woddyaj
asked on
Can't install Win98
Here's the skinny:
Friend of mine gave me her pc, said it would keep rebooting on her. Well finally was able to get to fdisk and partition the drives, 2 drives, one is 2 Gig, and the other 10 Gig. But when i try to format the drive, using the format.com tool for mthe boot disk, no go. I can't even extract the format.com utility from the boot disk, gives me a drive failure error. I know my drives are al working, did a diag on all drives and they are there, can see dir of each. Here's the problem, everytime I try to format it tells me unable to format, this is using the win98 or win xp cd-rom disk, there is problem with the drive, anyone know a workaround for this problem, obviously i need some sort of utility to fix the drive, any ideas of what I can use and where i can get the software. Right now as it stands, both drives re-partitioned, but not formatted, it won't let me format. I have both Win98, and WInXP cd's, original copies. The pc had XP on it before, formatted with a NTFS file system, but has since been erased. How can i get these 2 drives formatted???? LEt me know if you require more info.
Friend of mine gave me her pc, said it would keep rebooting on her. Well finally was able to get to fdisk and partition the drives, 2 drives, one is 2 Gig, and the other 10 Gig. But when i try to format the drive, using the format.com tool for mthe boot disk, no go. I can't even extract the format.com utility from the boot disk, gives me a drive failure error. I know my drives are al working, did a diag on all drives and they are there, can see dir of each. Here's the problem, everytime I try to format it tells me unable to format, this is using the win98 or win xp cd-rom disk, there is problem with the drive, anyone know a workaround for this problem, obviously i need some sort of utility to fix the drive, any ideas of what I can use and where i can get the software. Right now as it stands, both drives re-partitioned, but not formatted, it won't let me format. I have both Win98, and WInXP cd's, original copies. The pc had XP on it before, formatted with a NTFS file system, but has since been erased. How can i get these 2 drives formatted???? LEt me know if you require more info.
LeeTutor
What is the exact error message you are getting? If the drive was first formatted with NTFS and had XP on it, then in order to put Win98 on it, it needs to be formatted with FAT16 or FAT32 system. And since Win98's Fdisk -- as well as Win98 itself -- doesn't recognize the NTFS file system, you would need to use Fdisk to delete the "Non-DOS partition", then recreate it. You should also do the command FDISK /MBR in order to recreate the Master Boot Record, because the MBR used by XP on an NTFS partition is quite different from the MBR used on a FAT partition. What boot disk are you using? Have you tried creating one by running the executable file you can download from www.bootdisk.com ?
ASKER
I'm pretty sure I've erased all DOS partitions and non-DOS partitions on both drives and recreated them using FDISK. I'm using a Win 98 boot disk i created. My next step is to download one off of www.bootdisk.com and see if that helps. And I've tried to format using both the Win98 and the WinXP cd, both trying to formatt the partitions to FAT32, both failed, giving me the error. "Unable to format drive, possible error on the drive", something to that extent, I can't remeber the exact error, but I'm sure I can recreate the error as it is never ending, just keep getting back to the same point. Is there anything else i should let you know???
Did you try running the command FDISK /MBR from the boot disk or command prompt?
Your hardisk may be on the verge of failing I would suggest running a disk diagnostic utility. Most disk vendors have these for free.
www.seagate.com
www.maxtor.com
www.westerndigital.com
www.quantum.com
www.ibm.com
www.storage.ibm.com/techsup/hddtech/welcome.htm
www.fujitsu.com
www.wdc.com/service/ftp/drives.html
fujitsu
http://www.fcpa.fujitsu.com/download/hard-drives/#diagnostic
IBM and Hitachi
http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#DFT
Maxtor/Quantum
http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/products/index.htm
Samsung
http://www.samsungelectronics.com/hdd/support/utilities/utilities_index.html
Seagate
http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/index.html
Western Digital
http://support.wdc.com/download/
www.westerndigital.com
Your hardisk may be on the verge of failing I would suggest running a disk diagnostic utility. Most disk vendors have these for free.
www.seagate.com
www.maxtor.com
www.westerndigital.com
www.quantum.com
www.ibm.com
www.storage.ibm.com/techsup/hddtech/welcome.htm
www.fujitsu.com
www.wdc.com/service/ftp/drives.html
fujitsu
http://www.fcpa.fujitsu.com/download/hard-drives/#diagnostic
IBM and Hitachi
http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#DFT
Maxtor/Quantum
http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/products/index.htm
Samsung
http://www.samsungelectronics.com/hdd/support/utilities/utilities_index.html
Seagate
http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/index.html
Western Digital
http://support.wdc.com/download/
www.westerndigital.com
ASKER
I ran fdisk /mbr on the 2 Gig HD, and tried to format afterwards, got the message: "Set up was unable to format partition. THe disk may be damaged. Check drive...." This was using the WinXP cd, then it prompted if I wanted to try another disk, formatted the 10 gig drive to FAT32, and proceeded with the install, so far so good, hopefully i can get Windows loaded on one drive and try to figure out what is wrong with the first Hard Drive afterwards. Once I do get XP on it, is there something special I should know before trying to put Win98 on it, because Win 98 is what I want for the O/S, not XP, but if XP is all I can get i'll have to take it.
If you want to dual boot Win98 and WinXP, with WinXP installed FIRST (the best option, according to Microsoft, is to install dual/multi-booting operating systems in order of earliest OS first), then you'll need to see this page:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_repair_9x.htm
Note: as the page says, this tip assumes your XP is installed on drive C: and the file system is FAT32. What are the letters for your two partitions (2 gigs and 10 gigs)?
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;306559
HOW TO: Create a Multiple-Boot System in Windows XP
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_repair_9x.htm
Note: as the page says, this tip assumes your XP is installed on drive C: and the file system is FAT32. What are the letters for your two partitions (2 gigs and 10 gigs)?
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;306559
HOW TO: Create a Multiple-Boot System in Windows XP
ASKER
Right Now I have 2 Gig drive set as C: and the 10 gig Drive set as D:. the CD-Rom set as E: and the floppy set as A:, I would prefer to have Win98 only. i really have no need for a dual boot system. If I can get XP going on the 10 Gig HD, my next step is to run the Maxtor Diagnostic tool on my 2 Gig HD to see what the problem is with it, hopefully the utility finds the error. I've got tot the point where its asking me for location and regional settings, so far so good for XP, but i'll keep my fingers crossed that XP will install haggle free.
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ASKER
Thanks BILLDL, your suggestions were taken and all is well, was able to install XP, then was able to fdisk and format both drives, and reinstall win98 using your tips, all the help was greatly appreciated by all, hope i don't have to seek your help anytime soon,lol, but if needed i will return, thanks again..
Cheers
Woddyaj
Cheers
Woddyaj
Thank you, LeeTutor.