, I tried the same thing on a friends Compaq, tried calling Compaq tech support and was told I would need a new Compaq motherboard in order to do it, when I asked how I get this new motherboard I was told to upgrade to the new Compaq so and so (they wanted me to buy another one!!!! after all the trouble we were having with this one!!!), I ended up building my friend a new PC and the Compaq was relegated to the kids and games......I suspect that even if you did manage to get win98 installed and working you'd have other problems with the devices, cdrom, soundcard etc,etc,etc.....

Good Luck to you.

Jatcan

Joan, you're already passed the point of partitioning as you now have a single large drive, which is okay.

If your booting to the floppy and getting this bad command error when typing format c:/s, then in all probability FORMAT.COM is not on the floppy (unless your typing the command incorrectly).

Boot to the floppy and then type dir/p<enter>

This will enable you to see the files on the floppy in groups, just touch the enter key for the next group until you've reviewed the entire floppy and have looked for format.com.

hi Dennis, format.com
is not on the floppy we are booting,
i guess i should copy format.com to the floppy, right ??????

regards, Joan

Dennis, when we use Find, Files and Folders to locate format.com on the machine

format icons show up as having been found on the machine

and when we double click on them it says parse error 2

is that normal ????

thanks Joan

Joan, take the boot floppy to another Win98 machine and use Find, Files and Folders and copy format.com to the floppy. Then use that in the machine you are working on.
Dennis

Just from a very quick glance at all the posts since I last looked, I guessed what might have come up and I was right. I came across a similar problem working on my mothers Hitachi notebook. In order to upgrade to 98 you had to oder a $50.00 CD ROM upgrade. from HITACHI. NOT windows. some sort, I guessed, BIOS upgrade.

Dennis, how about a "FLASH" bios upgrade for them?.

Good luck bud sound's your're gunna need it!

Joan, you can reject MY answer ANY TIME! I know what this is now and it's not for me!

For what this is worth, the difference between 98 and 95, in my opinion, it's not worth it. Reload the COMPAQ 95 and be done with it. JMHO. Above that I'd say hang in there as long as Dennis wants to keep up the fight.

JOAN, you might try the file-find to look on you WIN98 ROM for Format.com. (*.COM to search) it's not on my upgrade but it might be on your full version.

good luck to all

JOAN, Sorry,
I missed what you last said.
you can't run format from within Windows. That's what that error means.
double clicking is a request to run the file.

the file can only be run from a DOS prompt.

To copy it in WINDOWS, RIGHT CLICK on it, and select COPY.
Then go to the A:\drive within MY Computer, open that "window" then right click anywhere inside the window, select PASTE. wha-la!

 

before you copy,
change you file VIEW to DETAILS and make sure what you are copying is "FORMAT.COM"
All the other instructions still are good under the "details" view setting.

the partition worked fine,
the format worked fine

windows had nearly finished installing, only about 8 minutes left to and we got the original message again

c:\windows\system\vmm32.vxd:missing\unable to load

and yet when we enter vmm32.vxd using find, files, folders in shows up in the c:\windows\system folder
with the description that says virtual device driver

any suggestions, Joan

Joan,

Create an autoexec.bat file with this as the only line in it.

path=c:\;c:\windows;c:\windows\system

Now reboot and try it.

I'm still wondering if there isn't a FLASH BIOS upgrade available for you Joan that you could download off the web.

Another thought was, install the 95 off the old compaq disk. First just to make sure THAT still works and is a valid option.
Second, if it does, copy that "vmm32.vxd"  file to a floppy.
then reformat.
then at the c:\
Type: MD windows
Type: CD windows
Type: MD system
Type: CD system
type: copy a:vmm32.vxd

now install the 98 again.

if the instalation asks at some point about this file, select the option to keep the older file.

that's it. just an idea. can't garantee this will work. something to try.

this I do know, if windows needs a path statement to find something in the WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory something is very wrong. Notice, according to the error message as you last posted it, Windows is identifying the location it can't find the file it's looking for as "C:\windows\system"

Good luck to all.

David

thanks to everyone

dennis and david especially

but i've tried all the above suggestions,

but you know what i think,

with the way compaq build their systems, they have their proprieties,(not sure about the spelling)

have just been told by a co-worker that they were told that if you have compaq, then you need to buy thier version of windows 98

sorry i can't explain further , because simply put, i don't understand,

so maybe i should just stick with windows 95, until such time we buy another computer, which won't be compaq

again thanks for everyones patience and understanding, he has been a learning experince for me, and maybe i should just move on,

who can i give the points to, dennis certainly deserves some as well as david

i will increase the awarded points so each gets their fair share

please advise, thanks to all, Joan.

There's really no way to or NEED to divee it up.
Dennis has a good deal more time and effort invested here. IMO it's his question.

The original question for formatting and setting up WIN98 on a clean system were answered well by Dennis.
period.  this one is his. all of it.

If you want to ask another question specifically about getting around this 98 vs Compaq propriatary thing, I have some ideas I KNOW you haven't tried (like BOTH the suggestions mentioned in my last previous post...)

