{RGF-JC}Dan

I started my computer in command promt, and wanted to reformat. However i did this wrong, and i just put in "deltree windows" and it deleted all of windows.

Now i put in the windows boot diskette to reinstall windows, and i cant get any response from the disk. I went into the BIOS to make sure that the first boot device was the floppy drive, but i could not see it there. All i saw was "Removable Device" so i put that first.

Now when the boot diskette is in and i startup, i just see the Windows 98 startup menu with select mode. I have normal, bootlog, safe etc. I dont know what to do from here to get the comp to read and boot from the diskette.

Help

Leroy77

Are you positive the boot disk is valid? Try going to bootdisk.com and getting an extractable image from there.

CTSNKY

Good advice. If you get to any kind of command prompt, you may wanna go ahead and format the C: drive from the floppy.

rdodd

The Windows98 boot disk, if it is the full version of Win98, should be bootable. In other words, make your CDROM (or other optical drive) your first device in the boot sequence, put in the CD, restart the computer, and it should boot from there.

If you are formatting to get rid of a virus or something, there is a more perfect way. Some viruses can live in your master boot record, so formatting won't resolve it. You can FDISK /MBR and that will theoretically do it but... if you really want to turn your hard drive into an inert slab of magnetizeable metal, a blank slate for sparkling fresh software, then there is something called a debug script that will scrape off formatting, partitions, the boot record, Partition Magic,

E V E R Y T H I N G .

Used to use it all the time when I did OS support, still use it today sometimes. Do have a working boot disk at the ready to FDISK and format afterwards.

http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/P...cle.asp?ID=174

The second version is what I use.
At a command prompt, start Debug. When you're at the minus prompt (-), enter the following lines and press Enter after each:

F 200 L1000 0
A CS:100
xxxx:0100 MOV AX,301
xxxx:0103 MOV BX,200
xxxx:0106 MOV CX,1
xxxx:0109 MOV DX,80

xxx:010C INT 13
xxxx:010E INT 20
xxxx:0110 (hit the enter key)
g
q

(parts in blue are the program's response, don't type in)

USE WITH CAUTION! WILL SCRAPE YOUR HARD DRIVE BACK TO COMPLETELY UNPARTITIONED STATE! ALL DATA IS IRRETRIEVEABLY TOTALLY LOST!

Really shows those viruses who's boss though. :)

Have fun,

Robert

{RGF-JC}Dan

How do i start debug?

rdodd

Boot from your boot disk and type debug and hit enter. You will get a minus-sign prompt (-). This is where you type everything. When it spits numbers back at you, don't change or backspace anything, just type at the cursor. When you are finished, it should say Program Terminated Normally.

After this, you will need to FDISK and format. A bootdisk that you get at bootdisk.com should have all this, make a couple boot disks because if your only bootdisk is corrupt and you debug, you might be in a tough spot.

Robert

music21

That was the DEBUG script TSF member 'RDODD' wrote.
(Thats the best and easiest version!)
You have to type the word Debug before inputing F 200 L1000 0

Basically to reinstall the win98, ME and 2000 OS you do is what is
called a 'D F F R' meaning Debug - FDISK - Format and Reinstall.
after doing the Debug script type in FDISK at the command prompt and choose create Logical DOS partions and use the maximum available option (note:the first options are usually the best or go for 1 hit enter 1 again the hit enter then Y and Y again for yes. unless of course you would want to create more than one partion - and if you did know how to do it you wouldnt have needed this information in the first place!)
after doing FDISK type: Format C: at the comand prompt (note that you should be on the bootable drive meaning A: or D: for you to Format C:)
after all this is done installing win98 should be a breeze. Just pop the disk in and unless you have a 'fried' HD your good to go and should'nt be encountering problems.

NB:You dont have to do DFFR with XP. winXP has the NTFS file format. Just boot from CD ROM with the XP disk and it will do its own formatting.