Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of graham321
graham321

asked on

FORMATTING HD PROBLEM

I am trying to reinstall windows 98 but am having problems doing so.  THe only help i need is formatting.  I did:
format C: /s
from my boot disk in the A: drive and it gave me an error about not having enough system memory or something.  I've already formatted once before then re-partitioned.  I'm now trying to format again so the C: drive will be usable. does anybody know why i'm getting the memory error when i try to format?
Avatar of hari_kp
hari_kp

Did your config.sys have the line devicehigh= himem.sys? if not add it and try. and do you himem.sys in your floppy? If not checkout www.bootdisk.com
Try running fdisk again delete and recreate your partitions. Also might try fdisk /mbr.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of zapsf
zapsf

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
Avatar of graham321

ASKER

zapsf:
i haven't tried your method yet but i'm just asking this incase.  I have a seagate drive and was wondering where i can get a disk manager which you were talking about.

Thanks
you can get it from seagate's support site. give me a minute and I'll try to find it for you.
If it is a new drive the manager comes on a partition on the drive that you copy to a floppy...
hang on be back in a bit
Here it is as promised...http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/drivers/discwiz.html
Good luck
Len
Try making the c: drive bootable a different way.  At the a: prompt type "sys c:".  This is a different way of copying the system files to the drive and making it bootable.
Sco:
His system is not recognizing his hard drive as having enough space which means his partiton is not correctly set or he needs the drive signed by a disk manager before he can partition it correctly. Sys a will not work until that problem is resolved as there is no known medium avaible to dos to write the system files. A hard drive has to have a start and a stop on it for any files to work or to be written on it. That is the idea behind partitioning.
the sys files make the drive active or "bootable" but cannot exist without a partition. The filesystem would not know where to begin or end.
If you are not sure you should leave a comment instead of an answer. you have him locked now.
Len
Hey I just reread your problem and this may help.
boot from the floppy again with the win98 cd in your cdrom drive.
run through Fdisk again to make sure your partiton is the way you want it. reboot again.
watch to see which drive letter is assigned to the cdrom. after it is finished type in the drive letter at the a: prompt then hit enter to switch to that drive. example E: then enter. next type cd win98 then hit enter again this will open the win98 directory.
Next type in Format C:  then hit enter again dont use any other switch's
I have a feeling you are using the win98 recovery boot disk instead of the setup boot disk used for a clean install. it sometimes needs a lil extra help especially if you have 2 drives before the Cdrom... The recovery disk creates its own memory on the hard drive instead of staying in the upper memory like the setup disk does... when formatting it can cause difficulties...
if you are booting from a bootable cd then you also need to watch whats going on because the bootable cd is assigned to the a: drive and your floppy becomes the b: drive...
I know I am throwing alot of possibilities out there but its about helping to solve the problem not locking in points...
Len
I take it the diskmanager worked? =)
Thanks for the points
Len