You have a computer that works... Don't give up! David

Dennis, what do think about the BIOS upgade/update?  

David, a bios update/upgrade is always a possibility. I am really curious as to why this isn't working on Joans machine, as I've done this quite a few tomes to help friends who didn't have tha cash to buy a replacement.

Joan, to find out if there's a BIOS update available for your machine, write down the bios version info. It's the very first thing you see when you start up the computer. Sometimes you can halt the boot-up with the ESC key, if not you'll probably have to re-start several times to get it all.

then go to that web site and nose around. finding it can be as simple as typing the bios brand name into your favorite search engine and picking it off the list. Should be in the top 5. Include the word "BIOS".

the phrase "BIOS UPDATES" should bring a several helpful websites also.

But I think we've entered a separate question at this point. I don't want to "claim jump", please reject my answer to this one, and start a new question.

David  

i don't feel right about choosing the reject offer option

how do i go about giving the points to dennis, cause it says  evaluate netmons answer.

Joan .

PS : thank you as well david, you've obviously got a good heart as well.

and thanks to the others who tried to help, very much appreciated.

forever grateful, Joan.

don't feel bad. you can't give points to anyone but me as long as my answer is pending. I should not have posted that answer in that way at that time. Please go ahead and reject it. that will re-open the question. Dennis will then re-post a condenced version of his answer, for you to accept & grade.

David

see above, Joan

SYMPTOMS
When you attempt to start Windows, you may receive the following error message:

The following file is missing or corrupted:

C:Windows\System\VMM32.VXD
CAUSE
This issue can occur if the Dibeng.dll file is missing or is damaged.
RESOLUTION
To resolve this issue, extract a new copy of Dibeng.dll from your original Windows compact disc (CD) to the Windows\System folder. To do this, follow these steps:
Insert a Windows 98 Startup disk, and then restart your computer to a command prompt. Select Start computer with CD-ROM support.
Note the drive letter assigned to your computer's CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive.
Insert the Windows 98 CD-ROM into the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive.
At the command prompt, type C:, and then press ENTER.
Type CD\Windows\System, and then press ENTER.
Type rename dibeng.dll dibeng.old, and then press ENTER.
Type Ext, and then press ENTER.
At the Please enter the path to the Windows CAB files (a:) message, type drive:\win98 (where drive is the drive letter that you noted in step 2), and then press ENTER. For example, type

E:\win98

and then press ENTER.

NOTE: If you have an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) installation of Windows, the cabinet (CAB) files may be located in the following folder:

C:\WINDOWS\Options\Cabs


At the Please enter the name(s) of the files(s) you want to extract message, type dibeng.dll, and then press ENTER.
At the Please enter the path to extract to ("Enter" for current directory) message, type C:\Windows\System, and then press ENTER.
At the Is this okay? (y/n) message, type y, and then press ENTER.

The file is extracted.
Remove the Windows 98 Startup disk, and then restart the computer.

My god, I just got remined about how much of a NEWBIE I really was back then, and ONLY 2 years ago to. Well, thank god I've learned a lot since then. I now know that Compaq doesn't suck at all, matter of fact, I've been using a Compaq DeskPro for the last 9 months or so and I MUST say it has NEVER crashed on me when I didn't DO something to cause it and is a fast little machine to boot! I guess the more you learn the more you're able to spot your own mistakes and then correct them. Hard lesson for me, but I learned it even through the stubborness....anyways, if any one ever reads this again? Probably NOT but Compaq doesn't suck, neither does HP or Dell or IBM, I've learned a lot, like I said and I find that 99% of the time it's either user error, hardware or BAD programming, and usually in that order....

Cheers.

I hope someone else stumbles across this question, and string of answers, as I did.  I too was receiving this error after attempting a HD wipe and fresh install of Win98.  The only difference in my experience is that I had an HP machine.  

I found an obscure reference to this problem in a forum about PHP.  The suggested fix was to change the boot sequence order in the BIOS, so that the HD was prioritized to boot before the CD-ROM.  

The result?  FIXED.  What better opportunity to post that here, in case someone else was against the wall like I was.

Hope this helps!
Cygnus

Just goes to show you don't have to offer up a s#!tload of points to get a whole lot of attention!! And alow me please to second jatcan's sentiment, I can't believe some of the things I said back then! Today (eg) I would NEVER reccomend partitioning a C:-drive below 3.8 gigs... cheers all.!

THIS WORKED FOR ME!! I WAS GOING TO THROW THE COMPUTER AWAY UNTIL I READ THIS.

Chris
 "I hope someone else stumbles across this question, and string of answers, as I did.  I too was receiving this error after attempting a HD wipe and fresh install of Win98.  The only difference in my experience is that I had an HP machine."  

"I found an obscure reference to this problem in a forum about PHP.  The suggested fix was to change the boot sequence order in the BIOS, so that the HD was prioritized to boot before the CD-ROM.  
"
"The result?  FIXED.  What better opportunity to post that here, in case someone else was against the wall like I was."

"Hope this helps!
Cygnus "

Coolio--the post is STILL working...thats a great thing about EE!!!